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Militia / American Revolutionary War
Flags
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Militia / American
Revolutionary War Flags and Historical Information
April
19, 1775 The government goes door to door confiscating
firearms. Gun fire results - soldiers (i.e., government
troops) vs. the militia (i.e.,
farmboys, drovers, carpenters, laborers, and school teachers,
etc...). The American Revolution is ignited!
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MILITIA FLAG
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DESCRIPTION
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![](BEDFORD1.gif)
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Bedford
Militia Flag
Bedford
Militia - Original Roster
Bedford
Militia - April 19, 1775
www.bedfordminutemancompany.org
The Latin inscription
"Vince Aut Morire" means "Conquer or Die". The
arm emerging from the clouds represents the arm of God
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Green
Mountain Boys Flag
Green
Mountain Boys Militia
More
on the Green Mountain Boys Militia
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Culpeper
Minuteman Flag
Read about the Culpeper
Militia
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Moultrie
Flag
The
Moultrie flag was
the first distinctive American flag displayed in the South. It flew
over the ramparts of the fort on Sullivan's Island, which lies in
the channel leading to Charleston, South Carolina, when
the British fleet attacked on June
28, 1776. The British ships bombarded the fort for 10 hours. But the
garrison, consisting of some 375 regulars -- and a few militia,
under the command of Col. William Moultrie, put up such a gallant
defense that the British were forced to withdraw under cover of
darkness. This victory saved the southern Colonies from invasion for
another two years.
The flag was blue, as were the uniforms of
the men of the garrison, and it bore a white crescent in the upper
corner next to the staff, like the silver crescents the men wore on
their caps, inscribed with the words "Liberty or Death."
Source: http://www.foundingfathers.info/American-flag/Revolution.html
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![](gdhs_1883_2930191.jpg)
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Gadsden Flag
The
Culpeper Flags
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![Gostelowe Standard No. 10, c. 1776](f0307sth.jpg)
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Revolutionary Battle
Flag
Like this one, many battle flags of the American Revolution carried
religious inscriptions."Resistance to tyrants is obedience to
God"
Gostelowe
Standard No. 10, c. 1776
Watercolor once in possession of Edward W.
Richardson. Copyprint
Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution
and Its Color Guard (91)
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Hanover
Associators
They resolved: 'that in the
event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upon us by
strength of arms, our cause we leave to Heaven and our rifles.'
Source: "Flags to Color from the American
Revolution."
This flag belongs to the Hanover Associators, and is on page 17.
The colors are listed as "Red field and trim on cap; yellow
fringe and scroll; black lettering and cap; green ground and
uniform with cream legs, trim, feather and powder horn; brown belt
and light blue rifle barrel."
"The Hanover Association of volunteers was formed on June
4, 1774, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They resolved 'that
in the event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws
upon us by strength of arms, our cause we leave to Heaven and
our rifles.' The rifleman on the flag shows this point. This
flag no longer exists, and the authority for it is an ancient
engraving in the Pennsylvania State Archives."
Randy Young, 1 February 2001
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![](220px-US_Sons_OfLiberty_9Stripes_Flag_svg.png)
Sons of Liberty
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Flags
of the
American War for
Independence
http://www.nwinfo.net/~jagriffin/revflag.htm
http://www.flagguys.com/hist.html
http://www.bwrcsar.us/flags.htm
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Veteran
Exempts Flag
By
Keith Herkalo
Both Roosevelt and Churchill recognized the strategic and political
importance of the land and naval battles of Plattsburgh on September
11th, 1814. Yet time and other events can obscure facts, and the
United States' second war for independence became a forgotten war,
the Battles at Plattsburgh lost in the "rockets red glare"
of Baltimore.
In this text, Keith Herkalo, using personal journals, military
journals, contemporary newspaper accounts, and other original source
documents, examines the evidence that leads to the conclusion that
the Battles at Plattsburgh, on land and on Lake Champlain, were the
key battles of the War of 1812. The other battles, Baltimore,
Washington, and Sackets Harbor, were ruses meant to divert United
States troops away from the prize: Plattsburgh, Lake Champlain, and
a clear pathway into New England.
If not for the explemlary talents and skills of two young military
officers, Commodore Thomas Macdonough and General Alexander Macomb,
a small force of regular army and naval personnel and New York
Militia, a few thousand Vermont Militia, a handful of Native
Americans and Veteran Exempts (those too old for military service),
and a group of boys from the local school, the United States, as we
know it today, would not exist.
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Battle
of Bennington- 1777
Per
above link:
The
British suffered a major defeat when New England militia men
ambushed a large force of British soldiers attempting to forage
for supplies. The British force was almost wiped out, losing 207
dead and 700 captured.
Burgoyne's
first major defeat occurred when he sent a force of Hessians west
of the Connecticut River to seize cattle and other supplies. The
force, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Fredrich Baum, was ordered
to head to Bennington and seize rebel supplies. Awaiting Baum near
Bennington were nearly 2,000 American militia men led by John
Stark of New Hampshire. At Van Schaick Mill, Baum's forces ran
into the advance guard of the American forces, and both sides
prepared for battle the next day, next to the Wallomsac River. The
British were in makeshift fortifications on a height north of the
river. On August 16, after a rain delay, Stark's men attacked. In
a complicated multi-pronged attack, they captured or killed the
entire British force. By late in the afternoon, a British relief
expedition arrived. The relief expedition was met by Warner's
Green Mountain Boys. They forced the British to pull back. With
the help of Stark's forces, the withdrawal turned to a route. By
the end of the battle, 207 British and Hessians lay dead and 700
were captured. The Americans lost 20 dead and another 40 wounded. |
Battle
of Bennington
per above link:
The Battle of Bennington was a battle of
the American Revolutionary War, taking place on August 16, 1777,
not at its namesake of Bennington, Vermont, but instead a few
miles over the border in Walloomsac, New York. An American force
of 2,000 New Hampshire and Massachusetts militiamen, led by
General John Stark with aid from Colonel Seth Warner, defeated a
combined force of 1,250 Brunswick mercenaries, Canadians,
Loyalists, and Native Americans led by Lieutenant Colonel
Friedrich Baum.
British General John Burgoyne was
attempting to push through the northern Hudson River Valley. After
the recent British victories at Hubbardton, Fort Ticonderoga, and
St. Clair, Burgoyne's plan was to defeat the American forces in
the area and then continue south to Albany and onto the Hudson
River Valley, dividing the American colonies in half. The Battle
was before Saratoga.
However, Burgoyne's progress towards
Albany had slowed to a crawl by late July, and his army's supplies
began to dwindle. Burgoyne sent a detachment of about 800 troops
under the command of the Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum from
Fort Miller. Half of Baum's detachment was made up of Brunswick
regulars, while the other half consisted of local Loyalists,
Canadians, and Native Americans. Baum was ordered to raid the
supply depot at Bennington, which was guarded by fewer than 400
colonial militia.
On August 13, 1777, en route to
Bennington, Baum learned of the arrival in the area of 1,500 New
Hampshire militiamen under the command of General John Stark. Baum
ordered his forces to stop at the Walloomsac River, about four
miles (6 km) west of Bennington. After sending a request for
reinforcements to Fort Miller, Baum took advantage of the terrain
and deployed his forces on the high ground. In the rain, Baum's
men dug in and hoped that the weather would prevent the Americans
from attacking before reinforcements arrived. Deployed a few miles
away, Stark decided to reconnoiter Baum's positions and wait until
the weather cleared.
On the afternoon of August 16, 1777, the
weather cleared, and Stark ordered his men ready to attack. Stark
is reputed to have rallied his troops by saying, "There are
your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this
night Molly Stark sleeps a widow." Upon hearing that the
militia had melted away into the woods, Baum assumed that the
Americans were retreating or redeploying. However, Stark had
recognized that Baum's forces were spread thin and decided
immediately to envelop them from two sides while simultaneously
charging Baum's central redoubt head-on. Stark's plan , the
Loyalists and Native Americans fled. This left Baum and his
Hessian dragoons trapped on the high ground without any horses.
The Germans fought valiantly even after running low on powder. The
dragoons led a sabre charge and tried to break through the
enveloping forces. However, after this final charge failed and
Baum was mortally wounded, the Germans surrendered.
Shortly after this battle ended, while
the New Hampshire Militia was disarming the German troops, Baum's
reinforcements arrived. The German reinforcements, under the
command of Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann, saw the
Americans in disarray and pressed their attack immediately. After
hastily regrouping, Stark's forces tried to hold their ground
against the German onslaught. Before their lines collapsed, a
group of several hundred Vermont militiamen arrived to reinforce
Stark's troops. The Green Mountain Boys, commanded by Seth Warner,
had just been defeated at the Battle of Hubbardton by British
reinforcements and were eager to exact their revenge on the enemy.
Together, the New Hampshire and Vermont militias repulsed and
finally routed von Breymann's force.
Today the residents of Bennington
celebrate the battle, calling the day Bennington Battle Day. That
day the town fires Americas oldest firing cannon, called the Molly
Stark Cannon.
Total British losses at Bennington were
recorded at 200 dead and 700 captured; American losses included 40
Americans dead and 30 wounded. Stark's decision to intercept and
destroy the raiding party before they could reach Bennington was a
crucial factor in Burgoyne's eventual surrender, because it
deprived his army of supplies.
The American victory at Bennington also
galvanized the rebels and was a catalyst for French involvement in
the war.
August 16 is a legal holiday in Vermont,
known as Bennington Battle Day. The battle is further commemorated
by the 306-foot (93 m) tall Bennington Battle Monument in Old
Bennington.
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Battle
Of Bennington |
Sharpshooter’s
Pledge:
On my honor, as a Lassen Sharpshooter,
Venturer / Scout, I promise:
To always follow the rules of safe firearm
handling and shooting;
To seek to master those physical and mental
factors essential to the firing of an accurate shot;
To treasure my American heritage, the Bill of
Rights, and do all
I can to protect and preserve the Unalienable Individual Right to Keep
and Bear Arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment;
To recognize such individual right as being
justly considered as the palladium of the liberties of our republic
and deterrent to, and defense against, government tyranny and oppression.
Motto:
Exercising the American Bill of Rights.
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