PLATE VI.
| 1 Grand Union 1776 |
| 2 United States 1777 |
| 3 United States 1909 |
There is no direct evidence as to the flag which had been raised by General Putnam at the outbreak of hostilities at Bunker Hill, June 17th, 1775, but tradition reports[107] that it was the ensign of the colony of New England (37), which, like the East India ensign, had the St. George's cross on a white ground in the upper corner; but the whole fly of the flag was red.
In the selection of a new flag for the combined forces of the united colonies, what design could be more reasonable or more appropriate than the selection of that Union Jack under which their united armies had so often fought, together with the addition of thirteen stripes to indicate the number of colonies then assembled together?
This retention of the Union Jack in the new flag was designedly intended to signify that the American colonies retained their allegiance to their Motherland of Great Britain, although they were contesting the methods of taxation promulgated by its Government.
By this flag the thirteen colonies testified that, though in arms, they still claimed to be Britons, and were demanding for themselves all the rights of citizenship which such relation conferred.
It was, as one of their orators has well said, "the flag of the British colonies in arms to secure the rights and liberties of British subjects."[108]
The first Union flag raised by Washington over the armies of the united colonies thus displayed the British Union Jack.
Another flag (40) bearing the Union Jack is still extant.[109] It is a crimson red flag, having a rattlesnake painted upon it, and in the upper corner is the Union Jack of 1707. This was carried by a regiment of the colony of Pennsylvania, and was used at the Battle of Trenton, December 26th, 1776, and in subsequent engagements with the British regular forces.