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Show jp . v ; ii - - VJ , - r fig -ejifess-- 1 Reproduction of the famous painting paint-ing by Henry Mosler. The British, evacuating New York after the York-town York-town surrender, nailed the British flag to the flagstaff at the Battery and then greased the pole. A barefoot sailor boy volunteered to climb up, take down the enemy flag and nail the American flag to the pole. From "The Winning of Freedom," in the "Pageant of America," Yale University Press, c , By ELMO SCOTT WATSON jjjgALL it the Star-Spangled M f f' Bauuor- 0Id Goi'y. the , w f j. Stars and Stripes, or the 1 .J- Ked' Wllite and Blue-'jpSS' Blue-'jpSS' Call it the National Stand-ard, Stand-ard, the Starry Flag, the j)i&'lJJ Flag of the Free, the Banner Ban-ner of Freedom, the Rainbow Rain-bow of Hope, or the "Colors." They nil mean the same, for they all refer to the Flag, the symbol of the United , States of America, and June 14 of each year is Flag day, a day for honoring the Flag. How did it get all of those names? They are a part of the story of Old Glory, the story of one of the oldest national standards of the world with its century and a half of thrilling incident in-cident and history-making events'. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental congress in session at Philadelphia passed a resolution which stated that the flag of the United States should be "thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be thirteen 6tars, white in a blue field, representing represent-ing a new constellation." And that is why we call the Flag the Stars and Stripes or the Red, White and Blue. . On the night of September 12, 1S14. Francis Scott Keyr a young lawyer, was detained upon board a British man-of-war, which was bombarding Fort Mcllenry, the principal defense of Baltimore and the national capital, "Washington, D. C. All night long the guns of the British fleet roared, and oil night long the fort answered with such artillery as could reach thc enemy. en-emy. As the dawn of September 13 broke, Key strained his eyes to see If the fort still held out or if its guns tad been silenced. When he saw that "our flag was still there," he sat down and on the back of an old envelope expressed in a poem his great joy that "the Star-Spangled Banner doth wave, O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." His poem, set to mus'ie, became the national anthem, and the Stars and Stripes became the Star-Spangled Banner. On August 10, 1831, Capt. William Driver of the brig fliarles Doggett, ready to sail his ship to the South Seas, was presented with a fine new American flag, a magnificent banner containing 110 yards of bunting. As it was hoisted over the ship, the captain cap-tain named it "Old Glory," and Old Glory, the American flag has been ever since. The reason for the other names vestigated the subject, that the Fort Stanwix flag was a tricolor of red, white and blue stripes, and not red and white stripes with a blue field upon up-on which appeared stars. In fact so far as documentary evidence is concerned, con-cerned, there is no mention of stars', so that it now seems certain that the Fort Stanwix flag was neither the "first 'Stars and Stripes to face the enemy," nor the "first Stars and Stripes to be hoisted over an American fort." There are at least two other occa sions1 upon which it has been asserted that the Stars and Stripes were first carried into batttle, and therefore "first faced the enemy." The usual statement is that this first occurred at the Battle of Brandywine on September Septem-ber 11, 1777. But this is disputed by the citizens of Delaware who declare that this took place at the only Revolutionary Revo-lutionary engagement fought in that state, and that was eight days- before Brandywine. A monument declaring tmat "The Stars and Stripes were first unfurled in battle at Cooch's bridge September 3, 1777," was erected there in 1901 as proof of their belief. But New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware are not the only states which claim that honor. Vermont also al-so claims it and apparently she has the strongest evidence that has yet been brought forth to support the claim. Researches made by John Spargo, president of the Vermont Historical His-torical society, have revealed the fact that when John Stark defeated the British and Hessians at the famous Battle of Bennington on August 10. 1777, his men fought under an American Amer-ican flag that was made of thirteen red-and-white stripes and a field of blue upon which appeared thirteen white stars' aranged in the form of a circle. That flag is preserved in the Bennington battle museum and the evidence in support of the fact that "the Stars and Stripes first faced the enemy" and that "Old Glory received its first baptism of fire" at the Battle of Bennington on August 16, 1777, more than a year before Cooch's Bridge or Brandywine, seems indisputable. indisput-able. But, at that, Vermont, in depriving depriv-ing New York of the honor by proving that the Fort Schuyler banner was not a true Stars' and Stripes, must share its honor with ths- Empire state. For the so-called Battle of Bennington was not fought at Bennington at all. It was fought six miles from Bennington at Walloomsac, and Walloomsac is on the soil of New York ! for the flag listed above are too obvious ob-vious to need explanation. Due to the fragmentary records in the early history of the flag, there have been a number of disputed points in regard to the matter of "historical firsts." Did Betsy Ross of Philadelphia Philadel-phia or Francis Hopkinson of New-Jersey New-Jersey design the first Stars and Stripes? No one can pay for certain. Within the last year a new stor about the first Stars and Stripes has come to light Among the effects of Capt. John Hulbert, who commanded a Long Island company which went to Ticonderoga at the outbreak of the war and returned with British prisoners pris-oners to show to congress in Philadelphia Philadel-phia on November 20, 1775, has been found a flag, believed to have been the company flag of Captain Hulbert's organization, which has thirteen red and white stripes and thirteen six-pointed six-pointed stars which are arranged in a sort of a cross. This flag was found in the attic of an old Long Island home and is now in the possession ol William D. Halsey of Bridgehampton. His.orhms, who have seen the flag an1 the documents found with it, believe it possible that this flag, carried by Captain Hulbert's men, made such an impression upon the members of congress con-gress that, when they came to adopt a national ens-ign, they simply aske l a local seamstress, (Betsy Ross), to make a similar flag. Or Hopkinson may have seen it, made a design after aft-er it and submitted to congress that design which was accepted and which led to the historic resolution of June 14. 1777. Just as there is a dispute over the origin of the Stars and Stripes, so is there a dispute over the question of when the new flag, after its adoption by congress, received its first baptism of tire. The usual view is that this occurred at Fort Schuyler (or Fort Stanwix) near Rome. N. Y on August Au-gust 3. 1777. However, it has been pointed nut by historians, who have in |