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East Haddam Revolutionary Heroes
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Flags of the Revolution
The Betsy Ross Flag is now the most recognizable flag of the time, but there were many other important and meaningful flags used to display our patriotism.
Flags of England
Saint George
This is the Red Ensign flag of the new “Kingdom of Great Britain"
The flag was flown by ships of the Thirteen Colonies in North America before the American Revolution. Modification of the flag was used to express the discontent of the colonists before and during the outbreak of the revolution.
The Kings Colors Flag is one of the military colors used by British colonial troops after 1743. As the British Union Flag, it was the standard raised by the Jamestown settlers in 1607. The design originated when King James I of England combined the St. George Cross with the Scottish Cross of St. Andrew.
Saint Andrew
Flags Against England
The Taunton flag was one of the first flags used within the Thirteen Colonies to express dissension against the Crown. The flag was first adopted on 21 October 1774 after the Sons of Liberty had forced out American Loyalists from Taunton, MA.
Reverend Caleb Barnum proposed a plan for a symbol of opposition to the Crown and support for American independence. In commemoration, the Patriots erected a liberty pole, 112 feet (34 m) high, outside of the Taunton Courthouse and the house of Tory Loyalist lawyer Daniel Leonard. On it, they raised the Red Ensign with the words “Liberty and Union" sewn onto it.
The Sons of Liberty kept track of British troop movements, rode in secret missions to warn when General Gage was sending troops to confiscate arms and powder, and organized help for Boston when the Intolerable Acts closed Boston Harbor. Their original flag was made up of nine vertical stripes which represented the Loyal Nine. These nine men were the founders of the Sons of Liberty in 1765. The Loyal Nine were even more secret than the Sons of Liberty. They were John Avery, Henry Bass (a cousin of Samuel Adams), Thomas Chase, Stephen Cleverly, Thomas Crafts, Benjamin Edes, Joseph Field, John Smith, and George Trott.
The flag became known as the “Rebellious Stripes” and it was outlawed by the Crown. The Colonists then merely switched the stripes to horizontal and kept using it. Eventually, they added more stripes to equal 13.
Flags of Continental Union
With the appearance of the Continental Flag, British emblems were entirely eliminated from the Colonial Banner for the first time. In its original form it has a red field and a plain white canton. At the time, there was no distinctive symbol available. A pine tree on a white field was symbolic of many qualities in the lives of our New England ancestors. Simple, austere, and bearing a stately dignity, it fittingly expressed the ideas and trends of the times. It proclaimed the patriot’s love for his homeland with its pine-clad hills. And so it was that the pine tree emblem came into general use when placed in the canton of the Continental Flag.
It became one of the series of the Pine Tree Flags. It is claimed that the Continental Flag with a red field and the pine tree on the white canton, was one of the banners carried by the American troops, who, on June 17, 1775, fought against the British at Bunker Hill and three times stopped the British charge.
The Grand Union Flag was the first unofficial national flag of the United States of America. First hoisted on December 3, 1775, by naval officer John Paul Jones, the flag was used heavily by the Second Continental Congress of the United States, and by George Washington. It was flown over George Washington’s headquarters at Cambridge on January 1, 1776.
By the end of 1775, the Second Continental Congress operated as a de facto war government, who had authorized the creation of the Continental Army, the Continental Navy, and even a small contingent of Continental Marines. A new flag was needed to represent both the Congress and the United Colonies, with a banner distinct from the British Red Ensign flown from civilian and merchant vessels, the White Ensign of the Royal Navy, and the Flag of Great Britain carried on land by the British army. This flag is a hybrid of the British Red Ensign and the Sons of Liberty flag, giving a clear message of defiance to the King.
Regiment Specific Flags
The 2nd Continental Light Dragoons, also known as Sheldon's Horse after Colonel Elisha Sheldon, was commissioned by the Continental Congress on 12 December 1776, and was first mustered at Wethersfield, Connecticut, in March 1777 for service with the Continental Army. The regiment consisted of four troops from Connecticut, one troop each largely from Massachusetts and New Jersey, and two companies of light infantry.
They also earned the sobriquet “Washington's Eyes", likely because of their spy work. Major Benjamin Tallmadge of this Regiment became a spy master who ran one of the most successful spy rings of the war and was able to infiltrate the British military command in New York City.
The Regiment’s motto “PATa CONCITa FULMnt NATI" roughly translates as: “The fatherland calls its sons to respond in tones of thunder."
This is the flag of Colonel Samuel B. Webb’s Connecticut Regiment of 1777. Later it was redesignated the 9th Connecticut Regiment of 1780, and finally consolidated into the 3rd Regiment of 1781.
Each Company used the same regimental flag. The Roman Numeral indicates the First Company.
George Washington's Flags
The personal position flag of our first president and finest general, George Washington, first flown at Valley Forge, used to denote his whereabouts and the Headquarters of the Continental Army. Featuring 13 unique six-pointed stars, the flag uses a lighter blue background thought to be favored by Washington for his personal use.
In 1776, General Washington had four soldiers hand-picked from each regiment of the Continental Line to form the “Commander-in-Chief's Guards" or “Washington’s Life Guards." The Guards were under the command of Major Caleb Gibbs. The Guards not only protected General Washington but were at times involved in military operations. They served General Washington until the unit disbanded shortly after Yorktown.
The flag is white silk, on which the device is neatly painted. One of the Guard is seen holding a horse and is in the act of receiving a flag from the Genius of Liberty, who is personified as a woman leaning upon the Union shield, near which is the American eagle. The motto of the corps, “CONQUER OR DIE," is upon a ribbon.
Naval Flags
This the Connecticut Privateer Ensign. During the American Revolution, Connecticut was one of ten states that had their own navies.
Many East Haddam men participated in privateering, the state sanctioned practice of capturing enemy ships. Privateering gave privately owned United States ships permission to capture British ships to cut off their supply lines and furnish our Navy with needed vessels and supplies. Once a ship was captured, it was brought to the nearest friendly port where the ship owner, captain and crew all benefited financially from the seized cargo.
A jack is a flag flown from a short jackstaff at the bow (front) of a vessel that is moored or anchored, while the ensign is flown on the stern (rear).
In late 1775, as the first ships of the Continental Navy readied in the Delaware River, Commodore Esek Hopkins issued an instruction directing his vessels to fly a “striped" jack and ensign. The exact design of these flags is unknown, but, since about 1880, this jack has traditionally been depicted as consisting of thirteen red and white stripes charged with an uncoiled rattlesnake and the motto “Dont Tread on Me".
Early National Flags
In 1777, the Flag Resolution came into effect where guidelines for our national flag were decided. Each flag had to have thirteen red and white stripes and a blue canton with thirteen white stars.
This flag is a version of the American flag associated with the Battle of Bennington, from which it derives its name. Like many Revolution era flags, the Bennington features 13 stars and 13 stripes, symbolic of the 13 American colonies. This version is easily identified by a large “76" in the canton, recalling the year 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Another distinctive feature of the Bennington flag is the arrangement of the 13 stripes, with white being outermost (rather than red being outermost as in most US flags). Also, its stars have seven points each (instead of the now-standard five points) and the blue canton is taller than on other flags, spanning nine instead of seven of the thirteen stripes.
One legend claims that the original Bennington flag was carried off the field by Nathaniel Fillmore and passed down through the Fillmore family, and was, at one time, in the possession of President Millard Fillmore, Nathaniel's grandson.
This adaptation of the flag is attributed to John Trumbull, the second personal aide to General Washington during the war who later became a prominent painter. This flag appears in Trumbull’s 1828 painting, “Surrender of Lord Cornwallis”. It is unclear if this flag was actually present at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, which the painting depicts.
In July of 1775 a company of Long Island minutemen under the command of Captain John Hulbert moved to Fort Ticonderoga to assist in the campaign to liberate the Champlain Valley. According to legend, this flag was made either in Long Island before Hulbert's company left for Ticonderoga, or during the campaign in the Champlain Valley.
The Cowpens flag, or 3rd Maryland flag, is an early version of the United States flag that meets the congressional requirements of the Flag Resolution of 1777. Like the Betsy Ross flag, the white stars are arranged in a circle on a blue field; but the circle consists of just 12 stars, with the 13th star in the center.
It was said to have been carried by William Batchelor of the 3rd Maryland Regiment at the Battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781, and this arrangement of stars has come to be known as the “3rd Maryland design."
Betsy Ross would often tell her children, grandchildren, relatives, and friends of a fateful day, late in May of 1776, when three members of a secret committee from the Continental Congress came to call upon her. Those representatives, George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross asked her to sew the first flag. George Washington was then the head of the Continental Army. Robert Morris, an owner of vast amounts of land, was perhaps the wealthiest citizen in the Colonies. Colonel George Ross was a respected Philadelphian and also the uncle of her late husband, John Ross.
Naturally, Betsy Ross already knew George Ross as she had married his nephew. Betsy was also acquainted with the great General Washington. Not only did they both worship at Christ Church in Philadelphia, but Betsy's pew was next to George and Martha Washington's pew. Her daughter recalled that Betsy was “previously well acquainted with Washington, and that he had often been in her house in friendly visits, as well as on business”, also that she “had embroidered ruffles for his shirt bosoms and cuffs, and that it was partly owing to his friendship for her that she was chosen to make the flag."