The anniversary of the uprising against the Stamp Act, Aug. 14, 1773, was celebrated with great spirit, and a 'union flag' floated over the tent in which the company had their entertainment. Nov. 3, 1773, a large flag was raised above the liberty tree, and the town-crier summoned the people to assemble. The destruction of the tea followed this meeting. In the winter of 1775-76, the British soldiers cut down this noble tree, which from these associations had become odious to them. It furnished fourteen cords of wood, and probably went to ashes in the stove set up in the Old South Meeting-house, when the soldiers occupied that building for a riding-school, and kindled fires with books and pamphlets from Prince's valuable library, the remnant of which is now preserved in the Boston Public Library. The destruction of the liberty tree was bitterly resented.

The New England Chronicle,' reporting the act, says: "The enemies of liberty and America, headed by Tom Gage, lately gave a notable specimen of their hatred to the very name of liberty. A party, of whom was one Job Williams, was the ringleader, a few days since repaired to a tree at the south end of Boston, known by the name of Liberty Tree,' and, armed with axes, &c., made a furious attack upon it. After a long spell of groaning, swearing, and foaming, with malice diabolical they cut down a tree because it bore the name of 'Liberty.'" 1

At Taunton, Mass., in October, 1774, a 'union flag' was raised on the top of a liberty pole, with the words 'Liberty and Union' thereon.

In January, 1775, the sleds containing wood for the inhabitants of Boston bore a 'union flag.' The colonists had long been familiar with union flags; they now began to associate liberty with them.

March 21, 1775, the friends of liberty at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., erected a flag bearing on one side "THE KING," and on the other "THE CONGRESS AND LIBERTY," which was cut down by the authorities as a public nuisance.2

In the earliest days of the Revolution each State seems to have set up its own particular banner. There were probably no colors worn by the handful of Americans hastily called together at the battle of Lexington or at Bunker's Hill, but immediately after, the Connecticut troops had standards, bearing on them the arms of that colony, with the motto, "Qui transtulit sustinet," in letters of gold, which was freely translated "God, who transported us hither, will support us." In April, 1775, six regiments were ordered by the General Assembly of Connecti

1 The New England Chronicle for August 24-31, 1775.

2 Holt's Journal, April 6, 1775.

cut to be raised for the defence of the colony. In May, standards were ordered for these regiments. For the 1st, the color was to be yellow; for the 2d, blue; for the 3d, scarlet; for the 4th, crimson; for the 5th, white; for the 6th, azure. In July, 1775, two additional regiments were ordered, and the colors for these were, for the 7th, blue; for the 8th, orange. These regiments were enlisted for a few months only, and were not in the field at the formation of the Connecticut line, in 1777. There is now deposited with the Connecticut Historical Society an old red silk flag, about a yard square, on which is a tracing of the arms of Connecticut, in a darker red paint, and over them, in gilt letters, this inscription:

II BAT
II. REGT.
CONNECTICUT.
Raised 1640

This flag was presented to the State by the Hon. John Mix, who was an ensign, and adjutant of the 2d regiment of the line in 1777, and is supposed to be of that or earlier date. The "Raised 1640" is supposed to allude to the great English rebellion, as a presage of what might be hoped for in the rebellion just begun.1

In March, 1775, a union flag with a red field, having on one side this inscription, "Geo. Rex and the Liberties of America," and on the other "No Popery," was hoisted at New York. The armed ships of New York of that time are said to have had a black beaver for their device on their flag. This was the device of the colonial seal of New Netherland, and is still seen on the seal of the city of New York.

No description of the union flags of these times has been preserved. Aged people, living a few years since, who well remembered the processions and the great flags, could not recall their devices, nor has any particular description of them been found in the contemporaneous private diaries or public newspapers; nevertheless, it is more than probable, and almost certain, that these flags were the familiar flags of the English and Scotch union, established in 1707, and long known as union flags, inscribed with various popular and patriotic mottoes.

The Historical Chronicle of the Gentleman's Magazine,' under date April 17, 1775, records "by a ship just arrived at Bristol from

1 Connecticut Quartermaster-General's Report, 1839; Hartford Courant, 1839; Army and Navy Chronicle, 1839; Letters of C. J. Hoadley to G. H. P., 1873.

America, it is reported that the Americans have hoisted their standard of liberty at Salem."

Neither contemporary accounts nor the recollections of old soldiers are satisfactory respecting the flags used by the continentals at the battle of Bunker Hill, on the 17th of June, 1775. The British used the following signals: "Signals for boats in divisions, moving to the attack on the rebels on the Heights of Charleston, June 17, 1775; viz., 1. Blue flag, to advance. Yellow ditto, to lay on oars. Red ditto, to land." It is not positively ascertained that any were used by the Americans; certainly, none were captured from them by the British.

A eulogy on Warren, however, written soon after the battle, describing the astonishment of the British on the morning of the battle, says: "Columbia's troops are seen in dread array,

And waving streamers in the air display."

It is to be regretted that the poet has not described these fanciful waving streamers; probably, says another writer, but without stating his authority, "they were as various as the troops were motley."

At a patriotic celebration in 1825, a flag was borne which was said to have been unfurled at Bunker Hill; and tradition states that one was hoisted at the redoubt, and that Gage and his officers were puzzled to read by their glasses its motto. A whig told them it was "Come, if you dare." Trumbull, in his celebrated picture of the battle, now in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, has represented a red flag having a white canton and red cross and a green pine-tree.2

1 Orderly Book of Major-General Howe.

2 This cannot be considered authoritative. Painters frequently take a poet's license, and are not always particular in the accuracy of the accessories of their paintings. Thus Leutze, in his 'Washington crossing the Delaware,' Dec. 25, 1776, conspicuously displays the American flag with the blue field and union of white stars, although the flag had no existence before the 14th of June, 1777, and was not published until September, 1777. Yet this inaccurate historical tableau has been selected to embellish the face of the fiftydollar notes of our national banks. In Powell's 'Battle of Lake Erie,' at the Capitol, the flag in Perry's boat has only thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, although fifteen of each had been the legal number for twenty years, or since 1794.

The gold medal awarded to General Daniel Morgan for the 'Battle of Cowpens,' which occurred Jan. 17, 1781, has on its reverse a mounted officer at the head of his troops charging a flying foe, while behind and over the officer are two large and prominent banners simply striped with thirteen stripes, alternate red and white without the stars, though the stars had been for more than three years blazoned on the American ensigns. The medal was probably struck in France.

Bacon, in his picture of the 'Boston Boys and General Gage,' hangs out over the porch of the Province House an English ensign showing the union jack of 1801, adopted a quarter of a century later than the scene represented. But this is excusable, since, in

In a manuscript plan of the battle, colors are represented in the centre of each British regiment.

1

Botta says that Doctor Warren, finding the corps he commanded pursued by the enemy, despising all danger, stood alone before the ranks, endeavoring to rally his men and to encourage them by his example. He reminded them of the motto inscribed on their ensigns, on the one side of which were these words, "An appeal to Heaven," and on the other, "Qui transtulit sustinet," meaning that the same Providence which brought their ancestors through so many perils to a place of refuge would also deign to support their descendants.

Mrs. Manning, an intelligent old lady, informed Mr. Lossing2 that her father, who was in the battle, assisted in hoisting the standard, and she had heard him speak of it as a

Bunker Hill Flag.

noble flag; the ground of which was blue, with one corner quartered by the red cross of St. George, in one section of which was a pine-tree.

Washington arrived in Cambridge, Sunday, July 2, accompanied by Major-General Charles Luce, and the New England Chronicle' says:

"None of the men who have been raised by this and several other colonies are in

future to be distinguished as the troops of any particular colony, but as the forces of "THE UNITED COLONIES OF NORTH AMERICA," into whose joint service they have been taken by the Continental Congress, and are to be paid and supported accordingly." "3

On the 18th of July, a month after the battle of Bunker's Hill, Major-General Putnam assembled his division on the height of Prospect Hill, to have read to it the manifesto of Congress, signed by John Hancock, its president, and countersigned by Charles Thomson, secretary. The reading was followed by a prayer suited to the occasion, and at the close of the prayer, at signal from the general, the troops cried 'Amen,' and at the same instant the artillery of the fort thundered a general salute, and the scarlet standard of the Third Connecticut Regiment recently sent to General Putnam, bearing on

a fresco on the walls of the new Houses of Parliament or Palace of Westminster, the artist represents Charles II. landing under this union jack of 1801, which has the saltire gules for Ireland.

1 History of American Revolution.

2 Field-Book of the American Revolution, vol. i. p. 541.

3 The New England Chronicle, and the Essex Gazette, from Thursday, June 29, to Thursday, July 6, 1775.