Thirteen Star Flag (Bennington Flag)
Bicentennial Flag Memorial
With the signing of the Declaration of Indepenence, the Grand Union was automatically promoted to the status of a national banner and at the same time rendered obsolete. The British ties were snapped and the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George in the canton of the Grand Union became an anachronism, as well as an infuriating reminder of the oppressive British government. After much discussion and delay, a more appropriate flag, the Stars and Stripes, was adopted on June 14, 1777.
This first Flag Act only provided "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 constellation..." The actual composition of the design features or the designer was not specified. In American folklore Betsy Ross is most often mentioned as the designer of the first Stars and Stripes for George Washington. But a more historically accurate view is that numerous versions of the Stars and Stripes were flown during the Revolutionary War; that no such official thirteen-star flags were delivered to General Washington until 1783; and that the Bennington Flag was the first of the stars and stripes.
Courtesy hmdb.org
