Happy Flag Day! Let's Revise Our History

Today we celebrate Flag Day. We would like to reflect and revise the great history of this national symbol. Keep up with us and show this article to your friends and family.

The National Flag as We Know It

After the American Revolution began, the first, unofficial national flag—known as the Continental Colours (or, sometimes, as the Grand Union Flag, the Cambridge Flag, the Somerville Flag, or the Union Flag)—was hoisted on a towering 76-foot (23-metre) liberty pole at Prospect Hill in Charlestown (now in Somerville), Massachusetts, on January 1, 1776; it was raised at the behest of Gen. George Washington, whose headquarters were nearby.

The flag had 13 horizontal stripes (probably of red and white or of red, white, and blue) and, in the canton, the first version of the British Union Flag (Union Jack). As the flag of the Continental Army, it flew at forts and on naval vessels. Another popular early flag, that of the 1765 Sons of Liberty, had only nine red and white stripes. Various versions of “Don’t Tread on Me” coiled rattlesnake flags appeared on many 18th-century American colonial banners, including the Gadsden flag and several others flown by military units during the Revolutionary War.

The version carried by the Minutemen of Culpeper County, Virginia, for example, included not only the rattlesnake and the “Don’t Tread on Me” motto but also Virginia patriot Patrick Henry’s famous words “Liberty or Death.”

The first official national flag

The first official national flag, formally approved by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, was the Stars and Stripes. That first Flag Resolution read, in toto, “Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation.” The layout of the stars was left undefined, and many patterns were used by flag makers.

The designer of the flag—most likely Congressman Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Philadelphia—may have had a ring of stars in mind to symbolize the new constellation. Today that pattern is popularly known as the “Betsy Ross flag,” although the widely circulated story that she made the first Stars and Stripes and came up with the ring pattern is unsubstantiated. Rows of stars (4-5-4 or 3-2-3-2-3) were common, but many other variations also existed. The new Stars and Stripes formed part of the military colours carried on September 11, 1777, at the Battle of the Brandywine, perhaps its first such use.

The Stars and Stripes

The Stars and Stripes changed on May 1, 1795, when Congress enacted the second Flag Resolution, which mandated that new stars and stripes be added to the flag when new states were admitted to the Union. The first two new states were Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792). (One such flag was the 1,260-square-foot [117-square-metre] “Star-Spangled Banner,” made by Mary Pickersgill, that Francis Scott Key saw at Fort McHenry in September 1814, which inspired him to write the patriotic poem that later supplied the lyrics of the national anthem.)

In 1818, after five more states had been admitted, Congress enacted the third and last Flag Resolution, requiring that henceforth the number of stripes should remain 13, the number of stars should always match the number of states, and any new star should be added on the July 4 following a state’s admission. This has been the system ever since. In all, from 1777 to 1960 (after the admission of Hawaii in 1959), there were 27 versions of the flag—25 involving changes in the stars only. An executive order signed by Pres. William Howard Taft on October 29, 1912, standardized for the first time the proportions and relative sizes of the elements of the flag; in 1934 the exact shades of colour were standardized.

Conclusion

The National Flag is what unites us. We are a part of a great nation, and we are moving The USA forward. We appreciate your contribution and hard work that helps us to move forward.