Editing Flag of the United States (section)

===First flag===
{{Further|Continental Union Flag|Prospect Hill Flag Debate}}
[[File:Flag of the United States (1776–1777).svg|thumb|The [[Continental Union Flag]], also known as the first American flag, was used from 1775 to June 14, 1777]] 
The first official flag resembling the "Stars and Stripes" was the [[Continental Navy]] [[naval ensign|ensign]] (often referred to as the [[Continental Union Flag]],<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Williamsburg, April 20 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/40483137 |url-access=subscription |work=The Virginia Gazette |number=1289 |location=Williamsburg, Virginia |date=April 20, 1776 |page=3 |oclc=905318657 |access-date=July 14, 2024 |via=[[Ancestry.com#Newspapers.com|Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> Continental Colours<!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not change "Colours" to American English as it would be historically inaccurate. Thank you. -->,<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Extract of a letter from Cape Nichola Mole, dated Sept. 18 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1144051714 |url-access=subscription |work=The Virginia Gazette |number=91 |location=Williamsburg, Virginia |date=October 25, 1776 |page=2 |oclc=905318657 |access-date=May 10, 2025 |via=[[Ancestry.com#Newspapers.com|Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> the first American flag,<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Boston, November 25 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1034014546 |url-access=subscription |work=Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet |volume=VI |number=268 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |date=December 27, 1776 |page=2 |issn=2689-7180 |oclc=9833137 |access-date=July 14, 2024 |via=[[Ancestry.com#Newspapers.com|Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> Cambridge Flag, and Grand Union Flag) was used from 1775 to 1777. It consisted of 13 red-and-white stripes, with the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] [[Flag of Great Britain|Union Flag]] in the [[Canton (flag)|canton]]. It first appeared on December 3, 1775, when Continental Navy Lieutenant [[John Paul Jones]] flew it aboard Captain [[Esek Hopkins]]' [[flagship]] ''[[USS Alfred|Alfred]]'' on the [[Delaware River]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 1, 1905 |title=The Administration of the Continental Navy of the American Revolution |url=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1905/july/administration-continental-navy-american-revolution |access-date=June 24, 2023 |website=U.S. Naval Institute |language=en}}</ref>

Prospect Hill was the location of [[George Washington]]'s command post during the [[Siege of Boston]] during the [[American Revolution]]. On New Year's Day in 1776, Washington conducted a flag-raising ceremony to raise the morale of the men of the [[Continental Army]]. The standard account features the Continental Union Flag flying, although in 2006, Peter Ansoff advanced a theory that it was actually a British Union Flag instead.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ansoff |first=Peter |year=2006 |title=The Flag on Prospect Hill |url=https://www.pdcnet.org/raven/content/raven_2006_0013_0077_0100 |journal=Raven: A Journal of Vexillology |volume=13 |pages=77–100 |doi=10.5840/raven2006134 |issn=1071-0043}}</ref> Others, such as Byron DeLear, have argued in favor of the traditional version of events.<ref>{{cite journal |last=DeLear |first=Byron |year=2014 |title=Revisiting the Flag at Prospect Hill: Grand Union or Just British? |url=http://nava.org/digital-library/raven/Raven_v21_2014_p019-070.pdf |journal=Raven: A Journal of Vexillology |volume=21 |pages=19–70 |doi=10.5840/raven2014213 |issn = 1071-0043 }}</ref> The Continental Union Flag remained the national flag until June 14, 1777.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Joint Committee on Printing |first=United States Congress |title=Our Flag |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1989 |series=H. Doc. 100-247 |location=Washington |page=3}}</ref> At the time of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] in July 1776, there were no flags with any stars on them; the [[Continental Congress]] did not adopt flags with "stars, white in a blue field" for another year. It has historically been referred to as the first flag of the United States.<ref name="Leepson">{{cite book |last=Leepson |first=Marc |title=Flag: An American Biography |year=2004}}</ref>

Colloquially referred to as the Cambridge Flag and Grand Union Flag; the terms domain did not come into use until the [[19th century]].{{Sfn|Hopkins|1893|p=291}} Although it has been claimed the more recent moniker, Grand Union Flag, was first applied to the Continental Union Flag by [[George Henry Preble|G. Henry Preble]] in his [[Reconstruction era]] book ''Our Flag;''{{sfn|Preble|1872|loc=part II}} the first substantiated use of the name came from Philadelphia resident T. Westcott in 1852 when replying to an inquiry made in ''[[Notes and Queries]]'', a London periodical, as to the origin of the U.S. flag.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Origin of the American Flag |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-springfield-daily-republican-1852-or/169192842/ |url-access=subscription |work=[[The Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts)|Springfield Daily Republican]] |volume=9 |number=245 |location=Springfield, Massachusetts |date=October 16, 1852 |page=1 |via=[[Ancestry.com#Newspapers.com|Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

[[File:Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg|thumb|The flag of the [[East India Company]], introduced in 1707 and flown at sea in the [[Indian Ocean]]]]
The flag very closely resembles the [[Flag of the East India Company|East India Company flag]] of the era. [[Charles Fawcett (historian)|Sir Charles Fawcett]] argued in 1937 that the company flag inspired the design of the U.S. flag.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{FOTW|id=gb-eic2|title=The Striped Flag of the East India Company, and its Connexion with the American "Stars and Stripes"}}</ref> Both flags could easily have been constructed by adding white stripes to a [[Red Ensign]], one of the [[British ensign#History|three maritime flags]] used throughout the [[British Empire]] at the time. However, the East India Company flag could have from nine to 13 stripes and was not allowed to be flown outside the [[Indian Ocean]].<ref>{{FOTW|id=gb-eic|title=East India Company (United Kingdom)}}</ref>

[[Benjamin Franklin]] once gave a speech endorsing the adoption of the East India Company flag by the [[United Colonies]]. He said to George Washington, "While the field of your flag must be new in the details of its design, it need not be entirely new in its elements. There is already in use a flag, I refer to the flag of the East India Company."<ref>{{cite book|first=Robert |last=Johnson |title=Saint Croix 1770–1776: The First Salute to the Stars and Stripes |page=71 |publisher=AuthorHouse |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4259-7008-6}}</ref> This was a way of symbolizing American loyalty to [[the Crown]] as well as the colonies' aspirations to be self-governing, as was the [[East India Company]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Tom |last=Horton |title=History's Lost Moments: The Stories Your Teacher Never Told You |chapter=Exposing the Origins of Old Glory's stripes |volume=5 |publisher=Trafford Publishing |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4907-4469-8}}</ref>

The theory that the Continental Union Flag was a direct descendant of the East India Company flag has been criticized as lacking written evidence;<ref name=i /> on the other hand, the resemblance to the company flag is obvious, and some of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States]] were aware of the East India Company's activities and of their free administration of [[Company rule in India|India under Company rule]].<ref name=i>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/onmyplate/saltires-and-stars-stripes/ |title=Saltires and Stars & Stripes |work =The Economic Times |date= September 22, 2014|access-date=May 23, 2017}}</ref>