Page 68 - The Hunt - Summer 2021

VINTAGE
The Battle of Brandywine was an
early engagement in the War of Independence fought at a time when the new nation was still trying to figure out who it was and how it should be depicted.
It was barely three months earlier—on June 14, 1777—that the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, passed a resolution that gave the new American flag 13 stars and 13 bars. Though Congress did leave it up to individual flag makers how they should pattern those stars and stripes.
One of the units that fought in the
battle that raged across the hills northeast
of Chadds Ford was the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment, composed of soldiers from York and Cumberland counties. A week earlier, the 7th had engaged the British in Delaware at the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge—although it was more a skirmish than an actual battle.
The unit of Capt. Robert Wilson carried into battle one of America’s first flags—one that looks little like today’s version. For one thing, it was red and white. And most of the
flag was an unadorned ochre-red field. In the upper left corner—an area called the flag’s canton—was the design itself, 13 alternating red and white stripes with 13 fat stars, looking almost like dots.
Known today as the Brandywine Flag, it survived the battle and is currently on exhibit at Independence National Historical Park
in Philadelphia. The same Brandywine Flag, philatelists will remember, was also featured on a 33-cent stamp issued in 2000 as part of the post office’s Stars and Stripes series.
66 THE HUNT MAGAZINE summer 2021
By Roger Morris
Flying Colors
The Brandywine region has been at the center of much of American flag history.
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