this is the flag of our floating batteries." Colonels Moylan and Glover replied the next day that as Broughton and Selman who sailed that morning had none but their old colors (probably the old English union ensign) they had appointed as the signal by which they could be known to their friends the ensign at the main topping lift. The suggestion of Col. Reed seems, however, to have been soon adopted. The London Chronicle for January, 1776, describing the flag of a captured cruiser says: "There is in the admiralty office the flag of a provincial privateer. The field is white bunting. On the middle is a green pine tree, and upon the opposite side is the motto, 'An appeal to Heaven.'" April, 1776, the Massachusetts council passed a series of resolutions providing for the regulation of the sea service, among which was the following: "Resolved, That the uniform of the officers be green and white, and that they furnish themselves accordingly, and that the colors be a white flag with a green pine tree and the inscription An appeal to Heaven.'" According to the English newspapers, privateers throughout this year wearing a flag of this description were captured and carried into British ports. "Jan. 6, 1776, the Tartar, Capt. Meadows, arrived at Portsmouth, England, from Boston with over seventy men, the crew of an American privateer that mounted 10 guns taken by the Fowry man-of-war. Capt. Meadows likewise brought her colors, which are a pale green palm tree upon a white field with this motto: 'We appeal to Heaven.'" She was taken on the Massachusetts coast, cruising for transports and was sent out by the council of that province. Commodore Samuel Tucker, in a letter addressed to the Hon. John Holmes, dated March 6, 1818,' says: "The first cruise I made was in Jan., 1776, in the schooner Franklin of 70 tons, equipped by order of Gen. Washington, and I had to purchase the small arms to encounter the enemy, with money from my own pocket or go without; and my wife made the banner I fought under, the field of which was white, and the union green made therein in the figure of a pine tree, made of cloth of her own purchasing, at her own expense." 1 Shepard's Life of Commodore Tucker. Under these colors he captured the ship George and brig Arabella transports, having on board about two hundred and eighty Highland troops of Gen. Fraser's corps. "Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 10, 1776, on Sunday, arrived from off Boston, a privateer brig, called the Yankee Hero, Capt. Tracy. She was taken by the Milford frigate 28 guns, Capt. Burr, after an obstinate engagement, in which the captain of the privateer received a ball through his thigh, soon after which she struck. She is a fine vessel and mounts twelve carriage guns and six swivels. Her colors were a pine tree on a white field." Instances of the use of this pine tree flag from Oct., 1775, to July, 1776, could be multiplied. On the 13th of Sept., 1775, Col. Moultrie received an order from the council of safety for taking Fort Johnson on James island, S. C.,' and a flag being thought necessary Col. Moultrie was requested to procure one by the council, and had a large blue flag made, with a crescent in the dexter corner to be uniform with the troops of the garrison who were clothed in blue and wore silver crescents in front of their caps, inscribed "Liberty or Death." He said "this was the first American flag displayed in the south." When Moultrie hoisted this flag the timid people said it had the appearance of a declaration of war, and the captain of the Tamar, then being off Charleston, would look upon it as an insult and flag of defiance. A union flag had been displayed at Savannah the preceding June.3 June 28, 1776, the standard advanced by Col. Moultrie on the south-east bastion of Fort Sullivan, or Moultrie as it was afterwards named on account of his gallant defence of it, was the same crescent flag with the word LIBERTY emblazoned upon it.+ At the commencement of the action, the crescent flag that waved opposite the union flag upon the western bastion, fell upon the outside upon the beach. Sergeant Jasper leaped the parapet, walked the whole length of the fort, picked up the flag, fastened it on a sponge staff, and in the midst of the iron hail pouring upon the fortress, and in sight of the whole British fleet fixed the flag firmly upon the bastion. Three cheers greeted him as he leaped within the fort. On the day after the battle 1 Holmes's Annals. See ante. 4 Col. Moultrie's Memoirs of the Revolution, vol. 1, p. 90. Gov. Rutledge visited the fort, and rewarded Jasper for his valor by presenting him with his own small sword, which he was wearing, and thanked him in the name of his country. He offered him a lieutenant's commission, but Jasper who could neither read nor write declined it, saying "I am not fit to keep officers' company, I am but a sergeant.' On the day after the battle the British fleet left Charleston harbor. The joy of the Americans was unbounded, and the following day (June 30) the wife of Major Bernard Elliot presented Col. Moultrie's regiment with a pair of elegant colors, one of them was of fine blue silk, the other of fine red silk, both richly embroidered. They were afterwards planted on the walls of Savannah (Oct. 9, 1778), beside the lilies of France. Lieutenants Hume and Buck who carried them having fallen, Lieutenant Gray of the S. C. regiment seized their standards, and kept them erect, until he was striken by a bullet, when brave Sergeant Jasper sprang forward, and had just fastened them on the parapet, when a rifle ball pierced him, and he fell into the ditch. He was carried to camp and soon after expired. Just before he died he said to Major Harry "Tell Mrs. Elliot I lost my life supporting the colors she gave to our regiment.” The declaration of independence was read by Major Elliot at Charleston, on the 5th Aug., 1776, to the people young and old and of both sexes assembled around liberty pole, with all the military of the city and vicinity, flags flying and drums beating. Among the flags were without doubt these standards presented by his wife. They were captured when Charleston surrendered, May 12, 1780, and were among the British trophies preserved in the Tower of London. The general congress, having previously appointed a committee to prepare a plan, on the 13th of Oct., 1775, after some debate “Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel to carry the carriage guns and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men be fitted with all possible dispatch for a cruise of three months." * It was also "Resolved, That another vessel be fitted for the same purposes" and "that a marine committee consisting of Messrs. Dean, Langdon and Gadsden report their opinion of a * Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, vol. 11, pp. 532, 551. |