Guilford Courthouse flag

The Guilford Courthouse flag is the name given to a North Carolina militia banner which was reported to have flown at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. The flag is recognizable by the reverse colors normally seen on American flags: red and "blue" stripes in the field with "eight"-pointed "blue" stars on an elongated, "white" canton.

The unique colors and dimensions are sometimes described as showing a lack of uniformity in a young nation at war, with a poor infrastructure and bad communication. However, it was common practice during the Revolution for military units to carry flags that featured common American symbols (such as stripes and stars), but to make them uniquely identifyable for use as a company or regimental flag. [Mastai, pg 39.] As such, this flag was probably never intended for use as a national flag.

The original flag has been preserved since 1914 in the collection of the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, NC. It measures 42 inches high and 100 inches on the fly. The canton is 35 inches high and 73 inches long. The stars are 8 inches in diameter and have eight points. [National Park Service] It is considered the oldest surviving example of an American flag with eight-pointed stars. [Cooper, 27]

History

The flag was presented to the Grand Masonic Lodge of North Carolina in 1909. At that presentation, it was written that the flag was presented in 1854, when its owner, Major Edward Bullock, stated that his father, Macajah Bullock, carried it in the Granville County militia in the American Revolutionary War. Since the 1909 presentation, the flag has been linked closely with the battle of Guilford Courthouse, a battle in which Granville militiamen fought. [National Park Service]

There is no historic documentation of the flag being used in the battle. Studies of the flag suggest that it may have had 15 stars and 15 stripes at one time [Cooper, 27. Cooper provides an illustration of what the completed 15-star flag would have looked like.] - either originally made or perhaps added on when US flags had 15 stripes. The use of cotton cloth as the primary fabric is evidence of post-1790 construction. [National Park Service] These factors cause some to question the validity of the Bullock story.

Few question that it is a very old flag, a relic of a young United States. When copies of this design are sold or flown today, it is generally symbolic of the American Revolution and, specifically, the battle of Guilford Courthouse.

References

*Cooper, Grace Rogers "Thirteen Star Flags" 1973. Smithsonian Institution Press. Available [http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/HistoryTechnology/pdf_hi/SSHT-0021.pdf online] (21.7 MB).
*Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange "The Stars and the Stripes. The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the Republic to the Present" ©1973. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 0-394-47217-9
*National Park Service, [http://www.nps.gov/guco/planyourvisit/upload/NC%20Militia%20Flag.doc "The North Carolina Militia Flag"]