"Et is in and through symbols that man consciously or unconsciously lives, moves, and has his being. Those ages, moreover, are accounted the noblest which can best recognize symbolical worth and prize it at the highest." CARLYLE. "Out of monuments, names, wordes, proverbes, private recordes and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books, and the like, we doe save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time." BACON. "Many things contained in this book are no other than collections of other authors, and my labor is no more therein than theirs who gather a variety of flowers out of several gardens to compose one sightly garland.” SIR WM. MONSON. “Great room there is for amendments, as well as additions. Either of these, in what dress soever they come, rough or smooth, will be heartily welcome." A HISTORY OF THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WITH A CHRONICLE OF THE SYMBOLS, STANDARDS, FLAGS, SYMBOLS and colors enabling nations to distinguish themselves from each other have from the most remote periods exercised a powerful influence upon mankind. It is a fact well established both by sacred and profane history that a standard or ensign was borne in the armies of all nations from the most distant era. A colored banner was one of the earliest, as it was the simplest, of military ensigns. As tribes and nations multiplied, these banners naturally became particolored by stripes and other linear divisions, and finally emblazoned with the devices of the several chieftains. Thus these symbols, which during peaceful times were but trivial ornaments, became in political or religious disturbances a lever like that of Archimedes, and convulsed the world. Before commencing the memoir of the flag which this volume commemorates, I propose to notice some of the symbols, standards, and banners of other nations. History, in general, has failed to appreciate the value of these symbols, which have given ascendancy to party, and led armies to victory with more certainty and despatch than all the combinations of tactics and the most disinterested valor. We talk of the eagles of the Romans, of the contest between the crescent and the cross, and of the wars of the white and red roses; of the meteor flag of England, and of the cross of St. George; of the white plume and banner of Henry IV., and the lilies and tricolor of France; and of our own starry banner, which, said Edward Everett (May 27, 1861), "speaks for itself. Its mute eloquence needs no aid to interpret its significance. Fidelity to the Union blazes from its stars, allegiance to the government beneath which we live is wrapped in its folds." The tassels which are customarily pendent from the upper part of military banners and standards, and the fringes which surround them, have their origin in sacred emblems, which, passing from gentile, mosaic, pagan, and Christian banners and sacerdotal garments, have finally crept upon profane standards and dresses. The high-priests of Brahma, Baal, Osiris, Mithras, Jehovah, the priestesses of Vesta, Isis, Lucinia, Ceres, and Diana, were adorned with tassels, fringes, ribbons, and colors consecrated to their respective worships. When Moses had abjured the gods of Egypt, his native country, to follow the Jehovah of Midian, he wrote a ritual, bidding pomegranates of blue, of purple, and of scarlet, alternating with golden bells, to be placed about the hem of the blue robe of Aaron, to minister in the priest's office (Exodus xxviii. 31-35). The pomegranates were sometimes figured by tassels. The Mosaic law bade the Israelites to border their garments with fringes and blue ribands, as being, in their eyes, a remembrance against lusting (Numbers xv. 38, 39). Thus early was blue the emblem of purity and innocence. The Popes having wedded the Jewish and Heathen rites with the Christian worship, the Christian prelates adopted the pagan garments with tassels. Hence the warlike priests of Christ, on their return from the crusades, having assumed armorial bearings, the sacred tassels became the badge of prelacy in ecclesiastical armories. The archbishops had their shields surmounted with a green chapeau, or hat, with tassels, interlaced by several rows of cordon or strings, pendent on both sides. The green color was the symbol of a See, which never dies, or always revives as foliage regenerates. The chapeau, or cardinal's hat, with the same tassels, is of scarlet, the emblematic hue of the criminal court of the Holy Inquisition. The tassels, having passed into profane customs, became ornaments for national standards, which were often blessed by the priests, and for royal girdles or cordelieres. These were a silk or gold cord, terminating in two heavy tassels of the form of pomegranates, and a fringe, with which the royal robe of kings and queens is fastened around the waist. Our English word, FLAG, which in Danish is the same, in Swedish flagg, in German flagge, in Teutonic and Old French flacke, Icelandic flaka, Belgian flack, flak, — signifying that which hangs down loosely, is said to be derived from the early use of rushes for streamers, and also from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "to fly," because the light material of which it is made is floated or lifted by every breeze. In modern parlance, under the generic name of flag is included standards, ancients or ensigns, banners, bannerolls, pavons, colors, streamers, pennons, pennoncelles, gonfanons, guidons, coronetts or coronells (hence the title of colonel), and the like. A flag is defined by the 'London Encyclopedia' as "a small banner of distinction used in the army, and stuck in a baggage-wagon, to distinguish the baggage of one brigade from another, and of one battalion from another." It, however, properly denotes in our time the colors worn at the mastheads of national vessels to mark the rank or quality of the person commanding a squadron or fleet. The admiral of a squadron or fleet is styled the flag-officer, from the square flag hoisted at one of the mastheads of the vessel on which he is embarked, and which denotes to the rest of the fleet his presence there, and causes his ship to be designated as "the flag-ship." The first flag of Great Britain, generally known as the Royal standard, is a square flag, blazoned with the arms of the United Kingdom. When hoisted at the masthead it denotes that the sovereign, or some member of the royal family, is embarked on board the vessel; or, when hoisted on the flag-staff over a residence, wherever they may be on shore. The royal salute for this flag is twenty-one guns. The second flag, that of the lord high admiral, or of " the commissioners performing the duties of that high office," is "a crimson banner," with "an anchor argent gorged in the arm with a coronet and a cable through the ring fretted in a true lover's knot with the ends pendant." Thus it was carried by the Earl of Southampton in the reign of Henry VIII., and by the Earl of Lincoln in the time of Mary, except that he bore the stem and flukes of the anchor argent, the ring and stock or, and the cable azure. The Duke of Buckingham used the anchor with cable entwined, all or, much as it is now. In the reign of Charles II., the Duke of York placed his arms on an anchor surmounted by his coronet. Among the first acts of Charles II., after his restoration to the throne, was one declaring his brother the Duke of York-lord high admiral, on the 4th of June, 1660. The Duke, having hoisted his flag on board the Royal Charles, put to sea on the 25th of April, 1665, with a squadron of fourteen sail, besides five ships and smaller vessels, and met and defeated the fleet of Holland under Opdam on the 3d of June. On the commencement of the second Dutch war, the Duke again hoisted his flag on board the St. Michael, and engaging the great De Ruyter's ship, the St. Michael was reduced almost to a wreck, when he shifted his flag to the Royal London, and was successful. |