Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Understanding Regimental Flag Design

2. Hornet’s Nest Flag

3. Second New Hampshire Regiment Flag

4. Battle of White Plains Flag

5. Pulaski Legion Banner

6. Bucks of America Flag

7. Commander-in-Chief’s Guard Flag

8. Trumbull American Flag

9. Powder Horns

10. Flag of the United States of America

End

Trumbull American Flag

This adaptation of the Stars and Stripes is attributed to John Trumbull, the second personal aide to General Washington during the war who later became a prominent painter. This flag appears in Trumbull’s 1828 painting, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis. It is unclear if this flag was present at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, which the painting depicts.

The Trumbull Flag design also appears in three other paintings, including The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777, the Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, and a different version of the Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. Although the thirteen-star configuration is one of the most common flag patterns from the Revolutionary period, Trumbull's rectangular design is one of the rarest of its time. The stars are often arranged in a circle, noting the unity of the newly formed union.