was a red flag, with this
motto on one side, and on the other, the words inscribed, "An appeal to
Heaven." That of the floating batteries was a white ground with the same
"Appeal to Heaven" upon it. It is supposed that at Bunker Hill our
troops carried a red flag, with a pine tree on a white field in the
corner. The first flag in South Carolina was blue, with a crescent in
the corner, and received its first baptism under Moultrie. In 1776, Col.
Gadsen presented to Congress a flag to be used by the navy, which
consisted of a rattle-snake on a yellow ground, with thirteen rattles,
and coiled to strike. The motto was, "Don't tread on me." "The Great
Union Flag," as described above, without the crosses, and sometimes with
the rattle-snake and motto, "Don't tread on me," was used as a naval
flag, and called the "Continental Flag."

As the war progressed, different regiments and corps adopted peculiar
flags, by which they were designated. The troops which Patrick Henry
raised and called the "Culpepper Minute Men," had a banner with a
rattle-snake on it, and the mottoes, "Don't tread on me," and "Liberty
or death," together with their name. Morgan's celebrated riflemen,
called the "Morgan Rifles," not only had a peculiar uniform, but a flag
of their own, on which was inscribed, "XI. Virginia Regiment," and the
words, "Morgan's Rifle Corps." On it was also the date, 1776, surrounded
by a wreath of laurel. Wherever this banner floated, the soldiers knew
that deadly work was being done.

When the gallant Pulaski was raising a body of cavalry, in Baltimore,
the nuns of Bethlehem sent him a banner of crimson silk, with emblems on
it, wrought by their own hands. That of Washington's Life Guard was made
of white silk, with various devices upon it, and the motto, "Conquer or
die."

It doubtless always will be customary in this country, during a war, for
different regiments to have flags presented to them with various devices
upon them. It was so during the recent war, but as the stars and stripes
supplant them all, so in our revolutionary struggle, the "Great Union
Flag," which was raised in Cambridge, took the place of all others and
became the flag of the American army.

But in 1777, Congress, on the 19th day of June, passed the following
resolution: "_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