“Newbern, N. C., Feb. 9, 1776.
“By a gentleman from Philadelphia, we have received the pleasing account of the actual sailing from that place of the first American fleet that ever swelled their sails on the western ocean in defense of the rights and liberties of the people of these Colonies, now suffering under the persecuting rod of the British ministry, and their more than brutish tyrants in America. This fleet consists of five sail, fitted out from Philadelphia, which are to be joined at the capes of Virginia by two ships more from Maryland, and is commanded by Admiral Hopkins, a most experienced and venerable sea captain. The admiral’s ship is called the Columbus, after Christopher Columbus, thirty-six guns, 12 and 9-pounders, on two decks, forty swivels and five hundred men. The second ship is called the Cabot, after Sebastian Cabot, who completed the discoveries of America made by Columbus, and mounts thirty-two guns. The others are smaller vessels, from twenty-four to fourteen guns. They sailed from Philadelphia amidst the acclamations of many thousands assembled on the joyful occasion, under the display of a Union flag with thirteen stripes in a field, emblematical of the thirteen united colonies; but, unhappily for us, the ice in the river Delaware as yet obstructs the passage down; but the time will now soon arrive when this fleet must come to action. Their destination is a secret, but generally supposed to be against the ministerial governors, those little petty tyrants that have lately spread fire and sword throughout the Southern colonies. For the happy success of this little fleet three millions of people offer their most earnest supplications to heaven.” See American Archives, 4th series, Vol. IV, page 964; also Cooper’s Naval History as to who named the vessels. John Adams claimed that honor. See American Archives, 4th series, Vol. IV, p. 964.
The fleet made a descent upon New Providence, and, after capturing the place and taking away a large quantity of munitions of war and stores, it left and coasted along the coast from Cape Cod to Cape Charles, making many captures. On the 17th of April, 1776, occurred the first engagement between an English war vessel and a commissioned American war vessel. The English vessel was the brig Edward, mounting sixteen four-pounders, and, by a strange coincidence, the American vessel was the Lexington, Captain Barry. It was at Lexington on land in April, 1775, the first shot was fired by Americans, and it was from the Lexington at sea that the first broadside was delivered at the “Wooden Walls” of old England. The fight resulted in the capture of the British vessel.
No one can tell in the absence of a record the name of the vessel to first fly the Stars and Stripes. Paul Jones claimed it for the Alliance; but in Cooper’s life of Paul Jones, page 31, occurs the following. Speaking of Jones’ claim, he says:
“He may have been mistaken. He always claimed to have been the first man to hoist the flag of 1775 (the Grand Union) in a national ship, and the first man to show the present ensign (the Stars and Stripes) on board of a man-of-war. This may be true or not. There was a weakness about the character of the man that rendered him a little liable to self-delusions of this nature; and while it is probable he was right as to the flag which was shown before Philadelphia on the Alfred (the Grand Union) the place where Congress was sitting, it is by no means as reasonable to suppose that the first of the permanent flags (Stars and Stripes) was shown at a place as distant as Portsmouth. The circumstances are of no moment, except as they serve to betray a want of simplicity of character, that was rather a failing with the man, and his avidity for personal distinction of every sort.”
To corroborate Cooper I have only to state that Jones’ claim is absurd when, as a matter of fact, the Alliance was not launched until 1777, and Jones did not command her until 1779, when, as a matter of course, she must have carried the Stars and Stripes (see MacKensie’s Life of Jones, Vol. 1, pages 252 and 253). Much to our regret, as lovers of our country, we must admit that the first American flag (the Grand Union) displayed on any of the lakes was by that arch traitor, Benedict Arnold, on the Royal Savage. He had command of the fleet on Lake Champlain in the winter of 1776—
A man who died without a flag, without a
country, without love, without respect.
The first British man-of-war to enter an American port after the Revolution was the Alligator, Capt. Isaac Coffin. He entered the harbor of Boston on the 2d day of May, 1791. He saluted the American flag on the fort by firing thirteen guns, which was returned. A full report of this occurrence is to be found in the Columbian Sentinel of May 3d, 1791.
The first ship to enter a British port after peace had been declared flying the American flag was the ship Bedford, of Nantucket, Capt. William Mooers. She entered the Thames in February, 1783, and proceeded up to London. She was loaded with whale oil. The first publication of the terms of the treaty of peace was on the 28th day of January, 1783, the treaty itself having been made in November, 1782.
The first time the American flag was ever displayed over conquered territory outside of the United States was on the 27th day of April, 1805, during the war between this country and Tripoli, when, after the capture of the Tripolitan fortress at Derne, it was hoisted by Lieutenant Bannon and a Mr. Mann. This flag has fifteen stripes and fifteen stars, and was exhibited at a celebration on the 4th of July, 1820, at Brumfield, Massachusetts.