Editing Flag of the United States (section)

===Flag Resolution of 1777===
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the [[Flag Acts (United States)|Flag Resolution]] which stated: "''Resolved'', 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."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=lljc&fileName=008/lljc008.db&recNum=90|title=A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875|website=American Memory – Library of Congress }}</ref> [[Flag Day in the United States|Flag Day]] is now observed on June 14 of each year. While scholars still argue about this, tradition holds that the new flag was first hoisted in June 1777 by the [[Continental Army]] at the [[Middlebrook encampment]].<ref>Guenter (1990).</ref>

Both the [[Barry (heraldry)|stripes (barry)]] and the [[star (heraldry)|stars (mullets)]] have precedents in classical heraldry. Mullets were comparatively rare in early modern heraldry. However, an example of mullets representing territorial divisions predating the U.S. flag is the [[Valais]] 1618 coat of arms, where seven mullets stood for [[Sieben Zenden|seven districts]].

Another widely repeated theory is that the design was inspired by the [[Coat of arms of the Washington family|coat of arms of George Washington's family]], which includes three red stars over two horizontal red bars on a white field.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.selbyabbey.org.uk/washington_link.htm|title=Washington Window|access-date=April 25, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204220959/http://www.selbyabbey.org.uk/washington_link.htm|archive-date=February 4, 2013}}</ref> Despite the similar visual elements, there is "little evidence"<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WUFvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA342 |title=The American Flag: An Encyclopedia of the Stars and Stripes in U.S. History, Culture, and Law|last=Vile|first=John R.|year=2018|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-4408-5789-8|page=342|language=en}}</ref> or "no evidence whatsoever"<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WeUCGbaOgKQC&pg=PT147 |title=Flag: An American Biography|last=Leepson|first=Marc|year=2007|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4299-0647-0|language=en|chapter=Chapter Ten: The Hundredth Anniversary}}</ref> to support the claimed connection with the flag design. The ''Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington'', published by the [[Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington]] at [[Mount Vernon]], calls it an "enduring myth" backed by "no discernible evidence."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/coat-of-arms/|title=Coat of Arms|last=Capps|first=Alan|website=The Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington|publisher=[[Mount Vernon Ladies' Association]]|language=en|access-date=January 8, 2020}}</ref> The story seems to have originated with the 1876 play ''Washington: A Drama in Five Acts'', by the English poet [[Martin Farquhar Tupper]], and was further popularized through repetition in the children's magazine ''[[St. Nicholas Magazine|St. Nicholas]]''.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

The first official U.S. flag flown during battle was on August 3, 1777, at Fort Schuyler (Fort Stanwix) during the [[Siege of Fort Stanwix]]. Massachusetts reinforcements brought news of the adoption by Congress of the official flag to Fort Schuyler. Soldiers cut up their shirts to make the white stripes; scarlet material to form the red was secured from red flannel petticoats of officers' wives, while material for the blue union was secured from Capt. Abraham Swartwout's blue cloth coat. A voucher is extant that Congress paid Capt. Swartwout of Dutchess County for his coat for the flag.<ref name="google">{{cite book |title = Naval Ceremonies, Customs, and Traditions| last1=Connell | first1 = R.W. | last2= Mack | first2 = W.P. |date= 2004 |publisher= Naval Institute Press|isbn=978-1-55750-330-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvKiBiWKrzMC|page=140|access-date=October 27, 2014}}</ref>

The 1777 resolution was probably meant to define a [[naval ensign]]. In the late 18th century, the notion of a [[national flag]] did not yet exist or was only nascent. The flag resolution appears between other resolutions from the Marine Committee. On May 10, 1779, Secretary of the Board of War [[Richard Peters (Continental Congress)|Richard Peters]] expressed concern that "it is not yet settled what is the Standard of the United States."<ref>Mastai, 60.</ref> However, the term "Standard" referred to a national standard for the Army of the United States. Each regiment was to carry the national standard in addition to its regimental standard. The national standard was not a reference to the national or naval flag.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Furlong |first1= Rear Admiral William Rea|last2=McCandless|first2= Commodore Byron |title= So Proudly We Hail|url=https://archive.org/details/soproudlywehailh00furl |url-access= registration |date= 1981 |publisher= Smithsonian Institution Press|location=Washington, D.C. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/soproudlywehailh00furl/page/115 115]–116}}</ref>

The Flag Resolution did not specify any particular arrangement, number of points, nor orientation for the stars and the arrangement or whether the flag had to have seven red stripes and six white ones or vice versa.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal|last1=Williams|first1=Earl P. Jr.|title=Did Francis Hopkinson Design Two Flags?|journal=NAVA News|date=October 2012|issue=216|pages=7–9|url=http://www.flagguys.com/pdf/NAVANews_2012_no216.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306083443/http://www.flagguys.com/pdf/NAVANews_2012_no216.pdf |archive-date=March 6, 2016 |url-status=live|access-date=February 16, 2017}}</ref> The appearance was up to the maker of the flag. Some flag makers arranged the stars into one big star, in a circle or in rows and some replaced a state's star with its initial.<ref name="Lane">{{cite web | last = Lane | first = Megan | date = November 14, 2011 | title = Five hidden messages in the American flag | work = [[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15634606 | access-date = October 30, 2013}}</ref> One arrangement features 13 five-pointed stars arranged in a circle, with the stars arranged pointing outwards from the circle (as opposed to up), the [[Betsy Ross flag]]. Experts have dated the earliest known example of this flag to be 1792 in a painting by [[John Trumbull]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cooper|first1=Grace Rogers|title= Thirteen-Star Flags|date=1973|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref>

Despite the 1777 resolution, the early years of American independence featured many different, hand-crafted flags. As late as 1779, Captain [[John Manley (naval officer)|John Manley]] believed that the United States "had no national colors" so each ship flew whatever flag pleased the captain.{{sfn|Preble|1880|p=284}}

Some of the early flags included blue stripes<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cooper|first1=Grace Rogers|title=Thirteen-Star Flags|date=1973|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=9 (in paper); pp. 21/80 (in pdf)|quote=In 1792, Trumbull painted thirteen stars in a circle in his General George Washington at Trenton in the Yale University Art Gallery. In his unfinished rendition of the Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, dates not established, the circle of stars is suggested and one star shows six points while the thirteen stripes are red, white, and blue. How accurately the artist depicted the star design that he saw is not known. At times, he may have offered a poetic version of the flag he was interpreting which was later copied by the flag maker. The flag sheets and the artists do not agree.|citeseerx=10.1.1.639.8200}}</ref> as well as red and white. [[Benjamin Franklin]] and [[John Adams]], in an October 3, 1778, letter to [[Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies]], described the American flag as consisting of "13 stripes, alternately red, white, and blue, a small square in the upper angle, next to the flagstaff, is a blue field, with 13 white stars, denoting a new Constellation."<ref>{{cite book|last1= Cooper |first1=Grace Rogers|title=Thirteen-Star Flags |date=1973 |publisher= Smithsonian Institution Press|location=Washington, D.C. |page= 3}}</ref> John Paul Jones used a variety of 13-star flags on his U.S. Navy ships including the well-documented 1779 flags of the ''Serapis'' and the ''Alliance''. The [[Serapis flag]] had three rows of eight-pointed stars with red, white, and blue stripes. However, the flag for the ''Alliance'' had five rows of eight-pointed stars with 13 red and white stripes, and the white stripes were on the outer edges.<ref>Furlong, p. 130.</ref> Both flags were documented by the Dutch government in October 1779, making them two of the earliest known flags of 13 stars.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Moeller|first1= Henry W |title= Unfurling the History of the Stars and Stripes|date=1992 |publisher= Amereon House|location=Mattituck, NY|pages=25–26, color plates 5A, 5B}}</ref>