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Grand Union flag

North Carolina currency, 1776

Painting of flag of East India Company, 1732

The Grand Union Flag, also known as the Congress flag, the First Navy Ensign, the Cambridge Flag, and the Continental Colors is traditionally considered to be the first national flag of the United States. This flag consisted of 13 red and white stripes with the British Union Flag of the time (prior to the inclusion of St. Patrick's cross of Ireland) in the canton. The stripes signify the "uniqueness and unity" of the Thirteen Colonies,^{[citation needed]} and the Union Flag the colonial leaders' wishes to keep close ties with Great Britain.

The flag was first flown on December 3, 1775 by the then Colonial Navy lieutenant John Paul Jones on the ship Alfred (see [1]). According to tradition, the flag was flown by George Washington and was first raised by his troops on New Year's Day in 1776 at Prospect Hill in Charlestown (now part of Somerville), near his headquarters at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Recent scholarship by Peter Ansoff has shown these interpretations of the events on Prospect Hill to be unlikely, and pointed out that this flag was created in Philadelphia as a naval ensign and "never officially adopted or promulgated" (Ansoff, p. 84); even the name, Grand Union Flag, is a 19th century creation (Ansoff, p. 92).

The Grand Union Flag was also used on North Carolina currency printed in 1776.^{[citation needed]}

The design of the Grand Union Flag is similar to the flag of the British East India Company. Indeed, the design in use since 1707 when the canton was changed from the flag of England to that of Great Britain, was identical, save for the fact that the number of stripes varied from 9 to 15. That that flag was potentially well known by the American colonists has been the basis of theory of the origin of the Grand Union Flag's design, but this theory is regarded as far from established.

Today the Grand Union Flag is often included as the "first flag" in displays of U.S. flag history, such as on the backdrop of Presidential inaugurations. It was replaced by a 13-star flag (sometimes known as the Betsy Ross or Francis Hopkinson flag), representing the original thirteen colonies which became states of the infant republic.

• Grand Union Flag at Flags of the World
• Ansoff, Peter. (2006). The Flag on Prospect Hill. Raven: A Journal of Vexillology, 13, 77–100, ISSN 1071-0043, LCCN 94-220.

• First Navy Jack
• Flag of the United States
• Flags of the United States