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General Information

The Grand Union Flag

The flag was first flown on December 3, 1775 by John Paul Jones (then a Continental Navy lieutenant) on the ship Alfred in Philadelphia. The Alfred flag has been credited to Margaret Manny.

It was used by the American Continental forces as a naval ensign and garrison flag in 1776 and early 1777.

It is widely believed that the flag was raised by George Washington's army on New Year's Day 1776 at Prospect Hill in Charlestown (now part of Somerville), near his headquarters at Cambridge, Massachusetts,








"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave. "
- John Adams - 1772