Flag Dag Celebration at the Punta Gorda Elks

Well I learned a lot more about American flag history yesterday at a celebration for Flag Day following an afternoon of hot dogs, hamburgers and beer at the Punta Gorda Elks.

The Elks celebration started off with Exalted Ruler Patricia Schmidt introducing Punta Gorda Major Larry Friedman, who read the proclamation of Flag Day and Week of the City of Punta Gorda.  This was  followed by a ceremony during which the  Honor Guard of  Punta Gorda police stood at attention and  Elkettes accompanied by members of a Punta Gorda brownie troop paraded  the historic flags of the United States.   Robert Hahn, Past Exalted Ruler of the Punta Gorda Elks, related  the history of each of the flags.  

According to Mr. Hahn's reading, prior to 1776, American ships in Boston harbor flew "the Liberty Flag" which bore an emblem of a green pine tree and the words "An Appeal to Heaven."  Another early American flag flown by Continental Navy showed a snake across it bearing the words "Don't Tread on Me."  The "Grand Union" flag  also called The "Cambridge Flag." was flown over Prospect Hill, overlooking Boston, on  January 1, 1776.   In the canton of this flag are crosses of Saint Andrew and Saint George, borrowed from the British flag.

The Betsy Ross flag, the first to carry the stars and stripes, did not specify the arrangement of the stars nor the number and width of the stripes, nor did the several that followed.  It wasn't until 1818 when the country consisted of  20 states that Congress mandated that the number of stripes be fixed at 13 and that one new star was to be added for each new state,  However, even then nothing was written about what arrangement the stars should be. 

According to a flag history on http://www.usa-flag-site.org, an executive Order of President Taft in 1912  established the proportions of the flag and provided for arrangement of the stars in six horizontal rows of eight each, a single point of each star to be upward."  Then in 1959, stars were added for Hawaii and Alaska and the arrangement of the flag as we see it to day was set.