The Continental Colors.

On January 1st, 1776, General George Washington ordered the hoisting of a "Union Flag in compliment to the United Colonies" on a 76 foot tall pole on a hill in Somerville, just outside of Boston. The flag he was talking about is known to us today as "the Continental Colors". It was a British naval red ensign with the red field defaced by white stripes, making a field of 13 red and white stripes. 

There is some conjecture that the stripes of the Sons of Liberty flag may have inspired the stripes on the Continental Colors, but there is no documentary evidence of this.

The Continental Colors flag, with its apparent combination of the British Union flag -- the flag of British unity --  with the Sons of Liberty Flag, sent a clear message to England that the colonists regarded their fight as one to recover their proper rights as Englishmen, not necessarily a fight meant for separation from governance by England's king and parliament. Indeed, in Boston, when the English general in charge saw the Union Flag added to what appeared to be a Sons of Liberty flag, he first decided it meant the American troops were surrendering. He sent a note to General Washington asking why the American troops in the trenches were not laying down their arms and returning to camp to prepare for a formal surrender of their positions on Bunker Hill!

The Continental Colors were used at various times during the Revolutionary War, especially before Congress adopted the official Stars and Stripes in June 1777.  For example, the Continental Colors were:

1. Flown over a fort the Americans captured in the Bahamas in March, 1776.
2. Flow by the American schooner Royal Savage at Lake Champlain between August and October 1776.
3. Flown by the American Navy ship Andrea Doria when it entered the harbor at St. Eustatius on November 16, 1776. In the 18th century St. Eustatius was the most important Dutch island in the Caribbean. The island sold arms and ammunition to anyone willing to pay and one the few ways for the rebellious American colonies to obtain weapons. The good commercial relationship between Sint Eustatius and the United States resulted in the famous "First Salute",  when Commander Johannes de Graeff of Sint Eustatius decided to return the salute fire of the visiting Andrew Doria by firing the cannons of Fort Oranje. The United States gave the answering salute great publicity because the eleven gun salute was the first international acknowledgment of the independence of the United States.

The Continental Colors officially passed from existence on June 14, 1777 when the Stars and Stripes were born, however there are a few documented war-time uses of it after that date.

Gadsden Flag, the First Naval Jack ("Don't Tread on Me").

In 1754, during the French and Indian War, Franklin published his now-famous woodcut of a snake cut into eight sections. It represented the English colonies then existing, with New England joined together as the head and South Carolina as the tail, following their order along the coast. Under the snake was the message "Join, or Die". This was the first political cartoon published in an American newspaper.

As the American Revolution grew closer, the snake began to see more use as a symbol of the colonies. In 1774, Paul Revere added it to the title of his paper, The Massachusetts Spy, as a snake joined to fight a British dragon. In December 1775, Benjamin Franklin published an essay in the Pennsylvania Journal under the pseudonym American Guesser in which he suggested that the rattlesnake was a good symbol for the American spirit:

I recollected that her eye excelled in brightness, that of any other animal, and that she has no eye-lids—She may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance.—She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage.—As if anxious to prevent all pretensions of quarreling with her, the weapons with which nature has furnished her, she conceals in the roof of her mouth, so that, to those who are unacquainted with her, she appears to be a most defenseless animal; and even when those weapons are shewn and extended for her defense, they appear weak and contemptible; but their wounds however small, are decisive and fatal:—Conscious of this, she never wounds till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her.—Was I wrong, Sir, in thinking this a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America?

In the autumn of 1775, the United States Navy was established to intercept incoming British ships carrying war supplies to the British troops in the colonies. To aid in this, the Second Continental Congress authorized the mustering of five companies of Marines to accompany the Navy on their first mission. The first Marines that enlisted were from Philadelphia and they carried drums painted yellow, depicting a coiled rattlesnake with thirteen rattles, and the motto "Don't Tread On Me."

At the Congress, Continental Army Colonel Christopher Gadsden was representing his home state of South Carolina. He was one of three members of the Marine Committee who were outfitting the first naval mission.

Before the departure of that first mission, the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Navy, Gadsden and Congress chose a Rhode Island man, Esek Hopkins, as the commander-in-chief of the Navy. Hopkins  felt it was especially important for the commodore to have a distinctive personal standard so Hopkins personally presented a flag to the new commander-in-chief of the Navy. Gadsden also presented a copy of this flag to his home state legislature. A description of the flag, as having a yellow field, is recorded in the South Carolina legislative journals. That description is the reason the flag at the start of this section on Gadsden Flag, the First Naval Jack ("Don't Tread on Me") is generally accepted as the one presented to Commodore Hopkins as his personal standard.

"Col. Gadsden presented to the Congress an elegant standard, such as is to be used by the commander in chief of the American navy; being a yellow field, with a lively representation of a rattle-snake in the middle, in the attitude of going to strike, and these words underneath, "Don't Tread on Me!"

It is not recorded whether Gadsden took his inspiration for his yellow flag from the Marines' drums, or from the similar yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flags common in the three southernmost colonies.

Hopkins apparently used the flag presented to him as his personal standard but devised a different flag for use as the fleet's battle flag. It used the symbol of a snake on the Sons of Liberty Flag.  The flag was used as both an ensign (on the mast) and on the bow (as a jack), it has been in continuous use in the United States Navy and is referred to in the regulations as the "First Navy Jack."

The design of the "First Navy Jack" is inferred from two primary sources.  The first one is Hopkins first set of fleet signals using flags between the ships. In the fall of 1775, as the first ships of the Continental Navy readied in the Delaware River, Commodore Esek Hopkins instructed that the signal for attack in battle would be flying "the striped Jack and Ensign at their proper places." The second source is a color plate in Admiral Preble's book showing a slightly different "Don't Tread Upon Me" flag used as a Navy Ensign. [Admiral George H. Preble, History of the Flag of the United States (1880).]

Since 1777, the U.S. Navy has used the Union Jack (a flag replicating the canton i.e. white stars on a blue field of the U.S. Flag).  The Union Jack is by regulation displayed daily from the jackstaff of all U.S. naval vessels in commission, from 8 a.m. to sunset while the ship is at anchor. However, the First Navy Jack has been ordered to be used on special occasions.  For example, Navy Jack was ordered to be flown in 1975 and 1976 in lieu of the Union Jack during the United States Bicentennial; and in 1977 the Secretary of the Navy specified that the ship with the longest total period of active service display the First Navy Jack. 

On May 22, 2002, the Secretary of Navy ordered all ships to display the First Navy Jack during the War on Terrorism.  Read the Order.

George Rogers Clark Flag.

In the Revolution, military units often had different flags or no flags. Stripes were a defining feature of American flags even before the Revolution, and many military banners used by Americans featured stripes of differing colors. Records in all the colonies describe red and green flags similar to the one on the left.

George Rogers Clark is credited (perhaps mistakenly) by some as using a similar red and green banner in February 1779, when he led 172 men, nearly half of which were French volunteers, from Kaskaskia, Indiana to attack the British force holding a fort at Vincennes, Indiana. They marched the 240 miles through flooded country, often shoulder high in water, sending out hunting parties for food and sleeping on the bare ground. It required 17 days to make what was normally a five or six day trip in the summer. On reaching the English fort, they surprised Vincennes. Clark ordered that a dozen flags he had with him be marched behind a slight rise to convince the British that there were 600 men rather than under 200. As a group of men with their flag completed their march behind the rise and disappear into the forest, they would quickly run hidden back to the starting point to make another march behind the rise. Back and forth they went, appearing to the observing British as a huge attacking force assembling. The Americans opened rifle  fire on the fort with such accuracy that the British were prevented from opening their gunports. On the morning of the third day, the British surrendered the fort and thereby control of their other posts in the previously French dominated area of what became our Northwest Territory. It is reported that when the formal surrender of the fort took place, the English commander asked Clark "Where are all your men?"; Clark replied "They are here before you"; and the English commander turned aside with tears in his eyes. The British never regained control of these posts, and the American claims in the old Northwest served as the basis of the cession of these lands to the United States at the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Read more on the history of the attack by Clark and the history of this flag.

Franklin or Serapis or Paul Jones Flag.

John Paul Jones was the United State's first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. His actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to this day.  Read more about his attacks on ships near England.

The "John Paul Jones flag" was entered into Dutch records to help Jones avoid charges of piracy when he captured the Serapis under an "unknown flag."  Here's the story.

In 1777 John Paul Jones was creating so much havoc on the high seas with his raids on the British Merchant Marine and coastal villages that the Admiralty issued orders to have him hung as a pirate if he could be captured. The reason given for the order was a legalistic one -- he did not fly the flag of any recognized nation. Although Congress had just adopted a flag, news of it had not yet reached Europe or its Ambassador, Benjamin Franklin. While Franklin pondered possible solutions to this problem, the Dutch Ambassador, acting for his government, asked for a description of the United States Flag. As far as Mr. Franklin knew, no national flag existed. Nevertheless, he gave the Dutch visitor a description of what we now call the "Franklin or Serapis Flag." This description was sent to the Dutch Fleet, along with the orders that it be recognized on the high seas. Shortly afterwards, the Ambassador of the two Sicily's came to call, making the same request. He also received a description of the flag, and forwarded similar orders to his country's fleet. Mr. Franklin, then apparently, had a flag, such as he had imagined, made and sent to Jones so that it could be flown at his ships' masthead. By doing this, he could avoid being hung as a pirate by England.

The next year, during a great battle with the English ship Serapis, Jones ship - Bonhomme Richard -  was sinking and the English captain asked if Jones wanted to surrender. According to the later recollection of his First Lieutenant, Jones replied: "I have not yet begun to fight!"

The Bonhomme Richard was so badly damaged that it sank with its colors flying, but by then Jones had won the battle and had transferred his crew to the Serapis. Jones put into the Dutch port of Texel for refitting of Serapis. The British authorities in the Netherlands demanded Jones be arrested as a pirate since he flew "no known flag." The Dutch replied that they would consult their archives. A few days later when they replied to the British that they had evidence in their files that the flag used on the "Serapis" was a recognized flag and that Jones would be allowed to refit. A painting of this flag was made as a part of the legal defense of Jones.

First Official U.S. Flag.

On Saturday, June 14, 1777, the business of the Continental Congress was recorded as primarily to do with the Marine Committee. The record shows,  among other transactions, that the Navy wanted directions regarding the fleet in Delaware in case of British attack and that John Paul Jones was appointed as Captain of the ship Ranger. In between those two items, without a word of comment or explanation, is the Resolve that "the Flag of the united states be 13 stripes alternate red and white, that the Union be 13 stars white in a blue field representing a new constellation."  

Marine Committeeman Francis Hopkinson designed the first stars and stripes flag.  Although the size or placement of the blue field was not specified in the Resolve, all productions of the flag have followed the general arrangement of these Continental Colors, with a blue canton.

It is known that Hopkinson intended the stars to signify a new entry into the constellation of nations. But the original design of Hopkinson is not known. His stars may have been in a ring or in rows. His exact design of the stars is not known, and the placement of the stars in the canton varied considerably during the first 50 or so years of the United States. At the end of the war, in 1783, the flag drawn by Pierre L'Enfant, as part of his drawings of the new Capitol city he was planning, had the 13 stars in a circle.