Excerpt from Star-Spangled Banner Pageant: Staged in the Capitol Park at Madison, Wisconsin, in Celebration of the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Writing of the National Song by Francis Scott Key In September, 1775, Congress appointed Benjamin Frank lin, Benjamin Harrison and Thomas Lynch, as a committee to go to Cambridge to confer with General Washington upon several urgent matters pertaining to the army under his com mand. During this conference Colonel Joseph Reed, secre tary to the conference committee suggested to them the adoption Of the Union flag for the army. His suggestion was approved and the first Grand Union striped flag was-raised on Prospect Hill, Cambridge, Jan. 1, 1776. This flag consisted Of thirteen alternate red and white stripes, representing the United Colo nies, and the subjoined crosses of St. George and St. Andrew (the king's colors) in a blue canton. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.