The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-02
CROSS OF ST ANDREW

It was in 1895, at the beginning of the first crusade, that Pope Urban II thought the troops of each Christian nation in that crusade should carry or wear crosses emblematlc of Christ and of the charac- ter of the holy war in which they were about to engage He accorUngfy as- signed crosses to the several national divisions of his army varying in design and color scheme, so as to minimize the chances of confusion much. as pos sible. To the Spanish he gave a red, to the French white, to the Italians a blue, and to the English a yellow cross while to the Scotch he assigned the White saltier of St. Andrew on blue flag an emblem which they are said to have previously used for several cen turies. After this crusade was over, the Scotch retained their cross, but the oth- CTS do not seem to have done so. In later crusades similar assignments of crosses were probably made, but, as be- fore, they were not often retained by the several countries as national embems
 CROSS OF ST. GEORGE
 About the middle of the last half of the thirteenth century, Prince Edward, afterward Edward I of England, while on one of the crusades, became interested in the story of St. George and the dragon and before returning home went to the monastery of Cappadoca at Beirut where his interest increased to such a point that soon after his return to his native land, he adopted the red cross of St. George on a white field as the flag of England It will be seen, therefore, that the flag of Scotland ante-dated that of England by two or more centuries.
 FLAG OF GREAT BRITAIN
 Alter James VI of Scotland ascended the throne of England in 1903, he was constantly annoyed by the eternal. wrangling between the masters of the English and Scotch ships when they met at sea as to which one should first dip its colors to the other. He was ex- tremely anxious to unite the two king doms in one country, as well as to stop this annoyance. Therefore, in 1906, as one step toward the accomplishment of this desire, he united the two crosses in new flag, which subsequently, became the Union Jack. This he required all vessels of both countries to carry from their mainmast, at the same time car rying from their foremast their old flag, showing to which of the two countries the ship belonged. However, it was century later before the two countries agreed upon their union under the name of Great Britain, and by act of their Parliament in 1707 the union of the crosses was re- quired to be used in all their flags. ban ners, standards, and ensigns, both at sea and on land. The army used one flag,
 
 third, and so on, but each of them con- sisted either wholly or in part of the Union Jack. Such was the case at the beginning of the American Revolution in IT'S, and indeed is the cast today. That uprising was really a revolt against the monarchia despotism of the time, and the idea of separation from the mother country was then but little thought of or considered; in fact, the common senti- mept that bound the colonies together was not very strong tie and required diplomatic handling to avoid breaking
 When General Washington, after his election as general and commander in chief. reached Cambridge on July B. IT'S, to take command, he found the so-called army practically without either colors or uniforms. In fact, General Putnam, who commanded the Connecticut troops. is said to have worn the blue jeans, sup ported by only one suspender, which he had on when, hearing of the battles of Lexington and Concord, he left his blow ana started for Cambridge. So Gen. eral Washington assigned to the vari- ous officers, as distinction of rank, rib bons varying in color and number, and these were worn by them until something more elaborate and formal was designed There were practically neither flags nor colors though some of the individual companies are supposed to have brought
  viously used.
 COLONIAL FLAGS
 Washington had the entire army to or ganlze Tn all it's minute details, and the question of colors being of less import ance than many others, was not given se- r1ous consideration at the start but little later he urged the various colonels to provide for their regiments colors of such design or designs as might appeal to them. This was frequently done and in many instances some design of 1S units was used to represent the revolting colonies.
 Some of the colonies went so far as to adopt flags of their own For instance, Massachusetts adopted the pine true, with the motto, An Appeal to Heaven. Rhode Island, one having an anchor and the word Hope within the canton union of 13 white stars on blue field said to be the first flag on which the Is colonies were represented by IS stars; New York, a black beaver on a white field; Pennsylvania does not seem to have adopted any, but the First troop of Light Horse, organized in Philadelphia in 1774 in anticipation of coming trouble adopt ed very beautiful one that was given them by their commander, Captain Markos. In the center of this flag was a knot tied with 13 cords and in the can ton 13 horizontal stripes, alternating pIue ana silver. This company acted as Gem eral Washingtons escort from Philadel- phia through Pennsylvania and across the states of New Jersey and New York to the Connecticut line, just after his cleo tion as commander-in-chief of the army