The star of Pascagoula. [volume] (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1873-1878, 1877-07-13

Ross, an upholsterer of Philadelphia, is
claimed to have been the first maker of
the stars and stripes, and also its pardal
designer. In June, 1886, a committee
of congress, accompanied by Washington,
called upon her and eugfged herto make
a flag from a rough drawingthey brought
with them. She suggested ~some.changes
in the design, especially that the stars
be made five-pointed instead of six
pointed, following the French form,
while adoption of the English practice
gave us the six-pointed star on our coin.
age), and Washington himself drew the
new sketch in her back parlor. Mrs. Ross
afterward was appointed flag-maker to
the government, and she was succeeded
by a relative, who continued in Office
till about thirty years ago. 1t is men
toned az a bit of gossip concerning
Washington and the flag, that not alone
were the stars and stripes on his coat,oi-
arms, but the celors were all in his
christening robe, now in the possession
of Mrs. Lewis, of Woodlawn, Va, which
Is of white silk, lined with crimson silk,
and decorated with blue ribbons.
The banner did not come Immediately
into general use, for in the middle of
October, 1776, Capt. Richards is found
asking the Philadelphia council what
colors should be used by the fleet. 1t
was probably flown at Trenton, for Peale's
picture shows it, and the artist COM
manded a company in that battle. 1T
was displayed at the first fourth of July
celebration in Philadelphia, 1777, and in
the February of the following year it
was first saluted by a foreign power.
Paul Jones, in the Ranger, conveying
some vessels into Quiberon and obtaining
a salute from the French admiral. -Four
years later he hoisted it over the first
American ship of the line, the America,
August 3, TIT, the first land victory
was won under the Stars and Stripes on
the occasion of the British attack on
Fort Schuyler, the flag being an extern
ported one, made from the garrison's
shirts and from a blue cloak taken at
Peekskill. The homemade banner was
hoisted over five English colors captured
in a sally. In January, 1871, Rathburne,
in Providence, with fifty men, swoopedi
on Nassau, n. p, took the fort, spiked
its guns and hoisted the American flag
for the first time over Il foreign fortress
Five vessels disputed the homer of first
giving it to the winds in London. In
1892 the Columbia, Capt. Gray, OF
Boston, carriedit for the first time around
the world, and planted it on the Pacific
coast, at the mouth of the great river tc
whichhe gave the name of his vessel. The
Franklin, a Salem vessel, first displaye'
it in japanese waters in 1899. In lI9I
congress added two stars and two stripes
to the flag (the change taking effect II
May, 1885, for Vermont and Kentucky
the act being passed only after consider
able debate, its opponents believing tha'
the flag should be preserved in its orlgl
nal form in perpetuity. The war o
1924 was fought under this banner
In 1918, a bill reducing the stripes tt
the original number of thirteen, ane
directing the adoption of stars equal tt
the number of the states, a new star to bt
added on the fourth of July next sue
ceeding the admission of each new state
was passed and approved. This was the
design of Captain Samuel G. Reid, who
in 1914 defended so heroically the brig
General Armstrong against a superior
British force in Fayal roads, though hi
suggestion that the stars be arranged il
one large star was not formally adopted
The stars in the unions Of flags used b.
the war department are generally thu
arranged: in the navy flags they are in
variably set in parallel lines. The blu
union used separately is the union Jack
The revenue flag, adopted in 1879, ma
sixteen perpendicular stripes, alternatel
red and white, with a white union bear
ing the national arms in dark blue. 1h
union used separately is the revenu
jack. The yacht flag is the same as tn
national flag, but on the blue union
bears a white foul-anchor in a circle
thirteen states.