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Capt. Samuel Chester Reid, The Real Designer of America's Present-Day “Stars & Stripes”

The most protected myth in the United States is that Betsy Ross designed and sewed the first American Stars & Stripes flag. A 2008 survey noted persons over 45 years of age had listed Betsy as one of our top ten historically important persons because of this belief. Philadelphia, where her former home - which is now owned by the city - has been heavily commercialized as the site of the sewing, but this is documented untrue by records in the Smithsonian Institution, as recorded in "The United States Flagbook: Everything About ‘Old Glory’" by Robert L. Loeffelbein (McFarland Press 1996). That book, used by Smithsonian researchers there in flag reference queries, is backed up by Smithsonian files, as well as notation in "A Dictionary of American Biography", as edited by Dumas Malone for the American Council of Learned Societies (1943). Elizabeth “Betsy” (Griscom) Ross and her descendants - she lived to age 84 and was married three times - were upholsterers-turned-flag makers until 1858, but she did not originate the design or color scheme for the Star-Spangled Banner, nor did she sew it. Smithsonian records show she did make and receive pay for some ships’ flags for Pennsylvania’s Navy, and it may have been the order for these that was mistaken for the request for an ensign. According to some of her descendents, Betsy did claim to have originated the United States flag. A paper read to the Pennsylvania Historical Society on March 14, 1870 by William J. Canby, Betsy’s grandson, claimed that George Washington, George Morris and George Ross came to Betsy in June 1776, showed her a design and asked her to make it up. He said she did and the flag was taken to the state house and adopted by Congress as the flag of the United States. Canby said the paper had been dictated to him in 1856 by his aunt, Betsy’s daughter, who said her mother had told her the story many times. Yet actual records contradict the paper’s account. This popular misconception was perpetuated by the United States Postal Service by issuing a 1952 stamp commemorating the 20th anniversary of Betsy Ross’s birth, picturing her showing a stars-and-stripes flag to the committee of three who supposedly contacted her to do the job. The flag-making company of Annin of New Jersey also contributed to the myth, from time to time, by presenting a Betsy Ross Award to individuals who furthered the cause of patriotism. A different flag-making story which saw print, though without proof, described how some girls of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, made a Stars & Stripes from ballroom gowns for John Paul Jones in July 1777. This flag was supposed to have gone down with his ship, the Bon Homme Richard. Some experts still admit the possibility that Francis Hopkinson, a New Jersey judge and signer of the Declaration of Independence, who served two years as chairman of the Navy Board, might have had something to do with the design of the flag. He was a noted draftsman, as well as an acknowledged expert on heraldry. A letter is on file from him to the Admiralty Board suggesting payment of nine pounds for his work “designing sundry seals and devices, also the Flag of the United States”. But his request was denied. Members of Congress seem not to have been convinced he had been the sole designer of all the things he claimed, including some issues of paper money. Flag Day Commemorates Design On June 14, 1777 (which present-day Flag Day commemorates) the Marine Committee of the Second Continental Congress offered a resolution, duly adopted, “that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation”. No specific pattern for the stars was stated. Who suggested this design, however, is not definitely known. One story that lingers on is that it was taken from a new coat of arms of the Washington family. That is doubtful and unproven. When two new states were brought into the Union in 1795 two new stars and stripes were added to the flag. It was this 15-starred and striped flag that was made by Mary Pickersgill in Baltimore’s Flag House and flew over Fort McHenry to become Francis Scott Key’s inspiration for the American national anthem. By 1816, with more new states already accepted and others clamoring to be admitted, it was decided the flag would become unwieldy by adding a star and a stripe for each new state. In 1818 New York Representative Peter Wendover consulted Congress and they turned to the newest American hero, Captain Samuel Chester Reid, who had staged one of the most heroic defenses of the flag’s honor in history, to come up with a workable lasting design. He and his wife made up a model, returning the original thirteen stripes, for the thirteen original states, with a blue field to which a new star could be added for each new state, with the stars in parallel rows for military use, and arranged in one great star for other purposes. Congress approved the design and President James Monroe signed the act making the flag official as of April 4, 1818. A flag made by Mrs. Reid was hoisted on the Capitol eight days later with the president in attendance.. Captain Reid’s story is well documented. It was recognized by Congressional Committee (House Report 160, 35 Congress, 1 Session, Feb. 5, 1859), retold by James Poling in a national newspaper supplement some years ago under the title “He Designed Our Flag” and mentioned also in a biography of Reid in "A Dictionary of American Biography". Reid’s Act of Heroism Reid’s act of heroism took place toward the end of the War of 1812 when he sailed the 246-ton privateer General Armstrong into Fayal, a neutral port in the Portuguese Azores. While taking on water, three British warships under the command of Commodore Edward Lloyd, entered Fayal en route to join forces concentrating at Jamaica against New Orleans. Reid started moving his ship in under the Portuguese fort’s protection about seven in the evening, but found four armed boats approaching from the Carnation with the evident purpose of making a surprise capture. Reid challenged, they continued, so he fired into them. The British suffered about 20 casualties while Reid lost just one man and had his Lieutenant wounded. The Portuguese port governor sent a warning to the British, but they ignored it and attacked again near midnight with 12 to 14 boats, holding some 400 men. Reid and his 90 men, with nine mounted guns, drove a boarding party off in fierce hand-to-hand skirmishing, killing 120 British sailors and wounding 130 more. Reid’s crew suffered only two fatalities and seven other injuries. Next day at daylight, the 18-gun Carnation commenced a cannonade broadside but, within ten minutes, was so badly damaged by exacting fire from Reid’s “Long Tom” 42-pounder it was forced to retire. But, when the other two warships - the 74-gun Plantagenet and 38-gun Rota - attacked, Reid realized he stood no chance. He ordered his men ashore and scuttled his ship, which was burned by the enemy. When the British commodore notified Reid he and his crew would be taken prisoners, Reid ordered a defensive stand in an abandoned convent. But next day, in an unprecedented and unexpected move, a group of British officers invited Reid to the British consulate and honored him with cheers and toasts. The British remained in port for ship repairs and burying their dead. The Commodore insisted on examining the American force for British deserters, but otherwise left them unmolested. As it turned out, the delay caused by Reid here ultimately greatly aided General Jackson’s defense of New Orleans. Back home after the war, Reid was showered with accolades, among them the equivalent of a pension by appointment as sailing master in the Navy on July 3, 1843, a sword from the New York legislature, a silver service from the New York merchants, and the honor of designing the new flag. Reid Biography Reid was born August 25, 1783 in Norwich, CT, son of Lieutenant John Reid, a former British naval officer and member of a distinguished Glasgow family, who resigned his commission to join the cause of the American Revolution after being captured. He remained in the U.S. after marrying Rebecca Chester of Norwich. Young Samuel went to sea at age 11, was captured by a French privateer and imprisoned for six months at Bassel-Terre, Guadaloupe, then served as acting midshipman on the USS Baltimore in the West Indies for a year. At age 20 he was master of the brig Merchant out of New York and later became master of the privateer General Armstrong when it left New York on September 9, 1814. On September 26 he reached the Azores, site of his historic battle. Reid, Sr., had married Mary, daughter of Captain Nathan Jennings of Fairfield, CT, June 8, 1813, and they ultimately had eight children, including Samuel Chester, Jr., whose name was first known to the public in connection with the publication of an account of his experiences during the Mexican War under the title "The Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch’s Texas Rangers" (1847). During his last years he wrote a history of his father’s career. Reid, Sr., served as harbor master in New York for many years and was noted for working to improve pilot boat service, securing a lightship off Sandy Hook and publishing a signal code for American vessels. In 1826 he also devised and demonstrated a system whereby messages could be sent from New York to New Orleans in just two hours, though a bill for his system’s adoption was killed by the advent of electric telegraphy. Reid, Sr., died at his home near Franklin Square, New York City, January 28, 1861 and is buried in Lot 13108, Section 172, at Green-Wood Cemetery, Fifth Avenue at 25th Street, Brooklyn, NY. A memorial was placed at the grave site after Representative Francis E. Dorn (Brooklyn, NY) drafted a bill to Congress to provide it.