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ONE OF THE TWO EARLIEST KNOWN FLAGS IN THE DESIGN PRESENTED BY CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN OF SOUTH CAROLINA, FORMER MEMBER OF THE SONS OF LIBERTY, DELEGATE TO THE CONTINANTAL CONGRESS, AND CHAIR OF THE MARINE COMMITTEE, SUGGESTING IT BECOME THE “STANDARD OF THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE CONTINENTAL U.S. NAVY,” BETTER KNOWN AS THE "GADSDEN FLAG;" PRINTED ON GLAZED, SAFFRON YELLOW COTTON, ATTRIBUTED TO PRINTER JOHN M. EASTERBY OF NEW YORK AND SOUTH CAROLINA, circa 1860 (POSSIBLY PRIOR) |
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| Available: |
Sold |
| Frame Size (H x L): |
28.25" x 35.5" |
| Flag Size (H x L): |
18.5" x 25.25" |
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| Description....: |
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In modern times, one of the most admired devices present on colonial era American flags is the rattlesnake. I receive a ton of requests for what is typically referred to as "Don't Tread on Me" flags, referencing the most familiar motto known to have sometimes accompanied it. Unfortunately, early examples of the rattlesnake designs, of which there were a variety, are all-but-nonexistent beyond written descriptions and illustrations.
American forefather John Jay is said to have attributed the design of the most famous of these, with its yellow ground, coiled snake, and “Don’t Tread on Me” text, to Christopher Gadsden (1724-1805) of South Carolina, Delegate to the Second Continental Congress, who from mid-December, 1775 to January 14th, 1776, served as the first chairman of something called the Marine Committee. This was the congressional committee charged with oversight of the United States Navy. Gadsden suggested that the pattern be flown as by the Navy’s Commander in Chief, as the personal standard of the officer with that distinction. An ardent patriot, in addition to his preset role at the time, Gadsden had been a delegate to something called the “Stamp Act Congress of New York,” in 1765, and one of the chief organizers of the Sons of Liberty, at about the same time, as well as the South Carolina Delegate to the First Continental Congress at Philadelphia, in the fall of 1774.
Although no original of what would become known as the “Gadsden flag” survives, there are nonetheless plenty of mentions of it. In his book “Origin and History of the American flag” (1917, Nicholas L. Brown / Central Press, Philadelphia), George Henry Preble, a noted, 19th century vexillologist and former U.S. Navy Admiral, reports that Jay, in a July, 1776 letter, speaks of flags with a "rattlesnake rearing its crest and shaking its rattles,” and “having the motto, 'Don't Tread on Me.'" Similar reports are noted in other sources.
In his book, "Standards & Colors of the American Revolution" (1982, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia), p. 66, author Edward W. Richardson explains: "There is strong evidence that Commodore Esek Hopkins flew this standard from the mainmast of his flagship, the 'Alfred,' during the Continental Navy's first expedition against Nassau, Bahamas, in Spring 1776." The list of signals to outfit the Alfred included three flags: the ensign (national colors), a striped jack, and "the standard at the mainmast." The last of these would presumably be in the Gadsden design, as Hopkins was the Continental Navy’s first commander, though this is not known with certainty.
Gadsden gave up chairmanship of the Marine Committee because he was needed in South Carolina. According to a book by John Drayton entitled “Memoirs of the American Revolution, From its Commencement to the Year 1776, Inclusive; As Relating to the State of South-Carolina…” (1821, A.F. Miller, Charleston), upon Gadsden’s return to Charleston, he “…presented Congress, on the 8th of February, 1776, ‘an elegant standard, such as is to be used by the commander in chief of the American [N]avy; being a yellow flag, with a lively representation of a rattlesnake in the middle and the attitude of going to strike, and these words underneath, ‘Don't Tread On Me.’ Congress ordered that the said standard be carefully preserved and suspended in the Congress-room; And from that time it was placed in the southwest corner of that room, at the left hand of the President's chair.”* Drayton was intimately aware of the activities of the provisional South Carolina Congress and twice served as Governor of the state.
Just three actual flags survive with a rattlesnake device, that date to the Revolutionary War time frame (1775-1783) through and including what we generally refer to the American Federal Period (1780’s-1820's). None of these is in the form of the Gadsden flag, or the popular First Navy Jack, with its slithering snake against a field of red and white stripes.
The earliest of the surviving examples is the standard of a Pennsylvania Revolutionary War unit called the 5th Independent Battalion, (a.k.a., “Westmoreland Pennsylvania Battalion” or “Proctor's Brigade”). This may date as early as the fall of 1775. Measuring 6' 4" x 5' 10", this is a red flag with the British Union Flag (more commonly known today as the “Union Jack,” serving as its canton. Upon the red field is a device—largely in gold—that features a coiled rattlesnake, above which are initials to identify the regiment, “I.B.W.C.P.,” and below which is a streamer with text that reads “Don’t Tread on Me,” that extends upward into an open wreath of scrolling vines. This flag is among the collection of the William Penn Memorial Museum in Harrisburg (better known as the State Museum).
Another example period to the Revolutionary War, is a recently discovered flag of the 2nd Spartan Regiment of South Carolina Militia. Blue in color, with a canton that consists of 13 stripes, assembled from gold gilt lines in alternate position with the blue ground, there is a central device with both a “spartan dog” and a rattlesnake. Made for a unit raised in 1778 by the state’s provisional congress, tasked with the defense of its residents. The flag is presently on view at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
The third example—definitely early, but not necessarily of 18th century origin—is the field colors of a Rhode Island artillery unit, in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society. This is a yellow flag with 13 blue-painted stars, inside which is a coiled rattlesnake, above a banner that reads “Don’t Tread on Me.” A pair of cannons and an anchor appear below, decorated with a second banner that reads: “In God We Hope.” Rumored to have possibly belonged to the "United Company of the Train of Artillery of 1775” (a.k.a., “The Noble Train of Artillery”) the attribution to the unit is made by way of an article that appeared in the 1925 issue of the "Rhode Island Historical Society Collections." The military operation it is suggested to represent is the one led by Henry Knox, at the direction of George Washington, that successfully transported cannon, seized at Ft. Ticonderoga by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen, by sled over a course of 300 miles, in the winter of 1775-76, to bolster the defense of Boston. Measuring 3' 4" x 4' 2", the flag bears the signature “John R. Penniman” on the anchor portion of its imagery. John Ritto Penniman (b. Born January 30th, 1783, d. 1830 [alternate source indicates 1782-1841]) was a listed painter and engraver. He was an infant when the war ended, and thus could not have painted Revolutionary War battle flags. Once an assistant to Gilbert Stuart, he was commissioned to produce the official seal of the City of Boston in 1822. Married in Boston in 1805, he is known to have worked for many years in Roxbury (adjacent to and basically part of Boston), and to have been active as late as 1826. It is uncertain as to whether the rattlesnake flag painted by him is period to the Revolutionary War, and perhaps repainted or restored by Penniman, or if the banner was actually made post-war. The latter seems most likely. Militia units carried silk flags of this type throughout the Federal period and beyond. Perhaps the design was intended to copy a unit’s original colors, to be carried in a patriotic event, such as a parade held in conjunction with the return of Lafayette, in 1824, whose visit resulted in an extraordinary amount of flag-making. It could have also been made for events surrounding the 1826 celebration of the 50th anniversary of American independence.
Post-Federal Era examples of the Gadsden flag, or others that utilize colonial designs with rattlesnakes, are likewise exceedingly rare, especially in the 19th century. In terms of the Gadsden flag specifically, one notable example that I long hoped may still exist, was apparently slated to be hung at the 1876 Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, though, as it turns out, may in fact never have occurred. This was our nation’s first World’s Fair and served as the nucleus of the 100-year anniversary of American independence. An illustration of a flag in the Gadsden design appears in an engraving, executed by artist Fernando Miranda, for Frank Leslie’s gigantic book, entitled the “Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial Exposition 1876” (1877, Frank Leslie’s Publishing House, New York), p. 65. The flag seems to have been slated to be the centerpiece of a display of historical flags, recorded as having been suspended 75 feet in the air at the east end of the “Main Building,” the Expo’s largest structure and, in fact, the largest building in the world at the time. The purpose of the historic grouping was to illustrate the growth of the American flag over time. Curiously, however, in an actual, surviving photograph of this decorative array of flags, taken by the Centennial Photographic Company of Philadelphia, a black void is clearly present where the one in the Gadsden design was supposed to be, above a painting of a pioneer woodsman. In addition to the inaccuracy of the flag’s presence, the details of the painting were obviously embellished by Miranda, with elements in the engraving not appearing in the photo. Since the fair had a duration of approximately 6 months, one might speculate that the Gadsden flag was, in fact, present there at some point. Perhaps it was removed, for example, for use at an alternate location. Perhaps the installation was delayed for some reason. The height would surely have precluded any degree of ease in changing it, as would the flag’s length of at least 12-15 feet or more on the fly. Whatever the case may be, we have yet to discover another photo with the flag actually there, present and accounted for.
In the same year, a man visiting Philadelphia to see the sites and attend the Exposition, wrote to his mother of a trip two Independence Hall, where he saw, in each corner of what was perhaps the Assembly Room, two flags that he clearly described, one being in the Gadsden design and the other in that of the First Navy Jack.
Close to 20 years ago, I examined a Gadsden flag that may have been made circa 1876-1890’s, or perhaps just after the or perhaps a bit after, while doing an appraisal at an outdoor antique show in Connecticut.
With the exception of the two flags I will now describe, one of which is the subject of this discussion, no other copies of the Gadsden flag are known that date to the 19th century.
The flag that is the subject of this narrative is one of the two earliest copies of the Gadsden flag known to exist. Printed on beautifully glazed cotton chintz, saffron yellow in color, it is one of two identified parade flags in the same precise style, undoubtedly produced by the same hand, likely as part of a single, limited run. Together these are the only examples I can confidently date pre-1900. Though known specific history of some related flags points to a date of 1860, basic aspects of the fabric, colors, and design are more indicative of the 1830’s and 40’s. I’d suggest an earliest possible date of 1824, which would designate these extraordinary textiles as the earliest printed American flags of any form, but with a latest likely date of 1861, in the opening year of the Civil War.
Three flags survive that are presumed to date to the same year, rendered in two different Southern designs. Two of these are in one style that features a palmetto tree, wrapped by a rattlesnake, with a single star to the upper left and an arched streamer overhead that boldly reads “Southern Rights at all Hazards.” One of these is printed in black (or perhaps sepia) on glazed white cotton chintz. This was found with a period note stating that it was taken from a barn by a Union soldier, near Columbia, South Carolina, as Union forces continued back through the state and northward, following Sherman’s famous “March to the Sea.” The other of these, in the same style, is printed in medium-dark green, though the white cotton ground does not appear to be glazed in this instance.
The third flag, in a closely related style, features a different palmetto tree, without the star or rattlesnake, and with a different form of scrolling ribbon that passes laterally behind the tree, through the middle instead of overhead. Also on a white ground, and apparently glazed, the ribbon contains the same verbiage, in the same block text. In this case, the printing is actually done in an unusual combination of both green and black, with the ribbon, text, and a central portion of the tree in the latter, and the rest in the former, so that it so that it turns back as it crosses the center of the tree. Notes actually written on the flag document that it was somehow obtained by Charlie Herbst, a member of the 2nd Kentucky Infantry, who reported it as having been printed in New York as one of a dozen, in January of 1861.
In the course of our research, we happened upon an article in the Friday Morning, December 7th, 1860 edition of the Charleston Daily Courier, that documents another flag in this same style, (no image, just a description,) made by John Easterby of New York City and Charleston, South Carolina, “of his own ingenuity.” The article reports the flag as having been presented on the previous day to University of South Carolina President Augustus Longstreet (b. 1790, d. 1870), just two weeks before the state became the first to secede from the Union. It also reported the flag to be “smooth and glossy,” exhibiting “great skill in the art of printing upon cloth,” with the tree and snake in green and the text in gold.
I suspect all four of the above flags to have been rendered by Easterby, who formally served as the Color Sergeant of Company H of a militia unit called the “Charleston Volunteers,” one of about 100 such regiments that existed in the state during the Antebellum. Militia units served an important fraternal / social function in early America, as well as the protection of the state. The latter was of particular significance in the absence of a standing army.
With present knowledge, it is difficult to tell, with absolute certainty, whether the two, sulfur yellow examples of the Gadsden flag were also made by Easterby, in or about 1860, or if they were made elsewhere and earlier. Though it can certainly be seen in the 1860’s, chintz is often a pre-war fabric. While hardly definitive, this shade of yellow, in a glazed, cotton chintz, is far more indicative of the 1830’s and 40’s, as-is the general, overall presentation of the textile, with its brown or sepia copperplate image of the rattlesnake device with its accompanying foliage. The sunfire red, upper and lower case, Roman style lettering, follows suit, though I would certainly not rule out an 1860 date on that single factor alone. An important point that bears mention is Easterby’s use of “gold” for the lettering of the flag, described in the Charleston Daily Courier, that may very well be describing the same yellow pigment as the Gadsden flags, though it is possible that these may have instead been gilded—a common practice on high quality flags and banners, though not so typically found on printed examples. Because almost no one seems to have been making anything like this in 1860 or prior (that we presently know of), and because the Gadsden design is the product of an important South Carolinian, manufacture by John Easterby, as yet another patriotic resident of the state, known to be producing things of the same general ilk, in very limited quantity, is a logical assumption. Both the rattlesnake and the slogan “Don’t Tread on Me” draw an appropriate parallel between the ideals of Colonial Americans facing the oppressive British, and what many in the South felt were keenly similar circumstances. In addition to the issue of slavery, the other extremely hot topic in South Carolina, that led nearly to war with the Federal government in 1832, when troops were actually assembled within the state for that purpose, was the imposing of excessive tariffs on imported and exported goods (namely cotton), without the state’s approval. To those in a state with an economy tied directly to the inflow and outflow of trade, the scenario echoed of the Stamp Act. Gadsden had been a member of the Sons of Liberty in the 1760’s, the primary reason for which was opposition to exactly that. Use of the rattlesnake, and/or variations of his slogan, are well-documented in South Carolina in the late Antebellum, and images of a tie like this to Gadsden would have been viewed by locals as keenly apropos.
The mate to the Gadsden flag that is the subject of this narrative, is documented in two leading texts on political and patriotic textiles. Author Herbert Ridgeway Collins, former head of the Smithsonian’s Division of Political History, featured it as item #324 of his book, “Threads of History: Americana Recorded on Cloth, 1775 - the Present,” (Smithsonian Press, 1979). With a black & white image, Collins’ legend incorrectly describes the flag as having a “Red, coiled, copperhead snake with legend in black lettering: “Don’t Tread on Me.” Another error, of far greater importance, is that the serpent is clearly a rattlesnake. The flag pictured was part of a collection at the University of Hartford, amassed by collector J. Doyle Dewitt, and managed by an academic named Edmund B. Sullivan, who also pictured the flag in his book “Collecting Political Americana,” (1991, The Christopher Publishing House, Hanover, MA), plate 73 [in a section of unnumbered pages], where it appears in color. As if to add to the comedy of errors, Sullivan incorrectly lists it in the legend for plate 71: “The Copperhead banner below was used by Civil War activists in 1864.” One of my good friends knew Sullivan well, describing him as a very bright guy. I have to guess that he absent-mindedly overlooked the type of snake, concluding that a political flag of this era, with a serpent, must tie it to the faction of “Peace Democrats,” known as the “Copperheads” (est. 1860, dissolved 1868), that supported slavery, but were anti-war.
Sullivan and Collins also, in my opinion, incorrectly date it to 1864. By that time the flash is sort-of out-of-the-pan, one might say. Though not impossible, the probability, if made in the Civil War era, seems to decidedly tie to the events surrounding South Carolina secession.
Though I have made what I feel is a fair argument for Civil War era, South Carolina-associated origin, what I said previous to that remains true. The flag’s sulfur yellow chintz fabric, the nature of its printed design and overall appearance, tug at my instincts as a long-time, avid student, dealer, and collector of early quilts and related American textiles for well over 30 years, to focus the keen likelihood of an earlier date. 1824-1826-origin, as something produced for the return of Lafayette and/or the 50th anniversary of America, for example, is not completely out of the realm of reason, nor is 1832, as something produced to honor the centennial of Washington’s birth, or as something produced in protest of the tariffs in the Nullification crisis, or perhaps for activities of the Society of the Cincinnati, the venerable organization of commissioned Rev. War officers. A lack of both known examples of like kind, and/or an extremely obvious event as a source, occurring in the latter 1830’s, 1840’s, or early 1850’s, swings the pendulum back towards John Easterby production in 1860. |
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| Collector Level: |
Flags for the truest Patriots. My best offerings |
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| Flag Type: |
Parade flag |
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| Star Count: |
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| Earliest Date of Origin: |
1832 |
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| Latest Date of Origin: |
1860 |
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| State/Affiliation: |
South Carolina |
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| War Association: |
1777-1860 Pre-Civil War |
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| Price: |
SOLD |
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Views: 387 |
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