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While the rattlesnake-and-stripes flag that currently flies on the bow of every U.S. warship has a long tradition in American flag use, its design was a 19th-century mistake based on an erroneous 1776 engraving. This paper, exploring the history of the flag that never existed, won the Driver Award in 2002.
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What flag did General Washington actually fly outside of Boston on 1 January 1776? This incisive and well-researched analysis demonstrates that the flag over Prospect Hill was more likely the British Union Flag, with the English and Scottish crosses overall, rather than the 13-striped Continental Colors as believed by historians for 150 years.
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The flag of the East India Company has been frequently cited as a possible precursor to the U.S. flag, in part based on an engraving showing it flying in Philadelphia Harbor in 1754. This incisive and well-researched analysis demonstrates that in decorating a view of the city, the artist simply lifted an image of a “Bombay Grab” from an earlier engraving—the ship and flag were never in America.
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Ten states created their own navies, separate and distinct from the Continental Navy organized by Congress, to fight the British. Categorized into “blue water,” “brown water,” and “minor” navies, they played an important role in the Revolutionary War and the development of the nation’s early flags.
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Peter Ansoff continues the debate about the flag raised on Prospect Hill during the American Revolution.
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The so-called “Pine Tree Flag”, with a white field displaying a pine tree and the “Appeal to Heaven” motto, is part of the traditional pantheon of American Revolutionary War flags. Like many such flags, its actual history has been distorted by misunderstandings and mythology. This paper examines the primary sources for the flag, and sets the flag in its historical context. In particular, it summarizes the history of the best-documented individual example of the Pine Tree Flag, and includes some related preliminary research on flags used by the Massachusetts State Navy during the Revolutionary War. A brief appendix compares the images used on modern reproductions of the flag with typical 18th-century depictions of pine trees.
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