Military ensigns [ edit ] The naval ensign and its first salute [ edit ] First official salute to the U.S. flag on board the U.S. warship Andrew Doria in a foreign port, at St. Eustatius in the West Indies, on November 16, 1776 With the entrance of new states into the United States after independence, new stripes and stars were added to represent new additions to the Union. In 1818, however, Congress enacted a law stipulating that the 13 original stripes be restored and that only stars be added to represent new states. The design of both flags' (Customs and Coast Guard) cantons (i.e., the eagle and stars) was altered in 1951 to make them conform to " the arms of the United States," as was specified in Wolcott's original design statement in 1799. In the 19th century the ensigns were quite large; the biggest ensign in 1870 measured 19 by 36 feet (5.8 by 11.0m). By the early 20th century, as warships took on distinctive forms and could no longer be easily mistaken for merchantmen at a distance, ensigns began to shrink and today are a fraction of their earlier size — the largest ensign for daily use on ships is now 5 by 9.5 feet (1.5 by 2.9m). [6] It was widely believed that the flag was raised by George Washington's army on the 2 January 1776, at Prospect Hill in Charlestown (now part of Somerville), near his headquarters at Cambridge, Massachusetts, (across the Charles River to the north from Boston), which was then surrounding and laying siege to the British forces then occupying the city. [5] It is also stated that the flag was interpreted by British military observers in the city under commanding General Thomas Gage, as a sign of surrender. [6] [7] However, some scholars dispute the traditional account and conclude that the flag raised at Prospect Hill was probably the flag of Great Britain, [8] though subsequent research supports the contrary. [9] [10]

Power Squadrons ensign [ edit ] The United States Power Squadrons ensign, as a signal, indicates membership of the organization. Massachusetts and Maine are the only two states with their own maritime flags. These flags are not "ensigns" in the true sense of the word because they are not flags of national character, and are not used as such; instead, they are special versions of the state flag for use afloat. The state laws that create them do not use the term "ensign" to describe them, but use the term "flag". The Massachusetts law describes the flag as “The naval and maritime flag of the commonwealth,” Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 2, § 3, while Maine's state law says: “The flag to be known as the merchant and marine flag of the State shall be of white, at the top of which in blue letters shall be the motto “Dirigo”; beneath the motto shall be the representation of a pine tree in green color” Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 1, § 207. Although these flags are intended for use afloat, they are not ensigns and should not be called such.

Questions about the appearance of the Grand Union Flag

Other historians have pointed out that there is no contemporary evidence identifying the colors of the stripes:• In the other letters that mention the flag flown at Prospect Hill, Letters of delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, vol.2, University of Virginia Library, September–December 1775, archived from the original on 2011-01-12 a b Calkhoven, Laurie (2007). George Washington. An American Life. Sterling Publishing Company. p.47. ISBN 978-1-4027-3546-2 . Retrieved July 1, 2023.

The flag has had several names, at least five of which have been popularly remembered. The more recent moniker, "Grand Union Flag", was first applied in the 19th-century Reconstruction era by George Henry Preble, in his 1872 History of the American Flag. [8] Maine also has a separate ensign, which is rarely seen. It features symbols from the current flag and the older one, with a white field and green pine tree. The green pine tree has the seaman's anchor, and the words "MAINE" and "DIRIGO" around it. Dirigo ( Latin "I direct" or "I lead") is the state motto of Maine. Boston. One popular legend has George Washington approaching Philadelphia flagmaker Rebecca Young some time in 1775 and asking her to make the flag that became known as the Grand Union Flag. schooner Royal Savage, which was part of Benedict Arnold's Lake Champlain flotilla. The evidence is a watercolor found in the papers of General Philip The current "Stars and Stripes" design was first adopted when the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution of June 14, 1777: " Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." [3] Subsequent flag acts have revised the design as new states joined the union. [4] The 13-star "boat flag", 1912years. Ben Franklin gave a similar description for the US flag with red, white and blue stripes the following year in the John Paul Jones incident with the HMS Serapis. This flag became known as the Serapis Flag. documentary evidence of James Wharton, a Philadelphia merchant, supplying Margaret with material to create flags for the Alfred, with the bill being charged to the Alfred's account on December 2, 1775. This is probably when the Grand Union Flag hoisted by John Paul Jones In April 1776, the Massachusetts Navy adopted, as its flag, a white field charged with a green pine tree and the motto "An Appeal to Heaven." In 1971 the motto was removed, and the flag was designated "the naval and maritime flag of the Commonwealth". [21] Merchant and Marine Flag of Maine In the Sliders episode Prince of Wails, set in a reality where the American Revolution was successfully suppressed, it serves as the flag of the British States of America, a heavily taxed and dictatorially-governed corner of the British Empire.

A modification of the national flag and ensign but with a fouled anchor in a circle of thirteen stars in the canton, was created by Act of Congress in August 1848 as a flag to be used by licensed U.S. yachts. [11] [12] The design was recommended by the New York Yacht Club in 1849. [13] Yachts eligible for the license were initially 20 net tons and over (later reduced to 15 net tons) and otherwise eligible to be enrolled as a U.S. vessel; the license allowed the yacht to proceed from port to port without the formality of clearing customs. The 1848 act used the word 'signal' to describe the flag that a licensed yacht would use to identify herself, and use of this flag was required by all licensed yachts ("All such licensed yachts shall use a signal of the form, size, and colors prescribed by the Secretary of the Navy."). The Secretary of the Navy approved a modification of "the American Ensign" as the signal, and Treasury Decision No. 2727 (March 24, 1876) issued by the Treasury Department confirmed that the flag was to be used as an ensign ("Licensed yachts are required by law to use the American ensign prescribed by the Secretary of the Navy."), and its use as an ensign was reiterated in Treasury Decision 9426 of June 11, 1889 (referring to the "yacht ensign"). While formally licensed yachts were legally required to fly this modification of the national ensign, unlicensed U.S. yachts also started flying this flag as their ensign, too, and eventually the U.S. Navy confirmed that it recognized this practice for all U.S. yachts. In 1939, the Secretary of the Navy approved the ruling of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy "...that a ship of the Navy should return a dip made by a yacht flying the yacht ensign and that the yacht ensign may properly be made the object of a hand salute to be rendered on boarding or leaving a yacht." U.S. House Bill - H.R. 178". American Memory. P.L. 30-141 ~ 9 Stat. 274. U.S. Library of Congress. February 8, 1848. The body of the flag consisted of thirteen red and white alternating stripes. These stripes represented the thirteen original colonies.Denmark and the Netherlands were the first countries to salute the Grand Union flag, when gun salutes by U.S. ships were returned by officials in the West Indies in late 1776: on Danish St. Croix in October, and on Dutch St. Eustatius in November. (Though later, the better documented St. Eustatius incident involving the USS Andrew Doria is traditionally regarded as the "first salute".) France was the first country to salute the Stars and Stripes, when a fleet off the French mainland returned a gun salute by Captain John Paul Jones commanding USS Ranger on February 14, 1778. [5] had the Grand Union Flag hoisted on Prospect Hill near his headquarters at Cambridge. This is why the George Washington, or one of his staff created the design. Although the flag was used in Philadelphia on the Alfred Cooper, Grace Rogers (1973). Thirteen-Star Flags: Keys to Identification (Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology. No. 21ed.). Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp.10–11.

The ensign of the United States is the flag of the United States when worn as an ensign (a type of maritime flag identifying nationality, usually flown from the stern of a ship or boat, or from an installation or facility of the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, United States Coast Guard or the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration ashore). [1] International maritime law—see International Treaty on Law of the Sea, articles 91 and 92—provides that vessels have a "national character" and thus should display a flag (ensign) that corresponds to this national character, especially when in international or foreign waters. Vessels that are formally documented under the federal vessel documentation act, vessels owned by government bodies in the United States, and vessels in the U.S. military unquestionably have U.S. national character, and thus properly hoist a U.S. ensign to show their national character. Vessels that are numbered by the states (see 46 USC section 411) and small, non-registered craft owned by U.S. citizens and not registered in other countries may also hoist a U.S. ensign to show their national character.

Media in category "Grand Union flag"

In For Want of a Nail by Robert Sobel, it serves as the flag of the Confederation of North America, a self-governing dominion created in 1843 via the second of two Britannic designs after John Burgoyne's victory at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, resulting in the Conciliationists gaining control of the Continental Congress in 1778. Historians are uncertain who made the first Grand Union Flag or who chose it to represent the united colonies. There are however, a few possibilities:• Margaret Manny, a Philadelphia seamstress has American flag, though unofficial, of the United States until the Flag Resolution of 1777, which was passed on June 14, 1777, making the 13 star flag