Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1880 — American Flag. [ARTICLE]

American Flag.

The great union fiag. raised by command of Washington at Cambridge, Jan. 2,1776, originated in a combination of ideas, derived very gradually from the crow of St. George and the saltire of Bt. - Andrew, through the British Union Jack and commercial flag, and immediately from the standard of the Philadelphia Light Horse o t 1774, now the Frst Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry; and the star-spangled banner arose from the Continental great union flag through the replacement ofthe British "quarter/’ or “union,” by the American “quarter” or “union” of thirteen white stars upon a blue ground. That the American flag really dates from May 23 or 24, 1776, was shown by means of the story of the Widow Koas (Betsy Griscom,) who made in Philadelphia the first star-spangled banner; and the narrative of the cruise of the brig “Nancv” of Wilmington, Del., Capt. Hugh Montgomery, who was the first that ever raised in a foreign port the starspangled banner, which be fought under and preserved at Cape Island, N. J., June 29, 1776; both these being confirmed in all particular* by six reliable contemporary