The Sons of Liberty organized in Boston Massachusetts to protest the Stamp Act of 1765. The idea quickly spread across the other colonies (via Twitter?) and in 1767 they adopted a flag design of 9 vertical stripes, 5 red and four white to represent the nine protesting colonies. By 1776 all 13 colonies had joined the fight for independence so this 13 stripe version became popular.
The Grand Union Flag is considered to be the first national flag of the United States. It added the British Flag to the canton (upper left corner) of the Sons of Liberty flag. The flag was first flown on the USS Alfred in Philadelphia on December 3, 1775 by Lieutenant John Paul Jones. It was used by American Forces through early 1777.
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution stating: “Resolved that the flag of the thirteen united states be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” This was our first “Stars and Stripes” flag.
An almost square version of the flag was flown by General George Washington during his winter encampment at Valley Forge. It used the arrangement of the five pointed stars of the Stars and Stripes, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3 array, for its six pointed stars. It symbolized the presence and authority of Washington as Commander in Chief.
The Gadsden Flag had its roots in a Benjamin Franklin image of a serpent cut in pieces with the segments labeled with abbreviations of the names of the colonies. It was calling for unity in opposing the French on the western frontier of the thirteen colonies. Paul Revere joined the snake’s pieces in the Massachusetts Spy, or Thomas’s Boston Journal in 1774. In 1775, some Marines boarding the USS Alfred carried drums painted in yellow with the American rattlesnake (unique in the world to our continent) with 13 rattles and the motto “Don’t Tread on Me.” Christopher Gadsden of South Caroline Sons of Liberty was on the congressional navy committee. Gadsden made the first yellow field “Don’t Tread on Me” flag and presented one to the SC state legislature and one to the first commander in chief of the US Navy, Rhode Islander Esek Hopkins.
Commodore Hopkins devised the Navy Jack combining the thirteen stripe background and the Gadsden theme.
The Culpeper Virginia militia made their flag with a version of the same theme and the “Liberty or Death” motto which Governor Patrick Henry took from his sisters and the Fincastle Resolutions.
Link to some patriot flag history
1780 iPad photographer Richard Luce
Buford! Buford! Charles Bowen was about to bury his tomahawk into Col. Benjamin Campbell’s skull because he could not remember the password. One of the Buchanan boys (probably Samuel or Robert) recognized them both and intervened.
Richard knew the password so I didn’t need to “See what Sweet Lips can do.” Marksman Samuel Young used his long rifle “Sweet Lips” for his shot at Patrick Ferguson. The rifle exhibits were at a different station on Captain Andrew Colville’s 1780 farm.
Richard Luce took his iPad to Kings Mountain and got this beautiful shot of Col. William Campbell and some Virginians during the battle. He accidentally caught Patrick Ferguson in the view at the top of the ridge.
The Muster Ground had an old fashioned Yahoo photo gallery.
A vast left wing conspiracy? Al Gore and Bill Gates prevented me from uploading the audio. You might contact Bill McCall or Trae McMaken to get a CD. With a good imagination you can hear the town crier, Rick Humphrey’s bell calling the mustering students from Garrett Jackson’s surveyor exhibit to Joella Barbour’s knitting and sewing demonstration.
Blair Keller arranged access to Ebbing Spring where the public road has been abandoned. If you can milk or clean barns, you might work to earn your toll for passage to the old Ebbing Spring Presbyterian Meeting Place. An alternate route might be to bribe Max Johnson and ford Middle Fork of the Holston.
You can click on the map link, then drag and zoom for a virtual tour.
What a great day! The assistant city manager arranged to have wonderful weather. With connections like that, we might develop the Muster Ground on a drier plot down Wolf Creek closer to the knobs near Joseph Black’s “little fort.” The children would go home with fewer souvenirs on their shoes.
Sharyn McCrumb presented her novel “King’s Mountain.” It gives us many facts and another good picture of the Kings Mountain boys and their endeavor, primarily from the viewpoint of Col. John Sevier. Her speech kept us riveted and alert and painted moving pictures in our minds just as clear as some of the paintings. When she writes the factual history book to read and understand more easily than Lyman Copeland Draper’s, she will name it “Kings Mountain” (the plural, not the possessive form) just like our Carolina cousins named a ridge above Kings Creek and a nearby town.
Sunday 24Sep1780: Imagine announcements at Sinking Spring Presbyterian Meeting Place (they were not allowed to have a church because they were not Anglicans) and at Ebbing Spring Presbyterian. “One of seven must stay home to guard the women and children. We need the rest of the militia to stop a man who says he will come over the mountain, lay waste with fire and sword, and hang the leaders.” After the benediction, imagine mothers, wives, and sisters bringing an apron load of apples and muffins for the saddle bags of their men. The British king made their children bastards because only the Anglican priest could keep official records of marriages. They wanted those bastard volunteer soldiers well fed on the other side of the mountain.
]]>Thanks to all the volunteers for a job well done.
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