The History of the First United States Flag / and the Patriotism of Betsy Ross, the Immortal Heroine That Originated the First Flag of the Union

Chapter 8: THE RATTLESNAKE FLAG, OF 1775, THAT CHARMED AND INCITED THE TROOPS OF VIRGINIA TO ACTION.

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About This Book

The author provides an anecdotal history that attributes the creation of the first national flag to a Philadelphia needleworker, drawing on family recollections, personal visits, and contemporary testimonies to reconstruct her life and craft. The narrative combines biographical detail about her sewing trade and clientele with accounts of patriotic activities, songs, and the distribution of flags to volunteers, while emphasizing domestic workmanship, color and design choices, and civic devotion. Much of the argument rests on oral tradition and local records, and the work foregrounds the interplay of private industry, symbolic ornamentation, and public memory in the flag’s early story.

THE RATTLESNAKE FLAG,
OF 1775, THAT CHARMED AND INCITED THE TROOPS OF VIRGINIA TO ACTION.

THE Flag of Virginia was a rattlesnake with blue tongue forked like lightning, and with thirteen rattles, looking like a fierce Anaconda coiled, but with head and tail up, painted on white silk, having the motto, “Don’t tread on me!” It was considered as an emblem of wisdom, and of endless duration as a representative of America, an animal found in no other part of the world. The eye of this creature excels in brightness that of any other animal; it has no eyelids and is therefore an emblem of vigilance. It never begins an attack nor ever surrenders, it is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. It never wounds until it has given notice to its enemies of their danger. Its wounds, however small, are decisive and fatal. The power of fascination attributed to it resembles America. Those who look steadily in its eyes are delighted, and involuntarily advance toward, and having once approached it, never leave it.