sian officer to have been
a red damask standard, bearing the word "Liberty" in its centre.
Colonel Joseph Read's Massachusetts Continentals carried a flag with a
light buff ground, on which there was the device of a pine-tree and
Indian-corn, emblematical of New-England fields. Two officers were
represented in the uniform of the regiment, one of whom, with blood
streaming from a wound in his breast, pointed to children under the
pine, with the words, "For posterity I bleed."[92]

[Footnote 91: When it was proposed to put the Boston army on the new
Continental basis on January 1st, 1776, Washington evidently hoped to
have it all uniformed. Thus his orders of December 11th, 1775, read:
"As uniformity and decency in dress are essentially necessary in the
appearance and regularity of an army, his Excellency recommends it
earnestly to the officers to put themselves in a proper uniform....
The general by no means recommends or desires officers to run into
costly or expensive regimentals; no matter how plain or coarse, so
that they are but uniform in their color, cut, and fashion. The
officers belonging to those regiments whose uniforms are not yet fixed
upon had better delay making their regimentals until they are." The
orders of January 5th, 1776, say: "The regimentals, which have been
made up, and drawn for, may be delivered to the respective Colonels,
by the Quartermaster-General, to the order of those Colonels, who drew
them at such prices as they have cost the continent, which is much
cheaper than could otherwise be obtained. As nothing adds more to the
appearance of a man than dress, and a proper degree of cleanliness in
his person, the General hopes and expects that each regiment will
contend for the most soldierlike appearance." These "regimentals" were
of a brown color. That Little's and Hitchcock's men, or most of them,
were in uniform when they came to New York, appears from General
Greene's Providence order of April 4th (_ante_, p. 62). A description
of the colors of Colonel Joseph Read's Massachusetts Continental
regiment refers to the "uniform of the regiment;" so doubtless most of
the Boston army was in uniform. But whether they were kept supplied
with uniforms may be doubted. The men wore out their clothes fast
while throwing up the works, and Washington speaks of the "difficulty
and expense" of providing new ones. (Orders, July 24th, 1776.) At this
date he does not insist on uniforms, but recommends the adopt