Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New Jersey

Entire collection on display at Fort Delaware, Narrowsburg, NY, July 14th & 15th, 2007

The rattlesnake was a favorite device with the Colonists, and its origin as an American emblem is a curious feature of our national history. Although no original of this flag exists, the flag of the South Carolina Navy was depicted in the background of a 1776 English mezzotint of "Commodore Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief of the American Fleet", by Thomas Hart, 22 August 1776.

Raised principally in the Baltimore, MD area, this banner was made for and presented to the brave Count Pulaski by the Moravian sisters at Bethlehem, PA after he raised and organized an independent corps of sixty-eight horse and two hundred foot soldiers in Baltimore in 1778. Pulaski received the banner gratefully and bore it gallantly through many battles until he fell at Savannah, GA in the autumn of 1779. The banner was saved by his lieutenant and eventually reached Baltimore.

This flag, of thirteen alternate yellow and black stribes, sometimes varIn September, 1775, two strong floating batteries were launched on the Charles River, Massachusetts, and in the following month opened fire on the enemy at Boston. Their ensign used was a pine tree.

The flag, described in a letter dated March 8, 1776 from Prospect Hill by Lieutenant-Colonel Hand to James Yeates, of Lancaster, PA, was carried by the regiment through the Revolution in all of its skirmishes and battles, from Boston (1775) to Yorktown (1781).

This canton is the earliest known insance of the thirteen stripes being used on an American flag. In the center of the flag is a blue shield bearing a golden knot from which radiate thirteen golden scrolls like the ends of as many strips of ribbon, a very early example of the idea expressed by the motto: "E pluribus unum".

Only portions of this historic flag remain. As a result, there is much debate as to just what this flag represents, or when it was first flown. The recorded history of the flag begins in 1909 when it was presented to the Grand Masonic Lodge of North Carolina. It was transferred to the State of North Carolina in 1914.

There is disagreement as to the age of the flag. The use of cotton for the blue stripes, the canton and stars indicate that it dates to the early 19th century.