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US historical flags

New England
Blue Bunker Hill flag

See also:

New England

The New England flag, used in colonial times [and noted at Logan Airport, Boston], was a red ensign with the Cross of St. George in the canton.

Another variation of the red version had a pine tree in one of the corners of the canton. Yet another variation, arising from the sentiment that the use of a cross was improper, only had a tree in the canton, without any cross at all. This cross-less version was, for obvious reasons, opposed by the crown authorities, and provoked some serious conflict for a while.

Perry Dane 27-OCT-1995

To this I can add reference to World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 7, Flag, pp 209, 210 (article by W.Smith):

On page 210 there is image of 1. with caption: New England flags. [...] A flag representing New England flew from 1686 to 1707. It was the first regional American flag.

On page 209 there is a white flag with a pine tree and motto above "An Appeal to Heaven", The caption says: "Navy flags. American ships in New England waters flew a liberty tree flag in 1775. Latter that year, the Continental Navy began using a striped flag [13 stripes starting with white] with a rattlesnake design and the words "Don't tread upon me"

Zeljko Heimer, 1996-FEB-07

At one point the New England states were joined administratively for about three years as the Dominion of New England, which I think is unrelated to the later concept of Dominions such as Canada. This was long before the American War for Independence.

Apparently the Dominion of New England did not have a flag. Quoting from Whitney Smith's Flag Book of the United States [smi75] referring to military flags in the colonies:

In 1661 St. George's cross was established as a background pattern for the infantry ensign. There is evidence that a flag of this type, the first captain's color of the King's Guards, was carried by troops in this country during the administration of Governor Sir Edmund Andros (1686-1689) in the Dominion of New England*. This was a square banner with a purple St. George's Cross bearing [King] James's royal cipher in gold. It had been mistakenly identified in some books as a flag for New England or for Andros himself.

(*) The Dominion, established by King James II, combined the colonies of Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Plymouth, and Rhode Island. It was dissolved before it could effectively begin to operate.

I have seen references where this flag is indeed (mis-) identified as the flag of New England. There were, however, other flags that served to identify the "New England" colonies. The Escutchoned Jack (the Union Flag with a blank white shield in the center) was established to identify colonial ships.

Nick Artimovich, 1996-MAR-27

The Blue Binker Hill Flag

The "Bunker Hill Flag" with the blue field was an error made by a person coloring flag charts a couple of hundred years ago. The flag, representing New England, was correctly printed with heraldic hatching to indicate a red field, but it was colored blue by mistake. That one error has lived to this day as fact. The report by the North American Vexillological Association in the 1970's concluded that the Americans probably didn't carry any flag at Bunker Hill, they were such a rag-tag outfit. The most famous painting of the battle shows a flag with the red field with green pine tree in a white canton, no cross. Unfortunately, the British flag in the same painting has the St Andrew's cross in blue on a red canton, or some such mish mash. So the artist may not have been all that careful about his rendition of the New England flag. The same flag but with a circle of stars in the field is a copyrighted design by a company in Essex, Massachusetts, and is to represent the New England States.

Nick Artimovich, 1996-FEB-06

The commerically available Bunker Hill Flag is this blue flag.

William M. Grimes-Wyatt, 1996-FEB-07