Yesterday, June 14, was Flag Day.  Both President Wilson, in 1916, and President Coolidge, in 1927, issued proclamations asking that June 14 be observed as Flag Day all across the country.  However, it wasn’t until August 3, 1949, that Congress approved the national observance, and President Harry Truman signed it into law.

Beginning in the early 1770s, a half dozen flag designs and colors were used in the thirteen colonies.  When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, the colonists were not fighting under a single flag.  Instead, the regiments participating in the war for independence against the British fought under the flag of their colony.

On May 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia.  In June, the Congress created the Continental Army.  George Washington was appointed commander in chief “. . .  to command all the continental forces, raised, or to be raised, for the defense of American liberty.”  This led to the creation of what was essentially, the first “American” flag, the “Continental Colors.”

For some, this flag was too similar to that of the British flag.  George Washington soon realized that flying a flag that was even remotely close to the British flag was not a great confidence-builder for the revolutionary effort.  He turned his attention and efforts to creating a new symbol of freedom for the soon-to-be fledgling nation.

On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress took a break from writing the Articles of Confederation and passed a resolution stating that “the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white,” and that “the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

Before 1800, the Spanish military flag bearing the Cross of St. Andrew had been distributed to the Native Americans along the Missouri.  Remember, we purchased the Louisiana Purchase from Spain in 1803.  In 1796, Auguste Chouteau, a prominent trader on the lower Missouri River, delivered five of these flags to fur traders farther up the river.  They were to be given to the Little Osage, Kansas, Otoe, Omaha, and Ponca Indian tribes.  This flag was later seen by Lewis and Clark along the river.

Globally, by 1800, explorers were beginning to take precise measurements with which discoveries and ownerships could be documented and published in reports and maps.  In North America, the overriding desire was to find and map the legendary waterway through the continent.  Thomas Jefferson was convinced that this watercourse would consist of an interlocking of the Missouri and Columbia River, separated at their headwaters by a short portage.

If a transcontinental waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific existed that could accommodate large vessels, it would provide the fastest and cheapest route between Europe and the Orient.  Furthermore, the discovery would also provide the nation with unlimited opportunities and launch America into the orbit of becoming a global power with world-wide influence.

As the settlements and the frontier moved westward from the Atlantic, the flag went with it.  The first written record of the “Stars and Stripes” coming into what would later be called the “Great Plains” was the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-06.  They carried with them from St. Louis several different flags.  Some represented the United States at that time, some were admiral flags for boats, and others were designated as “gifts for Indians.”

When Lewis was in Pennsylvania in 1803 learning from Dr. Rush how to deal with the many medical issues which the expedition would encounter, he also had to be thinking about the long list of supplies which would be needed to complete the journey.  Items on the list included: coats, stockings, shirts, surveying and navigating equipment, wire, needles, awls, thimbles, scissors, handsaws, colored beads, gunpowder, and “six and one-half dozen jews harps.”

Another key must-have in Lewis’s long list of needs for the journey to the Pacific Ocean was an adequate supply of American flags necessary for the expedition.  They needed flags for their boats, for ceremonial and meeting purposes and to be given to the Native Americans as gifts.  It is not known how many flags the Corps of Discovery carried up the river from St. Louis, or what their dimensions were.  Their journals suggest that there were flags of three different sizes which they took with them when leaving St. Louis.

It is clear that they had at least one large American flag — judging from their thirteen references to “our flag” or “the large flag” — which was hoisted over the major camps and sites where they met with large groups of Native Americans.  It is difficult to determine the number of medium size flags of appropriate size to be flown on their boats, over their camps, and at meetings with small groups.  They had to have taken with them a hefty supply of the small flags which were regularly given as gifts.  They were given to selected Indian leaders as tokens of peace.  Unfortunately, records of the expedition contain few details about the number and size of flags they carried, nor any clear indication of how many they took with them up the river.

Six different members of the expedition regularly made journal entries telling of significant events, location, and a description of the country and wildlife.  An examination of the nearly five thousand journal entries reveals that one-hundred and forty of them mention “flags.”

 

Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on June 15, 2022