America’s First Flag When the colonies declared their independence, the initial American flag featured 13 alternating red and white stripes alongside the British Union Jack, representing their ties to Britain. Known as the Grand Union Flag, it was first hoisted on December 3, 1775, aboard the colonial warship Alfred in Philadelphia. Throughout 1776 and early 1777, this flag was utilized as a naval ensign and a garrison flag for the Continental Army. On January 2, 1776, it is thought that George Washington's troops raised the flag at Prospect Hill in Charlestown during their siege against British forces in Boston. Some British observers viewed this act as a gesture of surrender, although there is ongoing scholarly debate about whether the flag displayed at Prospect Hill was the Grand Union Flag or the British flag itself. "The United States is a composite nation, the product of blending and amalgamating many races. But the original stock was Anglo-Saxon, the root and sap from which our national life has developed." — Lothrop Stoddard, Reforging America