History of the National Flag of the United States of America Part 1

History of the National Flag of the United States of America.

by Schuyler Hamilton.

PREFACE.

As nearly as we can learn, the only origin which has been suggested for the devices combined in the national colors of our country is, that they were adopted from the coat of arms of General Was.h.i.+ngton. This imputed origin is not such as would be consonant with the known modesty of Was.h.i.+ngton, or the spirit of the times in which the flag was adopted. We have, therefore, been at some pains to collect authentic statements in reference to our national colors, and with these, have introduced letters exhibiting the temper of those times, step by step, with the changes made in the flag, so combining them as to form a chain of proof, which, we think, must be conclusive.

Should, however, the perusal of the following account of the origin and meaning of the devices in the national flag of our country, serve no other purpose than that of impressing more strongly upon the mind of the reader the importance and the prominence those who achieved our liberties and founded our government attached to the idea of Union, its preparation will not have been a futile labor.

Emblems and devices, adopted under high excitement of the public mind, are chosen as epitomes of the sentiments prevailing at the time of their adoption. Those of the days of our Revolution afford proofs far more striking than the most elaborate arguments, that, in the estimation of our forefathers, Union, and existence as a nation, were inseparable.

The prosecution of our subject has made it necessary for us to dwell upon those devices, and to develop those proofs.

INTRODUCTION.

As a not uninteresting introduction to our research, we will glance at the history of standards, from their inception to the present time. We shall find that man's faculty of imitation has here, as elsewhere, found employment, modified in its operation by some cause peculiar to the nation whose standard chances to be under consideration.

Fosbroke, in his _Dictionary of Antiquities_, has furnished us with most of the information on this subject which is pertinent to our design. We shall add such comments as will tend to ill.u.s.trate our conclusions. Under the head of standards, he writes:--

"The invention began among the Egyptians, who bore an animal at the end of a spear; but among the Graeco-Egyptians, the standards either resemble, at top, a round-headed knife, or an expanded semicircular fan. Among the earlier Greeks, it was a piece of armor at the end of a spear; though Agamemnon, in Homer, uses a purple veil to rally his men, &c. Afterwards, the Athenians bore the olive and owl; the other nations the effigies of their tutelary G.o.ds, or their particular symbols, at the end of a spear. The Corinthians carried a _pegasus_, the Messenians their initial [Mu], and the Lacedaemonians, [Lambda]; the Persians, a golden eagle at the end of a spear, fixed upon a carriage; the ancient Gauls, an animal, chiefly a bull, lion, and bear. Sir S. R. Meyrick gives the following account of the Roman standards. 'Each _century_, or at least each _maniple_ of troops, had its proper standard, and standard-bearer. This was originally merely a bundle of hay on the top of a pole; afterwards, a spear with a crosspiece of wood on the top; sometimes the figure of a hand above, probably in allusion to the word _manipulus_; and below, a small round or oval s.h.i.+eld, generally of silver or of gold. On this metal plate were anciently represented the warlike deities Mars or Minerva; but after the extinction of the commonwealth, the effigies of the emperors or their favorites. It was on this account that the standards were called _numina legionum_, and held in religious veneration. The standards of different divisions had certain letters inscribed on them, to distinguish the one from the other. The standard of a legion, according to Dio, was a silver eagle, with expanded wings, on the top of a spear, sometimes holding a thunderbolt in its claws; hence the word _aquila_ was used to signify a legion. The place for this standard was near the general, almost in the centre. Before the time of Marius, figures of other animals were used, and it was then carried in front of the first maniple of the _triarii_.

The _vexillum_, or flag of the cavalry (that of the infantry being called _signum_; an eagle on a thunderbolt, within a wreath, in Meyrick, pl. 6, fig. 15), was, according to Livy, a square piece of cloth, fixed to a crossbar on the end of a spear. The _labarum_, borrowed by the Greek emperors from the Celtic tribes, by whom it was called _llab_, was similar to this, but with the monogram of Christ worked upon it. Thus Sir S. R. Meyrick. The dragon, which served for an ensign to barbarous nations, was adopted by the Romans, probably from the mixture of auxiliaries with the legions. At first, the dragon, as the general ensign of the barbarians, was used as a trophy by the Romans, after Trajan's conquest of the Dacians. The dragons were embroidered in cotton, or silk and purple. The head was of metal, and they were fastened on the tops of spears, gilt and ta.s.selled, opening the mouth wide, which made their long tails, painted with different colors, float in the wind. They are seen on the Trajan column and the arch of t.i.tus, and are engraved. The _draconarii_, or ensigns, who carried them, were distinguished by a gold collar. From the Romans, says Du Cange, it came to the Western Empire, and was long, in England, the chief standard of our kings, and of the dukes of Normandy. Matthew Paris notes its being borne in wars which portended destruction to the enemy. It was pitched near the royal tent, on the right of the other standards, where the guard was kept. Stowe adds, that the dragon-standard was never used but when it was an absolute intention to fight; and a golden dragon was fixed, that the weary and wounded might repair thither, as to a castle, or place of the greatest security. Thus far for the dragon-standard. To return, Vigetius mentions _pinnae_, perhaps _aigrettes_ of feathers, of different colors, intended for signals, rallying-points, &c. Animals, fixed upon plinths, with holes through them, are often found. They were ensigns intended to be placed upon the ends of spears.

"Count Caylus has published several; among others two leopards, male and female. Ensigns upon colonial coins, if accompanied with the name of the legion, _but not otherwise_, show that the colony was founded by the veterans of that legion. There were also standards called _pila_, or _tufa_, consisting of bucklers heaped one above the other.

"The ancient Franks bore the tiger, wolf, &c., but soon adopted the eagle from the Romans. In the second race, they used the cross, images of saints, &c. The _fleur-de-lis_ was the distinctive attribute of the king.

"Ossian mentions the standard of the kings and chiefs of clans, and says that it (the king's) was blue studded with gold. This is not improbable, for the Anglo-Saxon ensign was very grand. It had on it _the white horse_, as the Danish was distinguished by the _raven_.

They were, however, differently formed from the modern, being parallelograms, fringed, and borne, sometimes at least, upon a stand with four wheels. A standard upon a car was, we have already seen, usual with the ancient Persians. Sir S. R. Meyrick admits that it was of Asiatic origin, first adopted by the Italians, and introduced here in the reign of Stephen. That of Stephen is fixed by the middle upon a staff, topped by a cross _pattee_ (wider at the ends than in the middle), has a cross _pattee_ itself on one wing, and three small branches shooting out from each flag. It appears from Drayton, that the main standard of Henry V. at the battle of Agincourt was borne upon a car; and the reason which he a.s.signs is, that it was too heavy to be carried otherwise. Sir S. R. Meyrick adds, that it preceded the royal presence. Edward I. had the arms of England, St. George, St. Edmond, and St. Edward, on his standards. The flag or banner in the hands of princes, upon seals, denotes sovereign power, and was a.s.sumed by many lords in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries."

We observe that the invention of standards is ascribed to the Egyptians. Layard, in "Nineveh, and its Remains," says of the standards of the a.s.syrians:--

"Standards were carried by the charioteers. In the sculptures, they have only two devices: one, a figure (probably that of the divinity) standing on a bull, and drawing a bow; the other, two bulls running in opposite directions," probably, as is stated in a note, the symbols of war and peace.

"These figures are inclosed in a circle, and fixed to the end of a long staff ornamented with streamers and ta.s.sels." Here we see the early use of pendants as emblems of supreme authority. In our own day, we frequently hear, Commodore ----'s broad pendant was hoisted on the s.h.i.+p ----. In Queen Anne's time, on the union of England and Scotland, we find the use of pendants by the s.h.i.+ps of her subjects, expressly prohibited in the following words: "_Nor any kind of pendants whatsoever_, or any other ensign than the ensign described in the side or margent hereof, which shall be worn instead of the ensign before this time [1707] usually worn in merchant vessels." In reference to the flags of the national vessels, the following language is used: "Our flags, jacks, and pendants, which, _according to ancient usage_, have been appointed to a distinction for our s.h.i.+ps." Every one will observe the distinction made in the case of the pendants, which were absolutely prohibited to the subjects. We return now to the consideration of the standards of the a.s.syrians. "The standards seem to have been partly supported by a rest in front of the chariot, and a long rod or rope connected them with the extremity of the pole. In a bas-relief of Khorsabad, this rod is attached to the top of the standard."[1]

[1] "Standards, somewhat similar to those represented on the a.s.syrian bas-reliefs, were in use in Egypt. Some sacred animal or emblem was also generally placed upon them."

The reader will have observed what Fosbroke says of the introduction into England of a standard borne on a car, that it was in imitation of the eastern nations. In the case of the Romans, the force of this habit was even more strikingly ill.u.s.trated. They at first used a bundle of bay or straw; as they extended their conquests over the neighboring colonists from Greece, and doubtless from Egypt, they a.s.sumed the wolf and other animals. The wolf, perhaps, referred to the foster-mother of Romulus. As they extended their conquests further, they borrowed the custom of the Greeks, of placing a s.h.i.+eld with the image of a warlike deity upon it on a spear, still, however, retaining the reference to the _manipulus_ in the hand, above it.

In the time of Marius, they adopted the eagle with the thunderbolt in its claws, the emblem of Jove. We are also told that different divisions had certain letters, frequently the name of the commander, inscribed on their standards. This practice was also introduced among the Romans from Greece. It was introduced among the Grecians by Alexander the Great, who observed it among the Persians and other eastern nations. Intoxicated with his triumphs, when he began to claim for himself a divine origin, he caused a standard to be prepared, inscribed with the t.i.tle of "Son of Ammon," and planted it near the image of Hercules, which, as that of his tutelary deity, was the ensign of the Grecian host. In the same way, the Franks borrowed the eagle from the Romans.

The same holds good of the dragon-standard, which, borrowed from the Dacians and other barbarians, was for a long time the standard of the Western Empire, of England, and of Normandy.

After the Crusades, however, the cross seems to have taken a prominent place on the standards and banners of European nations.

The double-headed eagle of Russia and Austria originated among the Romans, to indicate the sovereignty of the world. When the empire of the Caesars was divided into the Western and Eastern Empires, this standard continued to be used in both those divisions. From the Eastern Empire it pa.s.sed into the standard of Russia, on the marriage of Ivan I. with a Grecian princess. From the Western, with the t.i.tle of Roman Emperor, it pa.s.sed to Austria.

From the above, we cannot fail to perceive, in the past as well as in the present, the tendency, throughout the world, to imitation, in the adoption of national ensigns; also, that the adoption of a particular ensign marked some epoch in the history of the particular nation which adopted it.

Thus the various changes in the Roman standard marked the epochs of their conquest, first of the Greeks, then of the Barbarians. The adoption of the eagle by the Franks, their conquest of the Romans. The cross, the era of the Crusades. The double-headed eagle of Russia, the marriage of the Czar to the heiress of the Eastern Empire. That of Austria, the invest.i.ture of the emperors of Germany with the t.i.tle of Roman Emperor. The present union of the crosses of St. George, St.

Andrew, and St. Patrick, in the British ensign, reverting to the Crusades, in the members composing it, more directly refers to the union, first, of England and Scotland into the united kingdom of Great Britain, and more recently, to the union of the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and hence is called _The Great Union_.

The eagle of France, marked her republican era.

Having thus observed, in the adoption of ensigns by the princ.i.p.al nations of the world, the prevalence of certain general rules, viz.: A reference to their deity; the habit of imitating the ensigns of nations from which they sprung, or which they conquered; the custom of marking, by their standards, some epoch in their history; or these customs in combination, may we not expect to find, in the adoption of our National Ensign, that it is not wholly an exception to these general rules?

THE NATIONAL FLAG

OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Adopting these general principles, we find ourselves, in attempting to give a satisfactory account of the origin, adoption, and meaning of the devices embodied in the National Flag of the United States, obliged to describe the princ.i.p.al flags displayed during the Revolution, which resulted in the independence of those States; to give some account of the flags used by the colonists prior to that Revolution; and to notice, though in a cursory manner, the national flag of the mother country.

To facilitate the consideration of our subject, we shall arrange the flags, mention of which we have met with, as displayed during our Revolution, in a table, chronologically; and shall number them, according to the date of the notice of them, 1, 2, 3, 4, &c., beginning in 1774.

In this Table, we shall give their distinguis.h.i.+ng devices; noticing them, when necessary, more at length as we proceed.

TABLE OF THE ABOVE FLAGS.

1. "Union Flags."[2]--These flags are very frequently mentioned in the newspapers, in 1774, but no account is given of the devices upon them.

To establish these devices, will be one of the princ.i.p.al objects of this inquiry.

[2] Siege of Boston, Frothingham, p. 104, _note_.

2. The standard of the Connecticut troops.--A letter, dated Wethersfield, Connecticut, April 23, 1775, says: "We fix upon our standards and drums the colony arms, with the motto, '_Qui transtulit sustinet_,' round it, in letters of gold, which we construe thus: 'G.o.d, who transplanted us. .h.i.ther, will support us.'"[3] The standards of the different regiments were distinguished by their color. Act of Provincial Congress of Connecticut, July 1, 1775: "One standard for each regiment _to be distinguished by their color, as follows, viz.: for the seventh, blue; for the eighth, orange_."[4]

[3] American Archives, 4th series, vol. ii. p. 863.

[4] Ibid. p. 1582.

3. The flag unfurled by General Israel Putnam, on Prospect Hill, July 18, 1775, which is thus described in a letter, dated

"CAMBRIDGE, July 21, 1775.

"Last Sat.u.r.day, July 15, the several regiments quartered in this town being a.s.sembled upon the parade, the Rev. Dr. Langdon, President of the College, read to them 'A Declaration, by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North America now met in General Congress at Philadelphia, setting forth the causes and necessity of taking up arms.' It was received with great applause; and the approbation of the army, with that of a great number of other people, was immediately announced by three huzzas. His Excellency, the General, with several other general officers, &c., were present on the occasion."