The Captured Flags of Banners of Liberty

The flags displayed in Banners of Liberty: An Exhibition of Revolutionary War Flags have traveled through centuries from battlefields to the Museum. They also traveled physically, sometimes over great distances from where they were first created and carried. The two 2nd New Hampshire Regiment banners featured in the exhibition, as well as the Delaware Militia flag, were captured by the British during the war, and eventually travelled back across the pond to America.  

Learn more about these captured flags from the Museum’s Associate Curator James Taub: 

Both of the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment flags were commissioned by Captain Samuel Blodgett and sewed by Boston milliner Fanny Johonnot Williams, before being painted by Daniel Rea, Jr. Because the receipts for these flags still exist, their maker is known with certainty, a rarity for flags from the time period. Both flags feature a version of the British union in their cantons in the upper corner but have different designs in their center. The buff flag features the “Chain of States,” along with the motto “We Are One.” Developed by Benjamin Franklin, the “Chain of States” was a common symbol at the time, featuring a chain made of 13 interlocking rings, one for each state, representing unity among them (this design is also featured on the floor of the Museum’s Declaration of Independence gallery). The center of the blue 2nd New Hampshire regiment flag has the unit’s designation below a shortened form of the 16th-century verse, “In victory, the hero seeks the glory, not the prey.”  

These flags were moved with the army’s baggage, and not with the unit. While the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment fought at the Battle of Hubbardton, the flags were captured by the British 9th Regiment of Foot, and were subsequently sent to England. During the Revolutionary War, an adversary’s flags or other belongings were often taken as mementos, a sort of trophy that could be showed off to friends and family. Both 2nd New Hampshire Regiment flags were kept by the descendants of British Lieutenant Colonel John Hill. In 1912, Edward Tuck purchased the flags from the family; he donated them to the New Hampshire Historical Society the following year.  

Similarly, the Delaware Militia flag (also known as the Dansey flag), was captured by Captain William Dansey of the 33rd Regiment of Foot. Dansey sent the flag home to England, and his family eventually sold it to the Delaware Historical Society in 1927. The flag was originally a dark green, featuring thirteen red-and-white stripes in its canton, symbolizing the unified 13 colonies. Unusually, this flag also still has its tassels, giving us a better sense of what it, and others like it, may have looked like on the battlefield.  

All of the flags in Banners of Liberty tell the story of the regiments that carried them. Through the symbols and mottos painted or stitched onto them, we can see what those men believed and were fighting for. They also tell the stories of the men and women who commissioned and created them, doing their part in the Revolutionary effort. The two 2nd New Hampshire Regiment flags and the Delaware militia flag tell a broader tale – of the British troops who captured them and gave them new meaning, and of family heirlooms preserved and then donated, in order to keep telling their stories.