Friday, July 04, 2008
Liberty Tree Flag in 4th of July Parade in Washington, DC & many others
In 2008 Independence Day Parade is the first time the First Navy Flag, Liberty Tree Flag (re-created) flew as its bearer marched in the parade. A few weeks later the Washington Cruiser Flag flew in front of the Statue of Washington in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda...
It flew again in the Labor Day Parade in Buena Vista, Virginia, the Governor Jefferson Thanksgiving Parade in Charlottesville (the Saturday before Thanksgiving), the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, and later at the Federal Building on Wall Street.
Later that year after Christmas, the flag traveled to the Birthplace of the American Navy to Marblehead, Massachusett where it "flew" in front of the original "Spirit of '76" painting.
The Washington Cruisers "Appeal to Heaven" Flag also flew on the pier in front of the USS Constitution, in front of the Massachusetts Capitol on Beacon Hill in Boston, and in Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island where General Washington attended prayer services when in Newport, a few blocks from Washington Square.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
"Fake Snake" current Navy Jack flag - myth exposed!
"Fake Snake" current Navy Jack flag - myth exposed!
Saturday, February 02, 2008
12th Revision, (maybe "Final") of "DNA and re-creation of First Navy Flag" article
Dear Gary,
I have made a few additions, including your black and white diagram of the Connecticut 5th Regiment "Pine Tree" flag from the Flag Bulletin #206.
Put it on the right side of the quote from your other article with David Martucci, yet had to reduce the font size to make everything fit.
Also added to images of paintings of the first Continental Navy ship, Hannah, and another of the Washington Cruisers, the Continental Navy ship Lee.
The Continental Navy ship Lee picture was mailed to me by an aide to the former Secretary of the Navy Gordon England about the time he was named Deputy Secretary of Defense.
The first Navy ship Hannah picture is from the big "coffee table" book "The NAVY" published by the Naval Historical Foundation.
I learned from reading James Fenimore Cooper's History of the Navy that a "Providence packet" ship named "Hannah" eluding the British ship Gaspe' was able to cause the British ship with a deeper draft to run aground on a sand bar the Hannah knew about and was able to sail over due to its more shallow draft. Really clever!
Later the marooned Gaspe' exploded, presumably by other Patriot attacks, so that was an early Navy "victory" for the Americans.
That probably happened pretty close to where you live. Do you know of that Hannah-Gaspe' "battle"?
I am very curious if that "Hannah" might by some stroke of good fortune also be the Hannah of Colonel John Glover, that became America's first ship commissioned in the Continental Navy according to the big "coffee table" book "The NAVY" published by the Naval Historical Foundation.
Both ships were from or commissioned in Marblehead, so I believe the Continental ship Lee was most likely named for Jeremiah Lee of Marblehead who died on 10 May 1775 from injuries sustained on 19 April, the same day as the Battle of Lexington and Concord when the
British also tried to capture Jeremiah Lee, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were the organizers of the "Rebels", or chief rabble rousers.
Those "Marvelous Men of Marblehead" were key to the survival of our Continental Army at Brooklyn Heights at the other end of Long Island from you, the "Dunkirk" of the Revolution, and were critical to the successful "Washington Crossing", the Inchon Landing of the
Revolution, if not the comparisons "Brooklyn-Dunkirk" and "Trenton- Inchon" should be reversed giving primacy to the Revolution battles over the later battles.
And I would be willing to bet that mostly Marblehead men made up the 200 men that Commander in Chief General George Washington loaned to former Rhode Island Militia Artillery General Esek Hopkins to man his fleet of Continental Navy ships also commissioned by the Continental Congress when Hopkins was named by Congress as the Navy Commander in Chief, and was called by the sailors "Commodore".
After Congress relieved Hopkins as Commander in Chief, I believe that John Adams tried to have Captain John Manley named as the Navy Commodore. Captain Manley was the skipper of the Continental ship Lee, one of the Washington Cruisers, or "Northern Fleet" of the
Continental Navy, that was very successful in capturing British supply ships like shown in the painting.
One of the most sad side-bar stories of American Navy History in the Revolution is that the British supply ship Lively was captured with 30,000 pairs of shoes and all sorts of other clothing in November 1776, yet due to bickering of the commission to be paid for the
capture the cargo was not released and sent to Washington's Army and on 25 December 1776, four soldiers on the March to Trenton who had no shoes died from exposure.
With the new month infusion of funds, I purchased a Pixel image editing program to enhance the image of the flag on the pictures of the ships to some semblance of the DNA-recreated Washington Cruiser Flag, and so indicate so no one questions that we have KGB type secretive photo manipulation. Up front and honest, tell it like it is, best as the facts of History provide.
The painters at that time did not have the benefit of your Colonial era flag, nor access to the letter of Washington's aide, Colonel Joseph Reed kept at the Library of Congress, nor the letter of the British Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, kept at the British National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
Those enhanced ship images are set beside the large image of the bits of historical facts or "DNA" recreated Washington Cruiser Flag on page 3 and the Paine poem page 5.
Anyway, thanks ever so much for all your wise counsel and assistance in putting this article together.
For America's future (building up on our past),
James Renwick Manship
Interpreter of George Washington (in Three Dimensions)
Box 75, Mount Vernon, Virginia 22121
Washington@Statesmanship.US
202-657-6760
Quote from 1770, retired Virginia Militia Colonel
George Washington said:
"As our country grows, and its population increases, as it will,
care must be taken to have each succeeding generation know
the trials and tribulations of those who preceded them.
History is an essential study to better government."
And America's Educator, Noah Webster, wrote in a.d. 1828:
"Literary power and statesmanship were combined in George
Washington, ..."
Friday, February 01, 2008
The ONLY surviving "Tree Flag" from the early days of America
In 1993, in Southold, Long Island, New York, History enthusiast Gary Laube bought an old trunk in which he found balled up in the bottom some fabric. Soon Mr. Laube found this old military flag within. He lovingly unwrapped this flag and was amazed to discover the only flag from the Revolution. the French and Indian War periods, and before, with a "Tree" in the design that has survived the centuries of time.
In 2002, The New York Times wrote, "Rabbit Goody, a textile historian in Cherry Valley, N.Y., also studied the flag and found the woolen fabric and three ply hand-spun sewing thread consistent with Long Island textile production of the late 1600's.
"I'm convinced the Pine Tree flag is the oldest surviving Colonial flag. I've seen the other four, and Mr. Laube's is older. There are flags in England that were used in the American colonies, but they are later."
(Click on the photos to go to the websites of these two great patriots!)
This Southold Pine Tree flag provides two critical design elements not elsewhere seen, one the simple triangle shape tree, (rather than the elaborate, many-branched trees created by modern graphic artists)...
...and the other in the middle of the flag (hard to see in this photograph) is the inscription, 5th Regt. The upper and lower case of the font used in the inscription is a "clue" or "DNA strand" used to create a realistic reproduction of the design of the Washington Cruisers flag, the first flag flown on America's Navy ships.
The design was described in a letter dated 20 October 1775 by Colonel Joseph Reed, the Aide to General George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Continental forces, Army AND Navy, months before Rhode Island Militia Artillery General Esek Hopkins, brother of Stephen Hopkins of the Maritime Committee of the Continental Congress, was named as Commodore of the Continental Navy in December 1775.
Washington's aide Colonel Reed wrote: "What do you think of a Flag with a white Ground, a tree in the middle, the motto (Appeal to Heaven.)"
See the Colonel Reed letter to Colonel Glover at the Library of Congress Digital Archives:
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mgw/mgw3b/001/085084.jpg
Commodore Hopkins "borrowed" some 200 soldier-sailors from General Washington's Army to first man his additional Navy ships beyond the first seven ships that were commissioned by General Washington with the consent of the Continental Congress and named for leaders of the "Fair Tax and Representation" efforts before it became a full "Revolution" months later. The "Washington Cruisers" were the Franklin, Hancock, Lee, Lynch, Warren and Washington.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Not exactly - 22 Dec: This Day in History 1775: Continental Congress creates a Continental Navy
Actually, not exactly...on 2 September 1775, Commander in Chief Washington commissioned the first Continental Navy ship "Hannah" (named for the wife of Colonel John Glover who owned the ship), and six others later, named by his very politically astute staff for leaders of the Revolution (Franklin, Hancock, Harrison, Lee, Lynch, Warren, and Washington).
The Navy ship Lee may have been named not for a famous Virginian, but for Col. Jeremiah Lee who "was one of the most successful and affluent men in America before the Revolution. A leading merchant in Marblehead, Massachusetts, he owned one of the largest fleets of vessels in Britain’s North American colonies. A 1771 tax listing indicates that he was the wealthiest man in Massachusetts." Jeremiah Lee died in 1775 as a secret organizer with Samuel Adams and John Hancock in equipping the Continental Forces. "His death at age 54 -- shortly after the conflict began -- was a direct result of his involvement in clandestine events in Lexington, in April, 1775." per...http://www.marbleheadmuseum.org/Whois_Lee.htm)
The Navy itself counts 13 October as its birthday because on that day the Maritime Committee of the Continental Congress which had been debating whether or not to create an American Navy and risk the wrath of the British, received a letter from Commander in Chief Washington dated 5 October asking what the Congress advised he should do with a captured British ship.
That capture of a British ship by one of the "Washington Cruisers" made moot the debate of whether or not to create a Navy for fear of risking the wrath of the British, so Congress ordered more ships to be commissioned, thereby affirming the prior birth of the Navy by Commander in Chief of all Continental Forces, George Washington. Washington recognized that he could not complete a siege of the British Army in the port town of Boston without at least a small Navy.
Esek Hopkins, named this 22nd day of December as first Commodore of the Continental Navy, was previously an Artillery General in the Rhode Island Militia, a ship owner, and brother of Stephen Hopkins who was a member of the Maritime Committee of the Continental Congress. A couple of months before, General Hopkins, or the Rhode Island Governor, had declined to provide some artillery cannon to Washington's agent for the outfitting of the first ships of the Continental Navy commissioned by Washington.
There is some indication that Washington did not have the highest regard for Commodore Hopkins, and as the article indicates, Hopkins was later relieved of his command by the Continental Congress.
There is a letter at University of Virginia George Washington Papers project from Commander-in-Chief Washington to Commodore Hopkins asking him to return the 200 soldiers that Washington lent to Hopkins to man the ships under his command. Very likely many of the men were soldiers from Colonel John Glover's "Marblehead Men", the 14th Continental Regiment of sailors from Marblehead, Massachusetts who enlisted in the Continental Army. Those Marblehead Men, sailors become soldiers, were the men who manned the boats for the "miracle" evacuation of the American Army at Brooklyn Heights on 29-30 August a.d. 1776, and handled the boats crossing the Delaware on the Christmas night Raid on Trenton also in a.d. 1776 that kept the Light of Liberty alive! -- and the true first Navy flag was the evergreen Tree of Liberty that flew on ships that sailed from ports near the homes of these Marblehead Men!
Continental Congress creates a Continental Navy
On Friday, December 22, 1775, the Continental Congress creates a Continental Navy, naming Esek Hopkins, Esq., as commander in chief of the fleet.Congress also named four captains to the new service: Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicholas Biddle and John Burrows Hopkins. Their respective vessels, the Alfred, Columbus, Andrew Doria and Cabot, became the first ships of the Navy's fleet. Five first lieutenants, including future American hero John Paul Jones, five second lieutenants, and three third lieutenants also received their commissions.
The new Admiral Hopkins, as he was dubbed by George Washington, was a Rhode Islander of some standing. His brother was Stephen Hopkins, the state's governor. Esek Hopkins had married well and used his wife's fortune to buy a ship. It proved a wise investment. He added to his wealth working as a privateer during the Seven Years' War. In his new position, Congress promised to pay him "125 dollars per calendar month"; they also informed that he could look forward to some "share of the prizes allotted to the captors." Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina designed Hopkins' personal standard, which flew from the first navy fleet. The yellow flag bore the image of a coiled snake and the Patriot motto, "Don't Tread on Me."
Hopkins' first assignment was to assess the feasibility of an attack on British naval forces in the Chesapeake Bay. After sailing south with his meager force of eight ships, Hopkins decided that victory in such an encounter was impossible. He sailed to the Bahamas instead, where he attacked the British port of Nassau, a decision for which he was relieved of his command upon returning to the continent.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
True Tree, simple shape, (snake still fake!)
Back on 2 September this year, I sent an email to Peter Ansoff, president or past president of NAVA - North American Vexillogical Association - the association of flag experts to "celebrate" the anniversary of the First Navy Flag flying on the "Hannah", the first Navy ship commissioned during the War for Independence.
Expert that he is, Mr. Ansoff suggested that probably the "Hannah" and others of the seven Washington Cruisers (Franklin, Hancock, Harrison, Lee, Lynch, Warren, and Washington) did not fly the Tree flag until after the aide to the Commander in Chief of all Continental Forces -- that means the Army AND the Navy -- Colonel Joseph Reed, sent his famous letter of 20 October a.d. 1775 describing the design for the flag to fly on the first Navy ships. Otherwise, why would Colonel Reed have written his letter? Makes good sense. 
Washington's aide Colonel Reed wrote: "What do you think of a Flag with a white Ground, a tree in the middle, the motto (Appeal to Heaven.)"
See the Colonel Reed letter to Colonel Glover at the Library of Congress Digital Archives:
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mgw/mgw3b/001/085084.jpg
That Tree flag suggested by Colonel Reed on 20 October a.d 1775 came shortly after the Loyalists in Boston in mid-August cut down the Liberty Tree where where Sons of Liberty would rally, so this first Navy flag, with its motto "Appeal to Heaven" served as a defiant Liberty Tree flag. With the motto, it is a different flag and before the "Pine Tree Flag" of the Massachusetts Navy the state legislature voted on in a.d. 1776, yet carries on the American tradition of over a century of a tree representing "sturdy manhood".
(See the 19 November entry on this blog for the profound patriotic meaning from a Resolution passed by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts.)
The Cruisers commissioned by Commander in Chief Washington with the blessing of the Continental Congress, and named for many of its leaders, were part of the necessary strategy of encirclement, or seige, with interdiction of supply ships heading for the British in the port town of Boston. Those continuing raids on supply ships, combined with the cannons from Ticonderoga placed atop Dorchester Heights where they could fire on the British positions, and the outbreak of smallpox, combined to force the British to evacuate Boston in March a.d. 1776, a "victory" for the combined Continental forces of Washington's Army and Navy.
[Contrary to current Navy claims, the first Navy Jack was NOT the Urban Legend, Historical Myth, "fake snake" flag showing a snake on its belly about to be trampled crawling upon over the Sons of Liberty flag of red and white stripes, with the plaintive plea (Please...) "Don't Tread on Me!".]
Despite efforts of Naval Historian Admiral George Henry Preble (1816-1885) from 1872 to 1880, and the efforts of Naval Historian Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison (1887-1976) to discredit the Snake Over Stripes Navy Jack flag as valid, this reporter was told by employees of the Naval Historical Center that in the mid-1970s some Navy staff officers in the Pentagon saw a color picture of the fake snake flag in a Webster's Dictionary, with every good intent saw it as a dynamic and defiant image, and so ordered thousands and thousands from flag manufacturers to serve as the Navy's symbol for Bicentennial celebrations beginning in a.d. 1975. Thereby, this "urban legend" fake snake flag gained new life. While dynamic, the fake snake image is deceptive and so totally wrong to be flying on our Navy ships.
Only AFTER the flags were ordered, did the Navy staff officers in the Pentagon ask the Naval Historical Center historians at the Washington Navy Yard about the history of the flag. Even then the veracity, or truth, of the fake snake Navy flag was in considerable doubt, yet in 2004, the article in the flag journal Raven by flag expert Peter Ansoff raises the doubt level of the fake snake "first Navy Jack" flag to near 100 per cent. In a.d. 1975, or even in a.d. 2001 when use of the fake Snake flag was resumed for the Global War on Terrorism, it might have been reasonable to consider the fake snake flag may have been legitimate, but after a.d. 2004, there is no longer any good scholarship to sustain the continuing error of the United States Navy.
And yet, sadly, despite the truth now being known in the Navy Pentagon offices, that fake snake false flag still flies on the bows of America's proud Navy ships. So, it is time for We the People to ask our elected servants to direct the Navy serve the Truth, and remove the Fake Snake false "first Navy Jack" flag from our ships, and either replace it with the former blue field of stars canton of the United States "Stars and Stripes" flag, or replace it with the true First Navy Flag, also known as the Washington Cruisers flag, the evergreen Tree of Liberty flag, where Thomas Paine, author of "Common Sense", named Washington "the World's Apostle of Liberty", so how much more fitting would it be on this 208th Anniversary of the Burial of George Washington (18 December) that the Tree of Liberty flag of America's Washington begin to be requested to fly on our ships all around the world?
Yet Washington's Aide Colonel Reed did not describe the shape of the tree.
Below are a few of the shapes of the "tree" by others interpretations that I have found here, hither and yon.
Given that variety, I also asked flag expert Peter Ansoff what did he believe was the shape of the tree described by Colonel Reed's letter. Mr. Ansoff suggested a simple triangle based on the Southhold flag, believed to be the only existing flag of the period with a tree in its design. Mr. Ansoff referred me to the Flag Bulletin #206...
In late October, I called Dr. Whitney Smith of the Flag Research Center in Worchester, Massachusetts, paid to join his worthy flag educational Center, ordered a copy of Flag Bulletin #206 that I received in the mail along with some others a couple of weeks later.
Visit that educational site at: http://www.flagresearchcenter.com/
Even here on the front cover, is yet another shape of the undefined shape of the "Tree" described by Reed.
And the centerfold of The Flag Bulletin has another shape for the evergreen tree...
Yet the black and white photograph in the article of the one existing "tree" flag from the period shows a much more simple shape, a simple triangle to represent the tree.
From that photograph of an original "tree" flag, an artist did a "reconstruction" drawing of the "tree" flag from Southhold, on Long Island, in New York. That is shown below.
Based on the photograph and the reconstructed drawing of the "tree" flag of Southhold, New York, I have become pretty well convinced that all the elaborate many branches tree designs are not realistic.
Consider. You are a flag maker 222 years ago. You have to hand-stitch the "tree" onto the flag. A simple triangle is VERY MUCH MORE easy to stitch on the flag than these other designs of people like me working on a computer screen.
A simple triangle shaped tree would take less time, less thread, and be far more likely to withstand the stress of the flag flapping in the winds.
So my "VOTE" for the final design of:
the First Navy Flag,
the Liberty Tree Flag, or also known as
the Washington Cruisers Flag is the simple triangle tree.
How about you? Please CLICK on the comments word below to VOTE and COMMENT...
And... Merry Christmas!
Reed was the first to identify problems with Benedict Arnold when while recuperating from war wounds Arnold was assigned as the military commandant of Philadelphia, while Reed was both President of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. "With people in Congress eyeing everything he did, he was soon brought up on charges and was court-martialed. He defended himself, furiously as always, but he was found guilty on two charges: using government wagons for his personal use and issuing a pass to a ship he later invested in. Washington, himself pronounced the charges "imprudent and improper" and "peculiarly reprehensible."
This was the beginning of the end of the good days of General Arnold, once a Son of Liberty, now a "Snake in the Grass", akin to the Fake Snake Flag, a Snake crawling over the Sons of Liberty flag. Read more on the Benedict Arnold court-martial in Philadelphia BEFORE the Benedict Arnold treason at West Point:
http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/served/arnold.html
CLICK to read this ONE PAGE SUMMARY of a 52 page article by Peter Ansoff in Raven, the flag expert journal on why the "Don't Tread On Me" so-called Navy Jack is truly a "Fake Snake" flag.
Monday, November 26, 2007
First Lady Letter on First Navy "True Tree" Flag
The letter below to the First Lady about the First Navy Flag, the "True Tree Flag" is dated 26 November, and comes days after the First Husband, "President George W." spoke the True Story of the First Thanksgiving in America, in a.d. 1619, along the James River in Virginia, not as most Americans have been taught in school, in Massachusetts.
Though then Massachusetts was part of the Virginia Colony, the second named settlement in the Virginia Charter of a.d. 1606 signed by King James I, that set the stage for the settlement of Jamestowne the next year, a.d. 1607, only many years later was "Plimouth" settled in a.d. 1620.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving, Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Nelson
Thomas Nelson, Jr. was the great patriot of Yorktown, and his descendant, Thomas Nelson follows in his big boot prints, along with his wonderful wife. Commander Nelson shared the small book FLAGS of AMERICA published in 1935 in Huntington, West Virginia by Colonel William H. Waldron, USA.
Some of the pages with flag images from that book are shown below. (NOTE: The flag images are as commonly seen, but are not in all cases supported by scholarly citations to establish if the flag ever flew. The a.d. 1935 book includes the common misunderstanding until a.d. 2004 with the flag journal "Raven" article by Peter Ansoff that debunks the "urban legend" or "ancient myth" of the "Don't Tread On Me" Snake Over Stripes flag ever having flown as an American flag during the Revolution. In addition, the Flag Bulletin #206 of a.d. 2002 shows a photograph of an actual "tree" flag that shows that the many branches on a tree were later fanciful re-creations. A simple triangle is most probable design for the Liberty Tree Flag, along with the motto "Appeal to Heaven" as described by Colonel Joseph Reed, aide to Commander in Chief George Washington, who was a distant cousin of Virginia Militia General Thomas Nelson, and rode his war horse "Nelson" - a gift of his cousin.
Flags of America, pgs 30-31
Beginning at the second paragraph:
"This Pine Tree Flag was the banner carried by the infant American Navy which consisted of a fleet of six ships where were denominated "Washington's Cruisers."
"...Thus this Pine Tree Flag may be accepted as the first ensign of the American sea forces in New England.
"...The solemn motto inscribed on the flag first appeared in a resolution of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts adopted shortly after the battle of Lexington and Concord and addressed to the British Sovereign, with the words, "Appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free." It characterizes the quiet firmness with which our forefathers resolved to claim the birthright of freedom and to fight for it, under the direction of Divine Providence, if needs be."
The motto show here is close to correct, with a most common error, with the incorrect word "AN" added before the motto defined by Commander in Chief George Washington's aide, Colonel Joseph Reed, who wrote "Appeal to Heaven".
"An" Appeal to Heaven could suggest one time or one person, "Appeal to Heaven" is an ongoing, collective imperative, more than a suggestion, less than a command, for all Americans to follow, if we as a Nation were to receive as George Washington would say, "the blessings of Divine Providence".
Further, the Reed letter says a "white ground", here there is a patch of grass at the trunk of the tree. The position of the motto, above or below the tree is not defined, nor is the shape of the tree for the Liberty Tree first Navy flag. A "tree" flag that exists from the time period is the Southhold flag, that has a simple triangle for the tree.
Monday, December 25, 2006
TRUE TREE or FAKE SNAKE - A Picture Worth 1000 words? Symbols, pictures, words - worth what?
Is Truth worth anything in America today?
Is Liberty a symbol worth anything in America anymore?
Is an evergreen Tree of Liberty a symbol of enduring positive value in America?
Is an universal symbol of evil - the snake - and a poisonous snake at that, a symbol that America should select to represent her around the world?
As the man who founded America's Navy in the Autumn of 1775 by commissioning 7 ships that proceeded to capture British merchant ships even while Congress sat around debating the question of the need of a Navy or whether creating a Navy would offend the British, Commander-in-Chief George Washington later wrote to his number two -- Lincoln (General Benjamin Lincoln) on 29 June a.d. 1778:
"We may, now and then, get bewildered; but I hope and trust that there is good sense and virtue enough left to recover the right path."
These three pages of lots of flag images and plenty of words of explanation tell us why we should NOT BE FLYING THE "Fake Snake" Navy Jack Flag, from a well documented historical perspective -- basically the Snake Navy Jack is a fraud, or a legend, or a lie that well meaning but poorly informed Navy officers and others keep digging up over the years so the legend never dies.
When in today's Navy will there be: "good sense and virtue enough left to recover the right path."?
We have an hand written letter by the aide to the founder of the American Navy, Commander in Chief, General George Washington, namely Colonel Joseph Reed, that describes the "TRUE TREE" Liberty Tree first Navy Flag.
We also have the same First Navy Flag, Liberty Tree flag (or Pine Tree flag in simplistic notation), also called the "Washington Cruisers Flag" described by an Admiral of the British Navy.
There is NO SUCH DOCUMENTATION for the FAKE SNAKE Navy Jack Flag. In fact, an article written by CDR Eric Berryman, USN (retired) telling of how the flag was fabricated for the Bicentennial clearly reveals that there was a lot of "By Guess and By Golly".
The "Snake" Flag may be a "nice" design done by these well-meaning Naval Officers, but it still is an historical fraud, or fiction -- a FAKE SNAKE Navy Jack Flag!
The sixth page of the Point Paper tells how the myth, or fiction, or fraud, of the FAKE SNAKE Navy Jack Flag was created and perpetuated over the past two centuries and more.
Fortunately, flag expert Peter Ansoff in the year a.d. 2004 wrote a comprehensive article for the flag journal RAVEN, that effectively debunks the claims of CAPT Brayton Harris, CDR Eric Berryman, and other Naval Officers and even some submissive Naval Historians who promote as valid the FAKE SNAKE Navy Jack Flag first fabricated on fabric in time for the Nation's Bicentennial.
In the Introduction to Rebels Under Sail by Northeastern University professor William Fowler, he writes: "Naval historians should be especially aware of contracting Bicentennial fever..." which is what these well-meaning Naval Officers did, that has become a contagion of cancerous falsehood that while in remission from a.d. 1977 to its flare-up again when re-introduced by one of the "carriers", Captain Brayton Harris when he re-introduced the "Fake Snake" flag after the 9-11 Terrorist Attacks. His motives were Patriotic, his History unfounded.
Unfortunately, that a.d. 2004 flag journal publication was AFTER the 9-11 Terrorists Attacks on America, and so a well meaning Captain Harris recommended that "his baby", the FAKE SNAKE Navy Jack Flag he and others created for the Bicentennial to be dragged out of the garbage can, or snake graveyard, and put back on the bows of our Navy ships.
And due to the all too natural expectation of officers and leaders that the proper staff work of checking the Navy History of the Fake Snake Navy Jack Flag had been done in the mid-1970s, no one really did due diligence in a.d. 2001.
Interestingly, even the coffee table book "NAVY" published by the Naval Historical Foundation shows the first Navy ship commissioned, the Hannah, and if you look real close you can see depicted the Liberty Tree proudly flying from her mast.
Yet aside from the history of the Navy flags, whether the FAKE SNAKE, or the TRUE TREE First Navy Flag, let us look at the simple symbolism of either flag...
Do we really want America to be represented by a snake on its belly in retreat?
Especially when bad people like terrorists are sometimes called "snakes in the grass".
(The four true history American Revolution Army flags with rattlesnakes ALL have the snake coiled, ready to strike and defend...)
Do we really want America to be represented by a SNAKE where in just about every culture in the world is a SYMBOL of EVIL?
Or do We, the People of the United States of America want our Navy ships to proudly fly a symbol of LIBERTY FOREVER ! -- as represented by an Evergreen Tree of Liberty?
The leaders of the Navy tell me that the people like the Fake Snake flag, but I believe they do so MAINLY because they TRUST their LEADERS to have told them that the Snake Navy Jack Flag is true, when in historical fact it is a lie, a fiction, a fraud, a fake, a FAKE SNAKE flag.
So essentially because NOW the Navy leaders KNOW the truth, they are involved in foisting a fable, promoting deception upon the trusting American citizens and those Patriots who are willing to give their lives for Truth and Liberty who serve on our Navy Ships!
Please vote your choice on the poll box on the right side, and please click the envelope icon to send the page to your friends, click the comments link below to express your thoughts on this very important symbolic issue for America and her Navy that represents America all around the world.
Thank you.
For America's future (building up on our past),
James Renwick Manship, Sr.
Director, First Navy Flag.US
a project of
W.I.S.E. - Washington Institute for Statesmanship Education
Saturday, November 11, 2006
America and England descriptions of true First Navy Flag
On 9 May a.d. 2006, Dr. Michael Crawford, Head of the Early History Department of the Navy Historical Center in the Washington Navy Yard kindly sent me an email that told me that the letter of George Washington's aide Colonel Joseph Reed [that described the First Navy Flag to fly on ships commissioned by the Commander in Chief, acting under his authority from his Orders from the Continental Congress (see post below)] was available in the Library of Congress.
Within minutes, an email inquiry was sent to a Reference Librarian at the Library of Congress, and the same day, the unknown librarian ("bb"?) responded with an email that provided two attachments that contained the Colonel Reed letter of 20 October 1775. That email will be pasted in below.
Back on 3 January, the British National Maritime Museum kindly mailed me a photocopy of the description of the First Navy Flag that was contained in the letter of Sir Hugh Palliser of 6 January 1776.
So here are two descriptions of the true First Navy Flag, the evergreen Tree of Liberty Flag, or Liberty Tree Flag, also known as the Washington Cruisers Flag. In contrast, there are no such descriptions of the false, fictional, fraudulent, "Fake Snake" Navy Jack Flag that flies on current day United States Navy Ships as an impostor as the first navy flag.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country... and set straight the record of our Navy's History!Straight like a Liberty Tree growing high in the sky, not crooked like an evil snake slithering on its belly in the dirt... hissing with the plaintive plea, (Please) "Don't Tread on Me".
Commander in Chief Washington knew our hope for Liberty was not in idle threats "Don't Tread on Me" or pleas, (Please) "Don't Tread on Me", but in our nation humbly and continuously, even today from our Navy ships, making our "Appeal To Heaven".
Do our leaders in Washington today have as much wisdom as then was in Washington?
Please call or write to the Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter, and to your Congressman and Senators.
From: ndlpcoll@loc.gov
Subject: Library Question - Answer [Question #1579394]
Date: May 9, 2006 4:21:24 PM EDT
To: george@washingtonlives.us
Reply-To: questionpoint@oclc.org
Hello James Renwick Manship, Sr.
Thank you for visiting the Library of Congress Web site and for using the Ask A Librarian Service.
The letter from Col. Reed to Col. Glover and Mr. Moylan of 20 October 1775 is included in the American Memory collection, "George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799" <>. American Memory <> is a collection of primary source collections available via the Library of Congress Web site <>. It is also available in microfilm. The original is kept in a vault controlled by the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress.
You will find the first page of this letter, here: < collid="mgw3&fileName="mgw3b/gwpage001.db&recNum="84"> and the second behind the "next page" link there.
(When using this long address, please be sure it stays on one line and that all the punctuation stays intact, except the "pointy brackets" at either end, should they display in your email software. Those are not part of the address.)
The letter is transcribed in Series 3, Sub-series B, in Washington's Letterbook 1. The scan for the Web presentation is from microfilm. Information about the microfilm collection is here: <>.
Since the letter is relatively short (two pages), I have attached the JPEG image files of them to this message. The first page image is 085084.jpg and the second is 086085.jpg. The part about the flag begins about two-thirds down the first page. The Web site does not offer a have transcription of this letter, but it is among the more legible of the time period. The Library's Manuscripts Division does hold a transcription in a published source. I am happy to go there and photocopy it for you and mail it to you. Thank you for providing a postal address in advance. If you would like this service (gratis), please reply to this message requesting it.
Please let us know if we can guide you further.
Yours truly,
Reference Specialist
Digital Reference Team
The Library of Congress
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What a National Treasure is our Library of Congress, and helpful public servant employees!
England the Origin of the "Fake Snake" Navy Jack Flag
In the article by flag expert Peter Ansoff is discussed the possibility that the prone position of the Snake over the Stripes of the Sons of Liberty flag was meant to demean the image of the Snake in resistance.
Well to know that on its belly in the dust and dirt, the Rattlesnake is in Retreat, and the once thought defiant motto, "Don't Tread on Me!" becomes a plaintive plea, "(Please) Don't Tread on Me!" as the snake slithers away from the fray...
Let us Americans never slither away from the fray, from the fight for freedom, and the pursuit of Truth... and the Love of Liberty!
So, write your elected servants in Congress, your Representative and Senators, to ask that the Navy serve the Truth of our American History, and remove the Fake Snake Navy Jack Flag from the bow of our Naval Ships, and replace it with the true First Navy Flag, the Washington Cruisers Flag, the Liberty Tree Flag!
Monday, October 16, 2006
Detailed Letter on the true First Navy Flag issue, no proper action from a year before!!!
[Click on the images to enlarge, click again to magnify for easier reading. Click on the envelope icon below to comment or request a copy sent via email.]
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Fwd: 1976 REBELS UNDER SAIL - Fwd: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History
Post to blog by email...
Begin forwarded message:
From: James Renwick Manship
Date: October 11, 2006 10:52:48 AM EDT
To: RADM Paul Tobin
Subject: 1976 REBELS UNDER SAIL - Fwd: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History
Dear Admiral Tobin,
In my writer's retreat here in the beautiful Blue Ridge, no longer am I in the beach cottage nearly in sight of the finest Navy in the world.
However, in the 8000 volume library here, with walls covered with pictures of sailing ships, I found the 1976 published book:
REBELS UNDER SAIL: The American Navy during the Revolution,
by William M. Fowler, Jr., where the research and writing was funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.
On the dust jacket is written, "Fowler describes how a small group of delegates to Congress, led by John Adams and strongly supported by Washington, labored to form a powerful fighting fleet."
On page 29 is written, "...as it related to naval activities, the suggestion made by some historians that Washington somehow had to be convinced of the need to commission vessels seems out of place. He would have been a poor commander not to have employed the weapons at his disposal. He hardly needed to have it pointed out to him that the enemy was totally dependent upon their sea lanes for supplies and this was their most vulnerable point...."
"If he could arm and equip vessels along the North and South shores of Massachusetts Bay, he could intercept these ships and take their valuable cargoes to fill his much depleted magazines."
"Colonel John Glover of the Marblehead regiment, a sea captain and merchant himself, offered the charter of his schooner "Hannah", while the men of the "Webfoot Regiment" eagerly volunteered to sign on." (note 11)
And of course the Liberty Tree flag flew on the first Navy ship commissioned, "Hannah".
In the Introduction are some sage words:
"And so the commemorative bandwagon rolls along at a ponderable rate, but occasionally in a splurge of historical hoopla it runs away with itself. Such may well be the case during America's Bicentennial."
"Naval historians should be especially aware of contracting Bicentennial fever with its alarming symptom of verbal (Ed. Note: ...and "legendary image" Fake Snake inflation) inflation, for in the past one whiff of sea air has carried many away to an ethereal plane where all is glory, romance and John Paul Jones."
"To be sure, the American Revolution was, as Alfred Thayer Mahan would quickly testify, a naval war."
"Compared to the enemy's squadrons, the Continental navy was a puny force. Nevertheless, against overwhelming odds, they ventured to sea, and in their own way, both by victory and defeat, they helped to achieve independence. For that they deserve to be remembered."
Could you ask CDR Eric Berryman or CAPT Brayton Harris (who resurrected the fabricated, albeit well-meaning "Fake Snake" Navy Jack Flag of the Bicentennial) or any of the rest of their team if they had consulted William Fowler who was doing his research for his 1976 book when they re-created the legendary Fake Snake Flag a few years before, or if any of that team had read the book by William Bell Clark, George Washington's Navy, published in Baton Rouge in 1960?
Very respectfully,
James Renwick Manship, Sr.
LCDR, USNR
Director, FirstNavyFlag.US
Begin forwarded message:
From: James Renwick Manship
Date: October 11, 2006 8:07:20 AM EDT
To: RADM Paul Tobin
Subject: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History
Dear Admiral Tobin,
The attached Navy letter with imbedded images of the 1872 Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, and a description of a book by your predecessor, RADM Preble.
I will be interested to see your response.
V/R, James Renwick Manship, (once upon a time, seemingly long, long ago, LCDR, USNR -- keep smiling!)
"Your research on the flag is accurate..." -- Director, Navy History Center
"As I have always said, your research on the flag is accurate..."
-- Rear Admiral Paul Tobin
Director, Navy History Center
In an email of October 11, 2006, the Director of the Navy History Museum, RADM Paul Tobin, USN (retired), comments on an item sent to him about a Congressional Medal of Honor to RADM Paul Tobin, USN, in a.d. 1871, not a.d. 1971, but 100 years before!
That is a fun issue, and about the same time a former Director of Naval History, RADM Preble was making an error about the "Fake Snake" Navy Jack flag in his definitive book on American Flags.
By his a.d. 1880 revision of that book on American flags, RADM Preble insisted that the publisher REMOVE all his writings about the Snake Navy Jack Flag, which was done, BUT... the publisher left the color plate of the American flags that contained an image of the "Fake Snake" Navy Jack... effectively negating the effort of Admiral Preble to correct the record, correct his book and banish the evil snake from the legend and lore of the American Navy.
Let us pray, or "Appeal To Heaven" as is the motto on the true First Navy Flag, that it does not take the current Director of Naval History Admiral Tobin 8 or 9 years to correct the record and remove the "Fake Snake" Navy Jack Flag from the lore and legend of Naval History as it took his predescessor Admiral Preble to try to set the record straight.
Fwd: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History // Navy Birthday Present??
Begin forwarded message:
From: James Renwick Manship <George@WashingtonLIVES.us>Date: October 11, 2006 11:35:21 AM EDTTo: RADM Paul Tobin <paul.tobin@navy.mil>Subject: Fwd: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History // Navy Birthday Present??Dear Admiral Tobin,As I reviewed by just transmitted email, I see I failed to mention the historical research foremost in the debunking of the myth of the Fake Snake Flag, written by Peter Ansoff, that was published in 2004 in Raven, the journal of the "flag experts".Then again there is the book published in 1995 by the U. S. Naval Institute, as mentioned below:Point Paper on Why Yes to Liberty Tree Navy Flag, Why NO to Snake flag31 Dec 2005Discussion: The United States Naval Institute Press in 1995 published a book written by Chester G. Hearn titled George Washington’s Schooners (LoC#E271.H43 1995). On page 5, quoted are the orders of the Continental Congress to George Washington...Back in the Bicentennial days, the well meaning but sadly misinformed crew of officers led by CAPT Brayton Harris with CDR Eric Berryman, did not have the benefit of the 1976 Fowler book, the 1995 Hearn book, or the 2004 Ansoff article.So, sir, "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country..."For America's future (building up on our past),James Renwick Manship, Sr.Director, FirstNavyFlag.USLCDR, USNRBegin forwarded message:From: James Renwick Manship <George@WashingtonLIVES.us>Date: October 11, 2006 11:22:47 AM EDTTo: "Tobin, Paul E RADM USN((Ret)) Naval Historical Center, Director" <paul.tobin@navy.mil>Subject: Re: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History // Navy Birthday Present??Dear Admiral Tobin,Thank you for your reply.I am glad to see we are in agreement, to a substantial degree.My position is that as officers commissioned by Congress, we are leaders of the Navy, not followers of whim or whimsy, and as leaders we have a duty to do what is right, not that which is popular, however popular the current Navy Jack flag may be, it is flying due to historical lack of awareness of the truth.So the logical corollary is that how ever popular the Fake Snake Navy Jack Flag may be, it is our duty to remove it if it is false, which is amply demonstrated it is "fake" by historical research by men such as Fowler in 1976, Clark in 1960, and RADM Preble in 1880.I would with pleasure join with you and Ambassador Middendorf to write a letter to the Secretary of the Navy asking for a return to the Union Jack.I would prefer to compose the letter to suggest to Secretary Winter to pose the option of selecting the Tree of Liberty Navy Flag, or return to the Union Jack.Might we agree to compose this letter right away, before this years Navy Birthday, so to be a birthday gift of Truth to our beloved best Navy in the world?For America's future (building up on our past),James Renwick Manship, Sr.Director, FirstNavyFlag.USLCDR, USNROn Oct 11, 2006, at 10:34 AM, Tobin, Paul E RADM USN((Ret)) Naval Historical Center, Director wrote:James, Good research on your part. Alas, he is no relation but mustsurely be the most famous Navy Paul Tobin.As I've always said, your research on the Flag is accurate. My view isthat the Navy likes the current flag and would not entertain a move tochange it at this time. I'd eventually like to see us go back to theUnion Jack.Best, Paul Tobin-----Original Message-----From: James Renwick Manship [mailto:George@WashingtonLIVES.us]Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 8:07To: Tobin, Paul E RADM USN(Ret) Naval Historical Center, DirectorSubject: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today'sNavy from HistoryDear Admiral Tobin,The attached Navy letter with imbedded images of the 1872 CongressionalMedal of Honor to Paul Tobin, and a description of a book by yourpredecessor, RADM Preble.I will be interested to see your response.V/R, James Renwick Manship, (once upon a time, seemingly long, long ago,LCDR, USNR -- keep smiling!)
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Navy "Brass" afraid of giving General Washington his due as Navy strategist, and founder
This little quote from General George Washington about the importance of the Navy to victory I found on a website but do not recall which, and the screenshot does not show the URL.
General Washington wrote:
"In any operations, and under all circumstances
a decisive Naval superiority
is to be considered a fundamental principle
and the focus upon which every hope of success
must ultimately depend."
a decisive Naval superiority
is to be considered a fundamental principle
and the focus upon which every hope of success
must ultimately depend."
So why won't the current Navy brass, the top leadership of the Navy, stop its childish Army-Navy sibling rivalry that prevents the Navy from honest acknowledgement that General Washington commissioned the first Navy ship, the Hannah, on 2 September 1775, and several others in the weeks to follow, and on that ship and others called the Washington Cruisers, flew the true First Navy Flag, known as the Liberty Tree Flag, with the evergreen tree of Liberty and the motto "Appeal To Heaven" . The Liberty Tree Flag, First Navy Flag, is also called the Washington Cruisers Flag.
Please read to learn about this issue and then, please, jot me a note as to what you think can be done to get the Navy brass to show some class by honoring the true First Navy Flag with its Tree of Liberty.
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