Gadsden flag depicts timber rattlesnake
History
George Washington established the Continental Navy in 1775 as Commander in Chief of the Continental Forces, before Esek Hopkins was named Commodore of the Navy. The first ships were used to intercept incoming transport ships carrying war supplies to the British in the colonies in order to supply the Continental Army, which was desperately undersupplied in the opening years of the American Revolutionary War.
Continental Colonel Christopher Gadsden represented South Carolina in the Congress, and he was one of seven members of the Marine Committee outfitting the first naval mission.: 289  Paul Aron described Gadsden as a "leading advocate of an American navy." The first Marines carried drums painted yellow and depicting a coiled rattlesnake with thirteen rattles along with the motto "Don't Tread on Me." This is the first recorded mention of the flag's symbolism.Gadsden decided that the American navy needed a distinctive flag and took it upon himself to make one in 1775. He gave Commodore Esek Hopkins a yellow rattlesnake flag to serve as his personal standard on USS Alfred, the flagship of America's first navy squadron.: 289  Gadsden intended the design as a warning to Great Britain not to trample the liberties of its subjects. The rattlesnake was seen in Charleston, South Carolina as a "noble and useful" animal that gave warning before it attacked. Before being appointed to lead the Navy, Hopkins had led The United Companies of the Train of Artillery of the Town of Providence, a unit that flew a flag similar to Gadsden's. He unfurled the Gadsden flag on the main mast of USS Alfred on December 20, 1775 while the ship was at anchor in Chesapeake Bay.  Whenever he was aboard, Hopkins flew the flag from the mainmast of the flagship as his personal banner. Alfred was also the first recorded ship to fly the Grand Union Flag, the first national flag of the United States, when Senior Lieutenant John Paul Jones hoisted it on December 3, 1775 while the ship floated in the Delaware River near Philadelphia.By winter 1775, the South Carolina Provincial Congress expected that the British would invade Charleston and recalled Gadsden home from Congress in Philadelphia to command the 1st South Carolina Regiment. By January 14, Gadsden had both his orders to return home and permission from the Continental Congress to leave. On Friday, February 9, 1776, he presented an example of his yellow rattlesnake flag to president of the Congress William Henry Drayton.
Gadsden's presentation of the rattlesnake flag was recorded in the South Carolina congressional journals on February 9, 1776: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 rattlesnake in the middle in the attitude of going to strike and these words underneath, "Don't tread on me."
In the 19th century, the flag reappeared as a symbol of secessionists and the Confederacy. In 1860, the Gadsden flag became the “first flag of independence raised in the south” according to news reports at the time.  In 1861, a ship from Georgia entered Boston Harbor flying a version of the Gadsden Flag with 15 stars on it signifying the 15 slave states. The captain removed the flag after a large and angry crowd gathered, who then destroyed it.