' Harris & Swing 



THE FREMONT FLAG 



When General John Charles Fremont, surnamed "the Pathfinder," made his way across 

 the continent in the '40's, his mission was one of peace, but the arrows in his army flag sug- 

 gested war to the Indians of the plain. Therefore he inserted the calumet, or pipe of peace, 

 crossed with the arrows in the talons of the eagle. It is interesting to note that the army did 

 pot carry the Stars and Stripes until the period of the Mexican War (see pages 307-308 and 

 flag 22). 



Stripes (6), adopted by Congress a year 

 and a half later, was carried in the field 

 by the land forces during the Revolu- 

 tionary War. The army carried only the 

 colors of the States to which the troops 

 belonged (see flags 394, 396, 403, 409, 

 410, etc.) and not the national flag. 



THE FIRST VICTORY OF THE AMERICAN 

 FEAG 



It fell to the lot of the newly created 

 Commodore Manley (the officer who had 

 commanded the Lee and captured the 

 ordnance ship Nancy) to carry the Grand 

 Union Flag to its first victory. Com- 

 manding the Hancock, Manley captured 

 two enemy transports, placed prize crews 

 aboard, and then, with only 16 men left 

 On his own ship, he engaged an armed 

 vessel in sight of the enemy fleet at Bos- 

 ton and succeeded in bringing his prizes 

 safely into Plymouth. Following this 

 daring exploit Manley received a letter 

 written at Cambridge, on January 28, 

 1776, by General Washington, who de- 



clared that the commodore's achievement 

 merited "mine and the country's thanks," 

 and promised him a "stronger vessel of 

 war." 



On Major Samuel Selden's powder- 

 horn of that period is a carving showing 

 Boston and vicinity. The British fleet is 

 depicted on one side of Boston Neck, 

 while Manley 's symbolical ship Amaraca, 

 flying at the stern the Continental Union 

 flag as its ensign, and at the mainmast 

 the pine-tree flag as the commodore's 

 flag, is shown on the other side. The 

 mortar carved on the horn is the famous 

 "Congress" gun captured by Manley on 

 the Nancy. 



The first occasion upon which any 

 American flag floated over foreign terri- 

 tory was on March 3, 1776. Commodore 

 Hopkins, of the Congress fleet, organized 

 an expedition against New Providence, 

 in the Bahama Islands, for the purpose 

 of seizing a quantity of powder known 'o 

 be stored there and of which both Gen- 

 eral Washington and the fleet were in 



292 



