January, 1776, over the camp at Cambridge. General Washington, writing to Joseph Reed on the 4th of January, says: "We are at length favored with the sight of his Majesty's most gracious speech, breathing sentiments of tenderness and compassion for his deluded American subjects; the speech I send you (a volume of them was sent out by the Boston gentry), and, farcical enough, we gave great joy to them without knowing or intending it, for on that day (the 2d) which gave being to our new army, but before the proclamation came to hand, we hoisted the union flag in compliment to the United Colonies. But, behold! it was received at Boston as a token of the deep impression the speech had made upon us, and as a signal of submission.

"By this time I presume they begin to think it strange that we have not made a formal surrender of our lines."

An anonymous letter, written Jan. 2, 1776, says: "The grand union flag of thirteen stripes was raised on a height near Boston. The regulars did not understand it; and as the king's speech had just been read, as they supposed, they thought the new flag was a token of submission."

The captain of a British transport, writing from Boston to his owners in London, Jan. 17, 1776, says: "I can see the rebels' camp very plain, whose colors, a little while ago, were entirely red; but on the receipt of the king's speech, which they burnt, they hoisted the union flag, which is here supposed to intimate the union of the provinces."

The British Annual Register' says, "They burnt the king's speech, and changed their colors from a plain red ground, which they had hitherto used, to a flag with thirteen stripes, as a symbol of the union and number of the colonies."

A letter from Boston, in the 'Pennsylvania Gazette,' says: "The grand union flag was raised on the 2d, in compliment to the United Colonies." A British lieutenant, writing from Charlestown Heights, Jan. 25, 1776, mentions the same fact, and adds: "It was saluted with thirteen guns and thirteen cheers."

Botta, in his 'History of the American Revolution,' derived from contemporary documents, writes: "The hostile speech of the king at the meeting of Parliament had arrived in America, and copies of it were circulated in the camp. It was announced there, also, that the first petition of Congress had been rejected. The whole army manifested the utmost indignation at this intelligence; the royal speech was burnt in public by the infuriated soldiers. They changed at this time the red ground of their banners, and striped them with thirteen lists, as an emblem of their number, and the union of the colonies."

Two and a half months after this grand union flag raising at Cambridge, the flag was displayed for the first time in the streets of Boston. The occupation of Dorchester Heights compelled the evacuation of Roxbury, and on the afternoon of March 17, 1776, a detachment of Americans, under Colonel Ebenezer Learned, pushed its way through the crow's-feet and other obstacles thickly strewn in its path, and unbarred the gates of the deserted stronghold. The flag was borne by Ensign Richards, and the troops were accompanied by General Ward.1

We have contemporary evidence enough as to the time and place when "the grand union striped flag" was first unfurled; but it will be observed there is no mention of the color of the stripes placed on the previously red flag, or the character of its union, or other than presumptive evidence that it had a union.

Hinman states, in his 'Connecticut in the Revolution,' that "the red ground of the American flag was altered to thirteen blue and white stripes, as an emblem of the thirteen colonies in war for liberty," but does not give his authority for the statement.

Bancroft, in his 'History of the United States,' describes this flag as "the tricolored American banner, not yet spangled with stars, but showing thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, in the field, and the united crosses of St. George and St. Andrew on a blue ground in the corner."

I am informed by Benson J. Lossing, the eminent American historian, that he furnished Mr. Bancroft with the statement, having found among the papers of Major-General Philip Schuyler, and having in his

possession, a water-color sketch of the Royal Savage, one of the little fleet on Lake Champlain, in the summer and winter of 1776, commanded by Benedict Arnold. This drawing is known to be the Royal Savage, being indorsed, in the handwriting of General Schuyler, as Captain Wynkoop's schooner, and Captain, or rather Colonel, Wynkoop is known to have commanded her at that time. There is no date on the drawing, but it may be considered as settling what were the characteristic features of

1 Drake's History of Roxbury, 1878.

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the new flag. At the head of the maintop-mast of the schooner there is a flag precisely like the one described by Bancroft, and it is the only known contemporaneous drawing of it extant. Through the kindness of Mr. Lossing, I am able to give a fac-simile, in size and shape, of this interesting drawing.

In September, 1776, the continental brig Reprisal, 16 guns, commanded by Captain Lambert Wickes, while lying at Martinique, wore a flag of thirteen stripes, whose field was white and yellow.

In General Arnold's sailing orders for the fleet, he prescribes hoisting the ensign at the main topmast head as the signal for speaking with the whole fleet, and the same at the fore, for chasing a sail.

The red union ensign had been familiarly known for nearly seventy years, and nothing would more naturally suggest itself to a people not yet prepared to entirely sever their connection with the parent government than to utilize the old flag, and distinguish their emblem of the new union from the old in this simple manner, rather than seek further for new devices.

The flag adopted resembled, if it was not exactly the counterpart of, the flag of the English East India Company then in use, and which continued the flag of that company, with trifling variations, until its sovereign sway and empire in the East for over two hundred years was, in 1834, merged in that of Great Britain.1

1 The East India Company's Ensigns. - This company, whose first charter was granted Dec. 31, 1600, by Queen Elizabeth to "George, Earl of Cumberland, and two hundred and fifteen knights, aldermen, and merchants, that at their own costs and charges might set forth one or more voyages to the East Indies," &c., bore as a crest to their armorial ensigns a sphere without a frame, bound with a zodiac in bend or, between two split florant argents, each charged with a cross gules; on the sphere the words "Deus indicet;" on the shield with other devices were three ships rigged under full sail, pennants and ensign being argent, and each charged with the same cross gules. The pennants were long, tapering, and split at the end, while the ensigns were perfectly square.

It is not probable that the East India Company were entitled to bear on their ships any particular distinguishing flag in the early years of its history, since the royal procla

mation of James I., issued April 12, 1606, ordered "all subjects of the isle and kingdom of Great Britain, and the members thereof, to bear in their maintop the union flag, being the red cross of St. George and the white cross (saltire) of St. Andrew, joined upon a blue ground."

At what date a striped flag was adopted by the East India Company is not evident. A contemporary print, preserved in the British Museum, representing the Puritans in 1644, under Sir Robert Harlow, or Harley, destroying the cross in Cheapside, exhibits several flags, one of which bears two red stripes on a white field, and the St. George's cross on a white canton, which extends over the first two stripes.

In 1681, the renewal of the charter of the company by Charles II. vested in it the power and authority to make peace or war with any nation not being Christians, and six years later it was ordered the king's union flag should be always used at the Fort St. George.

In 1698, a new company was established by act of Parliament, which soon, however, became incorporated with the former. Its arms were argent, a cross gules in the dexter chief quarter, an escutcheon of the arms of France and England quarterly, crest, two lions rampant, gardant or, each supporting a banner crest argent charged with a cross gules.

"The Present State of the Universe,' fourth edition, London, 1704, by J. Beaumont, Jr., gives as the East India Company's ensign a flag with thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white, with a St. George's cross on a white canton, which rests upon the fourth red stripe. In the 'Dominion and Laws of the Sea,' published in London in 1705, the East India Company's flag is pictured with but ten stripes.

In a Dutch work on ship-building by Carl Allard, published in Amsterdam the same year, the East India Company's flag has but nine stripes.

In 'La Connoissance des Pavillons ou Bannières que la plupart des Nations,' published à La Haye, 1737, there are represented many striped flags, among them :

Pavillon d'escadre, de Division des Vaisseaux Ecossois, which has eleven stripes, alternate red and white, with the white canton and red cross resting on the third red stripe. Pavillon de Rotterdam, which has eleven stripes, alternate white and green.

Pavillon de Breme, which has a head of red and white squares the whole width of the flag, and nine stripes, alternate red and white.

Pavillon d'Enchase Norte Hollande, which has thirteen stripes, yellow and red.

Pavillon de Rang ou de Division d'escadre [English] has thirteen stripes, red and white, with St. George's cross in a canton argent.

The East India Company's flag has nine stripes, red and white, with the white canton and red cross resting on the third red stripe.

The East India Company's flag, in 1834, was cantoned with the union jack of the United Kingdom, and its field was composed of thirteen alternate red and white stripes, seven red and six white; the central red stripe rather wider than the others, and crossed by a perpendicular red stripe or bar, forming a St. George's cross. It was the white St. George ensign, with the addition of six red bars or stripes across its field.