When the Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, the newly founded country understandably did not have an official flag. This, however, had not stopped the Americans from hoisting unofficial flags.
Gilbert Barkly, a British spy in Philadelphia, wrote a letter on Jan. 10, 1776, to Sir Grey Cooper, a London politician and financier, noting that colonial ships “have hoisted what they call the Ammerican Flag viz the British Union, with thirteen stripes red and white, for its field, Representing the thirteen United Collonies.”
It was, in fact, the Continental Navy, established on Oct. 13, 1775, that first unfurled this “Ammerican Flag.” On Dec. 3, 1775, more than a month before Barkly’s letter, the Alfred, the flagship of the Continental Navy’s eight-ship squadron, became the first ship to display the flag….