Tlie Correct Arms of the State of New York. 



253 



present possessor, Mrs. Abraham Lansing of Albany, it was unfurled 

 with great ceremony at the centennial celebration at Oriskany in 1877, 

 exciting a thrill of admiration in the fifty thousand people assembled 

 there. 



The regiment remained at Fort Stanwix (Schuyler), till June, 1779, 

 when it marched to take part in the Sullivan campaign of that year. 

 During 1780 it was with the main army under Gen. Washington in 

 New Jersey. In January, 1781, the 3d, 4th, and 5th N.Y. Kegiments 

 were consolidated with the 1st and 2d. Col. Gansevoort, Oct. 15, 

 1781, being at Albany, was sent by Gov. Clinton as General of brigade 

 to maintain the authority of the State in the direction of Vermont.* 

 Gen. P. Gansevoort, in 1864, wrote with his own hand a declaration 

 that that flag was also borne at the surrender of Yorktown in 

 1781," t having been carried probably to the 2d Regiment, and allowed 

 to be used on account of its history and beauty, and for the sake of the 

 battalion from the 3d Regiment which had joined it. It was after- 

 ward returned to Gen. Gansevoort at Albany. Whether the flag was 

 present on that occasion or not, its value is enhanced as a specimen of 

 the true Arms of New York in proportion as the date when it was 

 painted, approaches the year 1778, when the law establishing the 

 Arms was passed. 



I have entered into more details regarding this flag than would have 

 been necessary, if it had not been that a State appropriation in 1879 

 was made to secure a copy of the Arms taken from a flag borne at 

 Yorktown in 1781," which was expressed in these terms: "For the 

 secretary of State, for the purchase of a colored picture of the arms 

 of the State taken from a flag borne at Yorktown by the American 

 army in 1781, to be deposited in the State Library, the sum of fifty 

 dollars." J 



The doubt thrown by the researches of Maj. Gardner, on the truth 

 of the alleged fact, led to conclusions as stated above, which made the 

 flag still more valuable as a witness to what are the correct Arms, than 

 on the assumption made in the law ap23ropriating money for the 

 painting. 



* Some of the preceding statements respecting the history of this regiment have 

 been condensed by me from a much longer sketch in MS., for which I am much 

 indebted to Prof. A. B. Gardner, LL.D., Judge- Ad v^ocate, U. S. A., now in Xew 

 York City. 



\ Albany Army Relief Bazar; Catalogue of Relics. Albany: 1864. 8vo. 

 I Laws of 1879, :May 13, Chap. 272. 



