own as the "New England Flag." "He called
it a 'noble flag,'" she said. "It was blue with the red cross of St.
George in a white corner, and in one section was a pine tree." The
artist Trumbull, who painted the picture of this battle now in the
Capitol at Washington, made the flag red instead of blue, but both
were familiar colonial flags, and there is no reason why both should
not have waved over the famous hill. Tradition says that one flag bore
the motto, "Come if you dare." General Gage is said to have had
difficulty in reading it, but maybe that was because of its audacity.
Some verses written soon after the battle say that

"Columbia's troops are seen in dread array,
And waving streamers in the air display";--

but, unluckily, the poet forgot to mention the color of those "waving
streamers." In Savannah, after the battle, but before any news of it
could have arrived, the independent Georgians hoisted a Union flag and
suggestively placed two pieces of artillery directly under it. New York
chose a white flag with a black beaver thereon. Rhode Island had also a
white flag, but with a blue anchor instead of a beaver, and a blue
canton with thirteen white stars. Her motto was "Hope." Connecticut
meant that there should be no mistake in the whereabouts of her
regiments, for she gave them flags of solid color: to the first, yellow;
the second, blue; the third, scarlet; and so on with crimson, white,
azure, another shade of blue, and orange. For a motto Connecticut chose
"Qui transtulit sustinet"; that is, "He who brought us here sustains
us." Massachusetts chose for her motto "An Appeal to Heaven." Charleston
had a blue flag with a white crescent in the upper corner next to the
staff and inscribed upon her banner the daring words, "Liberty or
Death." Later she adopted a rattlesnake flag. Her troops wore blue and
had silver crescents on the front of their caps, inscribed with the same
motto. It is small wonder that timid folk were alarmed and whispered to
one another, "That is going too far; it looks like a declaration of
war." This blue and silver flag was planned by Colonel Moultrie. When
Fort Moultrie--which received this name because of his brave
defense--was shelled the following year, the anxious folk in the town
watched with troubled faces, for it was doubtful whether the little fort
with its scant supply of ammunition could sustain the attack. Suddenly
the crescent flag fell from its staff. A groan ran th