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Betsy Ross Flag (U.S.)

Historical

by Mark Sensen, 4 December 1997

Legend
Fact or Fiction?

See also:

Legend

Legend has it that Betsy Ross, who made flags for the Philadelphia Navy Board, made the first U.S. flag for George Washington. It had thirteen five-pointed stars in a circle.
Rick Wyatt, 20 May 1998

Fact or Fiction?

Betsy's grandson, William Canby, said in 1870 that Washington and a committee of Congress came to Betsy in 1776 (prior to Independence) with a flag design that incorporated six-pointed stars. Betsy showed them how she could fold a piece of material and with one snip of the scissors, make a perfect five pointed star, which, according to Canby, was more desirable (in 1882, when he expanded the legend, he said it was more heraldically correct, which is not true).

Trouble is, this story has more holes in it than Swiss Cheese!

Fact: No record of a Committee of Congress in 1776 working on a new flag (although the Marine Committee was procuring well-documented Continental Colors design flags for ships at the time).

Fact: George Ross, one of the supposed committee members, was not a member of Congress in June, 1776.

Fact: Washington engaged in a series of correspondences up until 1783 when the War was over and the matter became moot debating a design for the Flag as to be used by the Army that is "variant from the Marine Flag