American Flag

On January 1, 1776, the Continental Army was reorganized in accordance with a Congressional resolution which placed American forces under George Washington's control. On that New Year's Day the Continental Army was laying siege to Boston which had been taken over by the British Army. Washington ordered the Grand Union flag hoisted above his base at Prospect Hill, In May of 1776, Betsy Ross reported that she sewed the first American flag. 

On June 14, 1777, in order to establish an official flag for the new nation, the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act: "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." 

Between 1777 and 1960, Congress passed several acts that changed the shape, design and arrangement of the flag and allowed for additional stars and stripes to be added to reflect the admission of each new state.

Today the flag consists of thirteen horizontal stripes, seven red alternating with 6 white. The stripes represent the original 13 colonies, the stars represent the 50 states of the Union. The colors of the flag are symbolic as well, Red symbolizes Hardiness and Valor, White symbolizes Purity and Innocence and Blue represents Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice.

The national flag of the United States of America, often simply referred to as the American flag, consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red 'top and bottom' alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton (referred to specifically as the "union") bearing fifty small, white, five pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars, the 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 states of the United States of America and the 13 stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain and became the first states in the Union, Nicknames for the flag include the "Stars and Stripes", "Old Glory", and "The Star-Spangled Banner."