FLAGS ONE WOULD HAVE LIKED TO SEE
Probably the flag made by the skillful fingers of Mrs. Elizabeth
Griscom Ross was sewed with the tiniest of stitches imaginable; but it
is absolutely certain that the flag which made its appearance August
3, 1777, at Fort Schuyler, afterwards Fort Stanwix, was not put
together with any such daintiness of workmanship. For twenty days the
little fort in the New York wilderness, where Rome now stands, was
besieged by British and Indians. Reinforcements brought the news of
the adoption of the new flag. The troops within the fort had no flag,
and therefore, in true American fashion, they set to work to make one.
There was not even a country store to draw upon for materials, so they
made the best of what they had. As the story has been handed down, a
white shirt provided the white stripes and the stars, and the
petticoat of a soldier's wife the red stripes. As for the blue ground
for the stars, it was cut from the cloak of Captain Abram Swartwout.
The result was not very elegant, but it was a flag, and it was _the_
flag, and the besieged men were as proud of it and stood for it as
bravely as if it had been made of damask with the daintiest of
needlework. August 22, 1777, the fort was relieved, and after a few
days Captain Swartwout began to be anxious about his blue cloak.
Colonel Peter Gansevoort, who commanded the fort, had promised him a
new one to take the place of the one which he had sacrificed for the
flag, but it had not arrived. Seven days he waited. At the end of the
seventh day he sent a note from Poughkeepsie, where he then was, back
to the fort, saying: "You may Remember Agreeable to Your promise, I
was to have an Order for Eight Yards of Broad-Cloath, on the
Commissary for Cloathing of this State In Lieu of my Blue Cloak, which
we Used for Coulours at Fort Schuyler. An opportunity Now presenting
itself, I beg You to send me an Order." Broadcloth was broadcloth in
those days, and a "Blue Cloak" was not so easily obtained. It is no
wonder he wrote it with capitals. It is to be hoped that the good
captain received his order; but it must have been a very large cloak
to require eight yards of "Broad-Cloath."
Another interesting banner was that borne by Count Pulaski, a gallant
Pole, who came to help in the struggle for freedom. He visited
Lafayette when the Frenchman was wounded and in the care of the
Moravian Sisterhood in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The embroidery of
these Sisters was very beautiful, and Pulaski engaged them to make him
a banner, which they did. On one side were the letters "U.S.," and on
the other the thirteen stars in a circle, surrounding an eye which is
rather uncomfortably set in a triangle. They made a mistake in
spelling their Latin motto, but the crimson banner, with its silver
fringe and its exquisite embroidery, was very handsome. Longfellow's
poem about this banner, "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem," is
excellent poetry, but hardly accurate history. It is quite probable
that the good women sent the banner forth with their blessing, but it
is rather doubtful whether they said anything like the following:--
"Take thy banner, and if e'er
Thou shouldst press the soldier's bier,
And the muffled drums should beat
To the tread of mournful feet,
Then this crimson flag shall be
Martial cloak and shroud for thee";--
for the beautiful little banner was only twenty inches square! When
Lafayette visited this country in 1824, this little flag was borne in
the procession which welcomed him to Baltimore.
In the midst of the grief and horrors of war, there was one day when all
the armed ships in the Delaware River were ablaze with the colors of the
United States in token of rejoicing. It was July 4, 1777, the first
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Thirteen cannon were
fired, a great dinner was served to the members of Congress and the
officials of the army and of the State. The Hessian band, which had been
captured at Trenton six months previously, performed some of their
merriest music. Toasts followed the dinner, each one honored by a
discharge of artillery and small arms and a piece of music by the
Hessians. At night the city was illuminated and the streets resounded
with hurrahs and the ringing of bells. Then came fireworks, which began
and ended with thirteen rockets in honor of the thirteen United States.
"Thirteen" appeared not only as the number of stars on the flag, but
everywhere else, and at Valley Forge, in the rejoicing over the new
alliance with France, the officers marched up to the place of
entertainment thirteen abreast and with arm linked in arm. A
disrespectful English paper declared that the "rebels" ate thirteen
dried clams a day, that it took thirteen "Congress paper dollars" to
equal one English shilling, that "every well-organized rebel household
has thirteen children, all of whom expect to be major-generals or
members of the high and mighty congress of the thirteen United States
when they attain the age of thirteen years."
When the war had come to an end, the artist Copley was in London working
on the portrait of an American, Elkanah Watson. In the background of the
portrait was a ship supposed to be bearing to America the news of the
acknowledgment of Independence. The rising sun was shining upon the
place where the flag should have been, but no flag was there. Copley's
studio was often visited by the royal family, so he waited. But a day
came when the artist heard the speech of the King acknowledging the
Independence of America. He went straightway to his studio and painted
in the flag floating in the rays of the rising sun.
Soon after the close of the war, a wide-awake skipper of Nantucket, who
had some whale oil to sell, appeared at London. Nantucket was so
helpless for both offense and defense that it had remained neutral, and
the captain had received from Admiral Digby a license to go to London. A
London magazine of the time said, "This is the first vessel which has
displayed the thirteen rebellious stripes of America in any British
port." Nobody knew exactly what to do, but apparently the whale oil was
soon sold, for the enterprising whaler returned directly to Nantucket.
In October, 1783, most of the British troops had sailed away from the
United States, but Sir Guy Carleton was delayed in New York waiting
for vessels. When the day came for him to leave the city, a strong,
determined woman who kept a boarding-house brought out a United States
flag and ran it up on a pole in front of her house. Down the street
came a British officer with headlong speed. "We do not evacuate this
city until noon. Haul down that flag!" he shouted angrily. "That flag
went up to stay, and it will not be hauled down!" declared the
indignant housekeeper, and went on sweeping in front of her door.
"Then I will pull it down myself," thundered the irate officer, and
set to work. But the halyards were entangled, and all the officer's
swearing and scolding did not help matters. The militant lady of the
broom then applied her weapon to the officer. The powder flew from his
wig in a cloud, and at last he himself had to fly, leaving the flag to
float serenely on the morning breeze. This encounter has been called
the last battle of the Revolution.
Before leaving Fort George, at the foot of Broadway, in New York, the
British soldiers mischievously nailed their flag to the top of the
pole, took down the halyards, greased the pole from top to bottom, and
knocked off the cleats. They did not know how well the American boys
could climb; in a very short time new cleats were nailed on, the
English flag was pulled down, and the Stars and Stripes floated from
the top of the pole.
News of King George's proclamation did not reach the United States
till the middle of April, and then there was rejoicing, indeed. It is
no wonder that the joy of the country at the closing of the war burst
out in celebrations and silken flags. The diary of President Stiles,
of Yale, tells what took place in New Haven. It reads as follows:--
_April 24, 1783._ Public rejoicing for the Peace in New Haven.
At sunrise thirteen cannon discharged in the Green, and the
continental flag displayed, being a grand silk flag presented by
the ladies, cost 120 dollars. The stripes red and white, with an
azure field in the upper part charged with thirteen stars. On
the same field and among the stars was the arms of the United
States, the field of which contained a ship, a plough, and three
sheaves of wheat; the crest an eagle volant; the supporters two
white horses. The arms were put on with paint and gilding. It
took ---- yards. When displayed it appeared well.
The patriotic ladies who presented the flag had taken the arms and
motto, "Virtue, Liberty, Independence," from the title-page of a
family Bible; but unluckily, this Bible, having been published in
Philadelphia, displayed the arms and motto, not of the United States,
but of Pennsylvania. The moral is, learn the arms of your country.