a Continental or Grand Union Flag, or
some other device; yet there are reasons to suppose it was the Grand
Union Flag--first, because the Alfred was in the port of Philadelphia,
and we find from the record (American Archives, Vol. IV, page 179) that
the day signal of the fleets on February 17, 1776, at the Capes of the
Delaware were to be made by using the "Grand Union Flag at the mizzen
peak," which was to be lowered or hoisted according to the information
intended to be given under the code of signals furnished.

In the _Ladies' Magazine_, published in London, May 13, 1776, the writer
states that the colors of the American navy were "first a flag with a
union and thirteen stripes, and the commander's flag a yellow flag with
a rattlesnake upon it."

[Illustration: Figs. 12, 13, 14 and 15]

In the Pennsylvania _Evening Post_ of June 20, 1776, was published a
letter stating that the British cruiser Roebuck had captured two prizes
in Delaware Bay "which she decoyed by hoisting a Continental Union
Flag." There is no doubt that from July 4, 1776, until June 14, 1777, we
had as a national ensign simply a flag with thirteen stripes, as we had
declared ourselves free from the government represented by the crosses
of St. George and St. Andrew which we had hitherto on our flag, but
having upon it a snake with the motto already so often mentioned of
"Don't tread on me," and this design was used, but without any official
action being taken thereon by the General Congress (see Fig. 11); yet
from May, 1776, or June, 1776, the date fixed upon in the Ross claim,
until May, 1777, the American troops fought the following battles: June
28, 1776, Fort Moultrie. The flag in that engagement was a blue flag
with a crescent and the word "Liberty" upon it (see Fig. 12). Battle of
Long Island, August 2, 1776, the British captured a flag of red damask
with the word "Liberty" on it; September 16th, Harlem Plains, no flag
being mentioned; October 28th, the battle of White Plains, the flag
carried by the Americans was a white flag with two cross-swords on it
and the words "Liberty or death;" November 16th, surrender of Fort
Washington, no mention of a flag; December 26th, battle of Trenton,
the flags in this battle were State flags; all other claims are the
imagination of artists who apparently knew nothing of the history of
the flag; January 3d, Princeton, the same as at Trenton; January 26th,
Tryon's attack on Danbury; and yet in all these en