A HISTORY OF THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WITH A CHRONICLE OF THE SYMBOLS, STANDARDS, FLAGS, SYMBOLS and colors enabling nations to distinguish themselves from each other have from the most remote periods exercised a powerful influence upon mankind. It is a fact well established both by sacred and profane history that a standard or ensign was borne in the armies of all nations from the most distant era. A colored banner was one of the earliest, as it was the simplest, of military ensigns. As tribes and nations multiplied, these banners naturally became particolored by stripes and other linear divisions, and finally emblazoned with the devices of the several chieftains. Thus these symbols, which during peaceful times were but trivial ornaments, became in political or religious disturbances a lever like that of Archimedes, and convulsed the world. Before commencing the memoir of the flag which this volume commemorates, I propose to notice some of the symbols, standards, and banners of other nations. History, in general, has failed to appreciate the value of these symbols, which have given ascendancy to party, and led armies to victory with more certainty and despatch than all the combinations of tactics and the most disinterested valor. We talk of the eagles of the Romans, of the contest between the crescent and the cross, and of the wars of the white and red roses; of the meteor flag of England, and of the cross of St. George; of the white plume and banner of Henry IV., and the lilies and tricolor of France; and of our own starry banner, which, said Edward Everett (May 27, 1861), "speaks for itself. Its mute eloquence needs no aid to interpret its significance. Fidelity to the Union blazes from its stars, allegiance to the government beneath which we live is wrapped in its folds." The tassels which are customarily pendent from the upper part of military banners and standards, and the fringes which surround them, have their origin in sacred emblems, which, passing from gentile, mosaic, pagan, and Christian banners and sacerdotal garments, have finally crept upon profane standards and dresses. The high-priests of Brahma, Baal, Osiris, Mithras, Jehovah, the priestesses of Vesta, Isis, Lucinia, Ceres, and Diana, were adorned with tassels, fringes, ribbons, and colors consecrated to their respective worships. When Moses had abjured the gods of Egypt, his native country, to follow the Jehovah of Midian, he wrote a ritual, bidding pomegranates of blue, of purple, and of scarlet, alternating with golden bells, to be placed about the hem of the blue robe of Aaron, to minister in the priest's office (Exodus xxviii. 31-35). The pomegranates were sometimes figured by tassels. The Mosaic law bade the Israelites to border their garments with fringes and blue ribands, as being, in their eyes, a remembrance against lusting (Numbers xv. 38, 39). Thus early was blue the emblem of purity and innocence. The Popes having wedded the Jewish and Heathen rites with the Christian worship, the Christian prelates adopted the pagan garments with tassels. Hence the warlike priests of Christ, on their return from the crusades, having assumed armorial bearings, the sacred tassels became the badge of prelacy in ecclesiastical armories. The archbishops had their shields surmounted with a green chapeau, or hat, with tassels, interlaced by several rows of cordon or strings, pendent on both sides. The green color was the symbol of a See, which never dies, or always revives as foliage regenerates. The chapeau, or cardinal's hat, with the same tassels, is of scarlet, the emblematic hue of the criminal court of the Holy Inquisition. The tassels, having passed into profane customs, became ornaments for national standards, which were often blessed by the priests, and for royal girdles or cordelieres. These were a silk or gold cord, terminating in two heavy tassels of the form of pomegranates, and a fringe, with which the royal robe of kings and queens is fastened around the waist. Our English word, FLAG, which in Danish is the same, in Swedish flagg, in German flagge, in Teutonic and Old French flacke, Icelandic flaka, Belgian flack, flak,- signifying that which hangs down loosely, is said to be derived from the early use of rushes for streamers, and also from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "to fly," because the light material of which it is made is floated or lifted by every breeze. In modern parlance, under the generic name of flag is included standards, ancients or ensigns, banners, bannerolls, pavons, colors, streamers, pennons, pennoncelles, gonfanons, guidons, coronetts or coronells (hence the title of colonel), and the like. A flag is defined by the 'London Encyclopedia' as "a small banner of distinction used in the army, and stuck in a baggage-wagon, to distinguish the baggage of one brigade from another, and of one battalion from another." It, however, properly denotes in our time the colors worn at the mastheads of national vessels to mark the rank or quality of the person commanding a squadron or fleet. The admiral of a squadron or fleet is styled the flag-officer, from the square flag hoisted at one of the mastheads of the vessel on which he is embarked, and which denotes to the rest of the fleet his presence there, and causes his ship to be designated as "the flag-ship." The first flag of Great Britain, generally known as the Royal standard, is a square flag, blazoned with the arms of the United Kingdom. When hoisted at the masthead it denotes that the sovereign, or some member of the royal family, is embarked on board the vessel; or, when hoisted on the flag-staff over a residence, wherever they may be on shore. The royal salute for this flag is twenty-one guns. The second flag, that of the lord high admiral, or of " the commissioners performing the duties of that high office," is "a crimson banner," with "an anchor argent gorged in the arm with a coronet and a cable through the ring fretted in a true lover's knot with the ends pendant." Thus it was carried by the Earl of Southampton in the reign of Henry VIII., and by the Earl of Lincoln in the time of Mary, except that he bore the stem and flukes of the anchor argent, the ring and stock or, and the cable azure. The Duke of Buckingham used the anchor with cable entwined, all or, much as it is now. In the reign. of Charles II., the Duke of York placed his arms on an anchor surmounted by his coronet. Among the first acts of Charles II., after his restoration to the throne, was one declaring his brother the Duke of York lord high admiral, on the 4th of June, 1660. The Duke, having hoisted his flag on board the Royal Charles, put to sea on the 25th of April, 1665, with a squadron of fourteen sail, besides five ships and smaller vessels, and met and defeated the fleet of Holland under Opdam on the 3d of June. On the commencement of the second Dutch war, the Duke again hoisted his flag on board the St. Michael, and engaging the great De Ruyter's ship, the St. Michael was reduced almost to a wreck, when he shifted his flag to the Royal London, and was successful. The only account we have of the flag of the lord high admiral being carried at sea by an individual not of the blood royal is in the Memoirs of Sir John Leake, which say, "The Earl of Berkeley being then (21st March, 1719) vice-admiral of Great Britain, and first lord commissioner of the admiralty, endeavored to come as near the lord high admiral as possible both in power and state; by a particular warrant from the crown he hoisted the lord high admiral's flag, and had three captains appointed under him as lord high admiral, Littleton, then vice-admiral of the white, being his first captain." The Earl of Berkeley was one of fortune's favorites. As Lord Dursley, at the age of twenty he commanded the Lichfield, 50, it being his second command. When twenty-three he commanded the Boyne, 80; at twenty-seven he was vice-admiral of the blue, and a few months afterward vice-admiral of the white; and the following year, being then only twenty-eight, vice-admiral of the red. At the age of thirty-eight he hoisted his flag on the Dorsetshire as lord high admiral, being then actually vice-admiral of England and first lord of the admiralty. He died near Rochelle, in France, Aug. 17, 1736, aged fifty-five. The lord high admiral's flag is entitled to a salute of nineteen guns. The third flag, that of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, is the Union Jack, having in the centre of the crosses a blue shield emblazoned with a golden harp. This flag is worn at the main of any ship in which his Excellency may embark within the Irish waters or in St. George's Channel, and is entitled to the same salute as that of the lord high admiral. The fourth flag, the Union, or Union Jack, in which are blended the crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick, emblematic of the United Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, is appropriated to the admiral of the fleet of the United Kingdom, and is worn at the main, and entitled to a salute of seventeen guns. Somewhere before 1692, Sir Francis Wheeler, Knt., a rear-admiral, sent to command in chief in the West Indies, was granted the privilege of wearing "the Union flag" at the maintop-masthead "as soon as he was clear of soundings. "1 Fifth in rank is the cross of St. George, a white flag with a red cross, the sign of the old crusaders, now worn by the admirals of the royal navy at the main, by vice-admirals at the fore, and by rearadmirals at the mizzen mastheads of their respective ships. Until 1864, Great Britain had admirals, and vice and rear admirals of the 1 Schomberg's Naval Chronology, vol. v. p. 227. red, white, and blue. By an act of Parliament of that year, the red ensign was given up to the use of the merchant marine, the blue ensign assigned to merchant and packet ships commanded by the officers of the newly organized naval reserve or naval militia, and the white ensign alone reserved for the royal navy. The salute of an admiral in the royal navy is fifteen, of a vice-admiral thirteen, and of a rear-admiral eleven guns. Merchant vessels frequently carry small flags at their mastheads, bearing the arms, monograms, or devices of their owners or commanders, or designating the province or port to which the vessel belongs. The flag of the President of the United States, hoisted at the main, and denoting his presence on board a vessel of war, is appropriately the National Ensign, the flag of the sovereign people of whom he is the popular representative, and from whom he derives power and authority. The Vice-President and members of the Cabinet (the Secretary of the Navy excepted) are also designated by the national flag worn at the fore during their presence on board a vessel of war, and it always floats at the Capitol over the Senate-Chamber and House of Representatives whenever those bodies are in session, a custom followed in all or most of the States of the Union whenever their legislative bodies are in session. A special mark for the Secretary of the Navy, established in 1866, was a square blue flag having a white foul anchor placed vertically in the centre with four white stars surrounding it, one in each corner of the flag. By an order dated 1869, this flag became obsolete, and the Union Jack was ordered to be hoisted at the main whenever he embarked on board a vessel of the navy; but the flag of 1866 was restored by another order on the 4th of July, 1876. The first rear-admiral's flag in our navy was a plain blue flag, such as had been used by the rank of flag-officer before the introduction of admirals to the service. This flag was, by law, required to be worn. at the main by the three senior rear-admirals, at the fore by the next three in seniority, and at the mizzen by the three junior rear-admirals, and was first hoisted at the main on board the Hartford, in 1862, by Rear-Admiral Farragut, who had previously, as flag-officer, carried it at the fore.1 The absurdity of a rear-admiral's wearing his flag at 1 I have in my possession this flag, which was worn by Flag-Officer Farragut at the passage of the forts below New Orleans, and hoisted on the Hartford on his promotion to rear-admiral. Later, the two stars were added to it. The admiral presented the flag to Lieut. D. G. McRitchie, U.S.N., who gave it to me in 1875. |