The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1876-07-28
Our Flag.

Every nation has its flag. Every ship in
foreign waters is known by the colors she
shows at the peak. The French frigate hoists
her bunting of three vertical stripes red,
white and blue the English man-of. war
shows red flag, with the crosses of St. An
drew and st. George on a blue union in the
upper left hand corner ; and the Austrian Il
double headed black eagle, on Il yellow
ground--every nation with a name and place
having its own appropriate symbol.
When we were colonies of England, we
sailed and fought under her flag. Twenty
years before the Revolution when we we're
at war with the French and their allies the
Indians, many n brave man in some hot
skrmish with the Indians would have wei.
coined the sight ofthe red flag Of England
1t would mean aid and comfort when sorely
pressed.
But the time was coming when he was to
hate it US much as he had hated the French
colors. The time was coming when the
sight OF II WAS 10 mean oppression and ty-
ranny to him, and every feeling of his ma
ture would be reused against it. Every child
knows how We finally rebeled it was moth
ing less, and, to England our George Wash.
ington was merely "a leading rebel. 1t was
II bold proceeding. We were thirteen little
States, frnged along the Atlantic coast with
the unbroken forest behind us, and among
the great family of nations we had neither
place nor name. We were like the last new
boy at II public school-we had to fight to
obtain due respect from all the great old ma
tons who were looking Oh.
OF course we had no flag we had to earn
that too. For a year or 50 our troops carried
the Massachusetts State flag. 1t was better,
they thought, than the English flag, at, any
rate. The field was OF white bunting in
the middle, green pine tree and on the
opposite side the motto, appeal to Heav-
en-"
Washington, in his character as General
Chief, commissioned several privateer
schooners and they all carried this flag.
The Alfred was one of the few large ships
we had, and she carried the pine tree flag,
and beside that, one with thirteen stripes, in
red and white, but with no stars while On
the stripes was coiled rattle snake with the
motto Don tread Oh me-" Ihe rattle
snake being found only in America, there
was, OF course, peculiar meaning in this
emblem.
In the early part of the Revolution, some
of the South Carolina regiments carried the
palmetto tree On their flag. That was a very
good symbol, and the State yet keeps it on
her coat of arms, though it grows everywhere
III the South. The palmetto logs at Fort
Moultrie were found very good things To re-
ceive cannon balls when that fort was be-
seged by the British in June of l776.
There was this multiplicity of flags, be-
cause we did not clearly know what We were.
No nation had acknowledged us as belong
ing to their great family yet; in fact, we had
not quite cut loose from England, yet we
were fighting her with all our might, and it
seemed absurd to be under her colors. In
the fight at Bunker Hill, the flag planted in
the corner of that famous redoubt was of
blue bunting, with the cross Of St George in
the corner, and pine tree, that same pine
tree, in the upper right hand quarter of the
| cross.
Our army at Cambridge celebrated New
Years Day, Jan. l, l776,n as the Chinese,
by firing crackers and illuminating lanterns
in the evening, nor yet by making calls, but
| by un.urling for the first time in an Amer-
can camp the flag of thirteen stripes. But
even then we had not declared ourselves in
dependent of Great Britain, and this flag
had the British union in the corner, and the
crosses of st. Andrew and St. George.
Finally, on the l4th of June, l776, Con-
gress, which met then in Philadelphia,
settled upon our sty yle flag. at shall have"
said they, "thrteen stripes, alternate red and
whit, and the union of the States shall be
indicated hy thirteen stars, white in a blue
field, representing a new constellation"
1t was not until about forty years ago that
it was ecided to add another star for every
new State as it joined the Union. So that
the constellation as it is now, with nearly
forty stars in it, has grown good deal from
the original thirteen. But the stripes still
remained as of the first little band of States
who fought it out" against Great Brit
ain