The flag is a part of the decorations appearing on North Carolina currency of the issue of Congress as distinguished from the sol- PAUL JONES RAISES THE FLAG The manner in which that command was assumed is of signal importance, in that the ceremony marked the hoisting of the first truly American flag. And the distinction of having released the banner to the breeze belongs to that daring spirit, John Paul Jones, one of the chief among heroes in the hearts of American naval officers and seamen. Jones, at that time senior lieutenant (corresponding to executive officer in the navy today) of Hopkins' flagship, the Alfred, in a letter to "the United States Minister of Marine, Hon. Robert Morris," preserved in the Library of Congress, thus describes the "It was my fortune, as the senior of This was the flag (364) which afterward figured so extensively in the literature of the day as the Congress Colors, from the fact that it first floated over the navy controlled by Congress. Also known as the Grand Union Flag and the First Navy Ensign, it was the Colonial standard from that day until it was superseded by the Stars and Stripes, in 1777. It consisted of thirteen stripes, alternately red and white, typifying the thirteen colonies, with a union bearing the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew combined (the national flag of Great Britain, 361) and signifying the Mother Country. There has been much confusion about THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN FLAG the flags which were displayed on the Alfred on that historic December day. The statement is often made, and correctly, that Commodore Hopkins hoisted the Gadsden flag (398)—a fact which impresses some historians as a contradiction of John Paul Jones' assertion. Reference to naval usage, both of that day and of this, however, clarifies the supposed discrepancy. Flagships display three flags the ensign, flown at the stern; the flag of the commanding officer, displayed at the mainmast; and the jack, which flies from the jackstaff at the bow. The Gadsden flag (of yellow silk and bearing a coiled rattlesnake with the motto "Don't Tread on Me"), used on the Alfred as the flag of the commodore commanding the fleet, was presented February 8, 1776, to the Congress by Col. Christopher Gadsden, a delegate from South Carolina to the Continental body and one of the committee of three appointed on October 15, 1775, to report on the fitting out of two armed vessels. When that report was made, two weeks later, Colonel Gadsden was one of a committee of seven appointed to fit out four armed vessels. The jack displayed on the Alfred on this occasion was a small, nearly square flag of thirteen alternate red and white stripes, bearing a crawling rattlesnake. with the legend "Don't Tread on Me" beneath it (365). CENSORSHIP IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES No mention of the ceremony of Commodore Hopkins' assumption of command of the little Continental fleet is to be found in the Philadelphia newspapers of that period. Indeed, the silence of the colonial press about the eight vessels about the eight vessels fitted out, officered, manned, and sent to sea was as complete as was that of the American press of 1917, when General Pershing's expeditionary force embarked for the fields of France. The intelligence reports to the British Admiralty were very explicit concerning the event, however. In minutest detail these reports described the ships of the fleet, how they were painted, the number of guns, officers, and men—all accurately supplied by the enemy's secret-service 289 agents in the colonies. For example, the following report, under date of January 4, 1776, was sent from Philadelphia: "This day, about one o'clock, sailed the ship Alfred and the ship Columbus with two brigs. Alfred carries 36 guns, 9 and 12 pounders; 60 marines and about 200 sailors. Columbus about the same number of men and 32 guns. The two brigs carry 16 guns. They sailed with five or six merchant ships loaded with flour from the Congress. Hopkins commands the Alfred. She has yellow sides, her head the figure of a man, English colours, but more striped. The Columbus is all black, except white bottom, with no head. Commanded by one Whipple." HOISTING THE GRAND UNION FLAG AT CAMBRIDGE One month after its baptism in the breezes, from the stern of the Alfred, the Grand Union Flag (364) was raised at Cambridge, Mass., on the very day that the Continental Army began its official existence-January 2, 1776 and General Washington is authority for the explanation that it was displayed "out of compli It was ment to the United Colonies." two days after this event that Washington wrote to his military secretary, Joseph Reed, through whom he kept in touch with affairs at Philadelphia: "We are at length favored with the sight of His Majesty's most gracious speech, breathing sentiments of tenderness and compassion for his deluded American subjects; the speech I send you (a volume of them was sent out by the Boston gentry), and, farcical enough, we gave great joy to them without knowing or intending it, for on that day (January 2) which gave being to our new army, but before the proclamation came to hand, we hoisted the union flag in compliment to the United Colonies. But behold! it was received at Boston as a token of the deep impression the speech had made upon us and as a signal of submission. By this time I presume they begin to think it strange that we have not made formal surrender of our lines." Although displayed on the Continental Army's first birthday, neither the Grand Union Flag (364) nor the Stars and John Paul Jones, commanding the Ranger, fired a salute of 13 guns to the French fleet in Quiberon Bay on February 14, 1778, and received Harris & Ewing THE ORIGINAL "STAR SPANGLED BANNER" OF OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM The national flag which flew over Fort McHenry in the War of 1812 is carefully preserved in the U. S. National Museum at Washington. In When General John Charles Fremont, surnamed "the Pathfinder," made his way across the continent in the '40's, his mission was one of peace, but the arrows in his army flag suggested war to the Indians of the plain. Therefore he inserted the calumet, or pipe of peace. crossed with the arrows in the talons of the eagle. It is interesting to note that the army did not carry the Stars and Stripes until the period of the Mexican War (see pages 307-308 and flag 22). Stripes (6), adopted by Congress a year and a half later, was carried in the field by the land forces during the Revolutionary War. The army carried only the colors of the States to which the troops belonged (see flags 394, 396, 403, 409, 410, etc.) and not the national flag. THE FIRST VICTORY OF THE AMERICAN FLAG It fell to the lot of the newly created Commodore Manley (the officer who had commanded the Lee and captured the ordnance ship Nancy) to carry the Grand Union Flag to its first victory. Commanding the Hancock, Manley captured two enemy transports, placed prize crews aboard, and then, with only 16 men left on his own ship, he engaged an armed vessel in sight of the enemy fleet at Boston and succeeded in bringing his prizes safely into Plymouth. Following this daring exploit Manley received a letter written at Cambridge, on January 28, 1776, by General Washington, who de clared that the commodore's achievement merited "mine and the country's thanks," and promised him a "stronger vessel of war." On Major Samuel Selden's powderhorn of that period is a carving showing Boston and vicinity. The British fleet is depicted on one side of Boston Neck, while Manley's symbolical ship Amaraca, flying at the stern the Continental Union flag as its ensign, and at the mainmast the pine-tree flag as the commodore's flag, is shown on the other side. The mortar carved on the horn is the famous "Congress" gun captured by Manley on the Nancy. The first occasion upon which any American flag floated over foreign territory was on March 3, 1776. Commodore Hopkins, of the Congress fleet, organized an expedition against New Providence, in the Bahama Islands, for the purpose of seizing a quantity of powder known to be stored there and of which both General Washington and the fleet were in |