Prior to being flown by the Colonial fleet, this flag was first raised by General George Washington on January 1, 1776, at Prospect Hill in Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay. a b Naval History & Heritage Command (April 10, 2001). "Frequently Asked Questions: Commissioning Pennant".

YACHTING ENSIGN". New York Yacht Club. Archived from the original on April 19, 2016 . Retrieved July 25, 2016. History", Our Flag, Federal Citizen Information Center, archived from the original on 2015-02-28 , retrieved 2011-12-13 As the first commonly flown flag by the Continental Army and Navy, the Grand Union Flag was the flag of the united colonies on July 4, 1776 when they declared their buy tea only from the BEIC. This is what angered the colonists and led to the Boston Tea Party when the colonists boarded BEIC ships and threw DeLear, Byron (2014). "Revisiting the Flag at Prospect Hill: Grand Union or Just British?" (PDF). Raven: A Journal of Vexillology. 21: 19–70. doi: 10.5840/raven2014213.Boston. One popular legend has George Washington approaching Philadelphia flagmaker Rebecca Young some time in 1775 and asking her to make the flag that became known as the Grand Union Flag. Thirteen horizontal stripes alternating red and white; in the canton, 50 white stars on a blue field schooner Royal Savage, which was part of Benedict Arnold's Lake Champlain flotilla. The evidence is a watercolor found in the papers of General Philip

submission." Notice that this letter calls the flag the "Grand Union" and says it had 13 stripes, but does not say what color the stripes were. Maine also has a separate ensign, which is rarely seen. It features symbols from the current flag and the older one, with a white field and green pine tree. The green pine tree has the seaman's anchor, and the words "MAINE" and "DIRIGO" around it. Dirigo ( Latin "I direct" or "I lead") is the state motto of Maine. A modification of the national flag and ensign but with a fouled anchor in a circle of thirteen stars in the canton, was created by Act of Congress in August 1848 as a flag to be used by licensed U.S. yachts. [11] [12] The design was recommended by the New York Yacht Club in 1849. [13] Yachts eligible for the license were initially 20 net tons and over (later reduced to 15 net tons) and otherwise eligible to be enrolled as a U.S. vessel; the license allowed the yacht to proceed from port to port without the formality of clearing customs. The 1848 act used the word 'signal' to describe the flag that a licensed yacht would use to identify herself, and use of this flag was required by all licensed yachts ("All such licensed yachts shall use a signal of the form, size, and colors prescribed by the Secretary of the Navy."). The Secretary of the Navy approved a modification of "the American Ensign" as the signal, and Treasury Decision No. 2727 (March 24, 1876) issued by the Treasury Department confirmed that the flag was to be used as an ensign ("Licensed yachts are required by law to use the American ensign prescribed by the Secretary of the Navy."), and its use as an ensign was reiterated in Treasury Decision 9426 of June 11, 1889 (referring to the "yacht ensign"). While formally licensed yachts were legally required to fly this modification of the national ensign, unlicensed U.S. yachts also started flying this flag as their ensign, too, and eventually the U.S. Navy confirmed that it recognized this practice for all U.S. yachts. In 1939, the Secretary of the Navy approved the ruling of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy "...that a ship of the Navy should return a dip made by a yacht flying the yacht ensign and that the yacht ensign may properly be made the object of a hand salute to be rendered on boarding or leaving a yacht." Ansoff, Peter (2006). "The Flag on Prospect Hill". Raven: A Journal of Vexillology. 13: 77–100. doi: 10.5840/raven2006134. ISSN 1071-0043. LCCN 94642220. with the colonial attitude for them to raise a version of the "Rebellious Stripes" as their official flag.Denmark and the Netherlands were the first countries to salute the Grand Union flag, when gun salutes by U.S. ships were returned by officials in the West Indies in late 1776: on Danish St. Croix in October, and on Dutch St. Eustatius in November. (Though later, the better documented St. Eustatius incident involving the USS Andrew Doria is traditionally regarded as the "first salute".) France was the first country to salute the Stars and Stripes, when a fleet off the French mainland returned a gun salute by Captain John Paul Jones commanding USS Ranger on February 14, 1778. [5] The combined crosses in the flag of Great Britain symbolized the union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland. The symbolism of a union of equal parts was retained in the new U.S. flag, as described in the Flag Resolution of 14 June 1777 (later celebrated in U.S. culture and history as " Flag Day"). Letters of delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, vol.2, University of Virginia Library, September–December 1775, archived from the original on 2011-01-12 The fact is that no one knows for sure who created the Grand Union Flag or who authorized its use. It is often considered to be the First American Flag because of its

On December 3rd of that year, it was raised aboard Captain Esek Hopkin's flagship Alfredby John Paul Jones, who at that time was a young lieutenant in the Navy.Cooper, Grace Rogers (1973). Thirteen-Star Flags: Keys to Identification (Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology. No. 21ed.). Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp.10–11. American flag, though unofficial, of the United States until the Flag Resolution of 1777, which was passed on June 14, 1777, making the 13 star flag Rankin, Hugh F. “The Naval Flag of the American Revolution.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 11, no. 3, 1954, pp. 340–53. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1943310. Accessed 20 Feb. 2023. that the flag evolved over time from a plain British Red Ensign to one of various colored stripes, to one with red, white or blue stripes, to one with 7 red and 6 white stripes. First foreign salute to the Grand Union Flag The first salutes to an American Flag from foreign nations came when American ships in the West Indies were sailing under the Grand Union Flag, not the Stars and Stripes,

Massachusetts and Maine are the only two states with their own maritime flags. These flags are not "ensigns" in the true sense of the word because they are not flags of national character, and are not used as such; instead, they are special versions of the state flag for use afloat. The state laws that create them do not use the term "ensign" to describe them, but use the term "flag". The Massachusetts law describes the flag as “The naval and maritime flag of the commonwealth,” Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 2, § 3, while Maine's state law says: “The flag to be known as the merchant and marine flag of the State shall be of white, at the top of which in blue letters shall be the motto “Dirigo”; beneath the motto shall be the representation of a pine tree in green color” Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 1, § 207. Although these flags are intended for use afloat, they are not ensigns and should not be called such. The Grand Union Flag was the de facto first U.S. naval ensign. It was first raised aboard Continental Navy Commodore Esek Hopkins' flagship Alfred on the Delaware River on December 3, 1775; John Paul Jones, then the ship's senior lieutenant, personally claimed this honor. [2] a b Calkhoven, Laurie (2007). George Washington. An American Life. Sterling Publishing Company. p.47. ISBN 978-1-4027-3546-2 . Retrieved July 1, 2023. George Washington, or one of his staff created the design. Although the flag was used in Philadelphia on the Alfred DeLear, Byron (2014). "Revisiting the Flag at Prospect Hill: Grand Union or Just British?" (PDF). Raven: A Journal of Vexillology. 21: 54. doi: 10.5840/raven2014213.Fawcett, Charles (October 1937). "The Striped Flag of the East India Company, and its Connexion with the American 'Stars and Stripes' ". Mariner's Mirror.