History of the Flag: Part 3 By Martin Link
“We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.” These eight words by Gen. Nathanael Greene expressed the fortitude and determination of his Patriot soldiers in the southern colonies as they faced British forces in the final years of the American Revolutionary War.
On the morning of March 15, 1781, General Nathanael Greene formed the 4,400-man army into three long lines along the hill that crested in front of the Guilford County Courthouse. The front line included the militia regiment from North Carolina, who proudly displayed their national colors designed in a rather unique combination of red, white, and blue: 13 red and blue stripes with a white canton emblazoned with 13 eight-pointed stars. Although Lord Cornwallis’
Although most military units and naval vessels by now were using the standard design as defined in the Congressional Flag Resolution, variations and differences in the color patterns were still being conceived. A number of battles, such as Cowpens, South Carolina (January 15, 1781), Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina (March 15, 1781), and Eutaw Springs, South Carolina (September 8, 1781), were all technically British victories, but their forces, now greatly reduced by these conflicts, took refuge in and around Yorktown, Virginia, where they finally surrendered on October 19, 1781. British soldiers fought bravely for over two hours and ended up in possession of the battlefield, they lost more than a third of their 2,000-man army and had no option but to begin a retreat to the coast (Yorktown, Virginia).
The war, for all intents and purposes, was over, and the Stars and Stripes became the official flag of a new, independent nation. Congress decreed that both a stripe and a 5-pointed star would be added for every state that entered the Union. But then, less than three decades later, in 1812, the United States and Great Britain entered into a state of war with each other.
In Defense of Fort McHenry
By 1812 we were back at war with Great Britain. In early September, 1814, British land forces captured and burned Washington, D.C. The British fleet was poised to bombard Fort McHenry and render nearby Baltimore defenseless.
Aboard the British flagship was an American doctor, Dr. William Beanes. His attorney, Francis Scott Key, had sailed out to the British ship to negotiate Beanes’ release, but because of the impending engagement, the British admiral temporarily detained both of them. 52
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As night fell on September 13th, the fleet began its bombardment. Soon, darkness and the smoke from exploding shells and rockets completely obscured the fort and its massive garrison flag. Throughout the night the bombardment continued, and return fire from the fort set fire to several ships and destroyed the sails and rigging of several others. Shortly before dawn, the shelling stopped, and in the eerie quiet of the pre-dawn darkness, the two American captives stood at the ship’s railing anxiously waiting for a first view of the fort.
