On August 3 1777, officers of the garrison of Fort Stanwix in what is now Oneida County, NY, made a “Continental Flag.” In the years since, there has been controversy over what the flag looked like, with some asserting that it depicted stars and stripes, coming as it did after the Continental Congressional Flag Resolution of June 14th, 1777.
That resolution established the United States flag should be thirteen alternating red and white stripes, and thirteen white stars on a blue field, representing a new constellation. Legend had it that Stanwix was the first place the official flag flew in battle.
On August 2, about 1,600 British troops and allies arrived at the fort. The British commander, General Barry St. Leger, offered the Americans escape in exchange for unconditional surrender.
The next day, Colonel Peter Gansevoort and his Third New York Regiment officers gave their response to this offer, as recorded by a young lieutenant: “Early this Morning a Continental Flag made by the Officers of Col. Gansevoort’s Regiment was hoisted and a Cannon Levelled at the Enemies Camp was fired on the Occasion.”
Historian Arthur J. Weise (1838-1921) later claimed that a captain of the Third New York Regiment Abraham Swartwout was responsible for the flag, having learned of the Flag Resolution from reinforcements arriving at Stanwix on August 1 and 2, 1777.
In 1923, The New Larned History repeated this claim, adding that the “Journal of Capt. Swartwout of Col. Gansevoort regiment written on August 3, 1777 in Fort Schuyler shows beyond a cavil when the first flag of Stars and Stripes of which we have record was made and hoisted, but it was in a fort (Schuyler – [now Stanwix]), not in the field, or at the head of a regiment.”
However, Swartwout did not actually leave a journal behind, nor did any of his letters or papers mention the design of the flag. Since about that time more professional historians began questioning the veracity of the story, believing the flag was more likely a Grand Union or perhaps an early New York State flag.
Gansevoort’s second in command, Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett wrote his thoughts about the flag in his personal journal 25 years after the events of the siege.
“The Fort had never been supplied with a Flagg – The importance of having one on the arrival of the Enemy had set our Ingenuity to work; and a respectable one was formed the white stripes were cut… the blue strips out of a Cloak… The red stripes out of different pieces of stuff collected from sundry persons. The Flagg was sufficiently large and a general Exhilaration of spirits appeared on beholding it Wave the morning after the arrival of the enemy.”
Willett doesn’t call this alternating red, white and blue striped flag a “Continental,” which the Grand Union flag was considered. In 1831, it was Willett’s son that identified the flag as the Continental while publishing his father’s papers.
Other evidence shows that a similar striped design was used during the war by various troops, including in the 1779 Sullivan – Clinton Expedition.
More recently independent historian Joseph Robertaccio took on the question. He believes that the description “Continental Flag” is key to understanding what happened. He also discovered what he says is a new, forgotten eyewitness source to the events of August 3, 1777.
He will present his findings in “The Fort Stanwix Flag Legend No More,” a presentation on Saturday, March 22, 2025, at 1 pm at the Fort Plain Museum and Historical Park, 389 Canal Street, in Fort Plain, NY. The cost is $5 for non-members and free for museum members.
Illustration: A replica of the 13 stripe flag flying over Fort Stanwix (courtesy National Park Service).
Source link
