n letters,
diaries and other writings, and William Cullen Bryant's History of the
United States, in which pages 420 and 421 of the third volume he devotes
to a history of the flag, but nowhere does he mention the Ross claim. He
evidently, like myself, could not find any authority for it, yet his
history was published in 1879--nine years after the Ross claim was made.
There are many other authorities, but not one of them gives her the
credit claimed, and all of them except those written since the claim
was made, leaving out the Bryant history, do not even mention her name.

A claim similar to the one made by Mr. Canby on behalf of Betsy Ross,
was made by a woman named Elizabeth Montgomery, daughter of Captain
Montgomery, of the armed Brig _Nancy_. She claimed that a flag, "stars
and stripes," was made early in July, 1776, by a young man on her
father's brig while it was in port at St. Thomas; see "Reminiscences
of Wilmington, ancient and new," printed in 1851, on pages 176 to 179;
but her claim it proved to be absolutely false, as a reference to the
American Archives, vol. vi, page 1132, fourth series, will show that the
Brig _Nancy_, Captain Montgomery, was destroyed at Cape May, June 29,
1776, to keep her from being captured by the British.

At the outbreak of our Revolutionary struggle the different colonies
had flags of their own design, which, if grouped together, would have
reminded one of Joseph's coat, embellished with Latin and other mottoes.
At the battle of Bunker Hill the Americans fought without a flag,
although Botta in his history of the American Revolution says that
there was one with the words "An Appeal to Heaven" on one side, and the
Latin inscription "Qui transtulit sustinet" upon the other (see Fig. 2).
In Lossing's field book of the American Revolution, Vol. 1, page 541, he
states that an old lady named Manning informed him that the Americans
did have a flag at the battle, of which the field was blue and the union
white, having in it the Red Cross of St. George and a green pine tree
(see Fig. 3); but this cannot be considered an authority any more than
Trumbull's picture of the Battle in the Rotunda of the capital at
Washington. He depicts the American flag carried in that battle as
something which no one ever saw or even heard of, to wit: a red flag
with a white union, having in it a green pine tree (see Fig. 4).

[Illustration: Figs. 1-5]

Frothingham in his history of the siege of Boston says