Bedford Flag

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The Bedford Flag is the oldest extant battle flag of the American Revolution. It was borne by the Bedford Minuteman Company and flew at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775. The flag is commonly believed to be the inspiration for the first stanza in Ralph Waldo Emerson's Concord Hymn which opens:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

their flag to April's breeze unfurled...

The flag is made of crimson silk damask with the design painted on. The painted image was made slightly different on the two sides, with the Latin motto "Vince Aut Morire" (Conquer Or Die) reading from top to bottom on one side and from bottom to top on the other.

The exact age and origin of the flag are not known, but physical and historical evidence are consistent with a date early in the 1700s. At one point, because of its heraldic similarity to another flag made for another Massachusetts cavalry unit in the 1660s, historians thought that the Bedford flag might actually be that earlier flag. However, spectroscopic analysis of the paint used on the emblem revealed the pigment called “Prussian blue”, which did not exist before 1704.

The flag is still on display in the Bedford Free Public Library in Bedford, Massachusetts.

[edit] External links

• A history of the Bedford flag
• Bedford Minuteman Company
• Historical Flags from U.S. Embassy, Stockholm