Continental Colors
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| Names | The Grand Union Flag, Continental Colors; Congress Flag; Cambridge Flag; First Navy Ensign |
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| Adopted | December 3, 1775 |
| Design | Thirteen horizontal stripes alternating red and white; in the canton, the British Union Flag |
The "Grand Union Flag" (also known as the "Continental Colors", the "Congress Flag", the "Cambridge Flag", and the "First Navy Ensign") is considered to be the first national flag of the United States of America.
This flag consisted of 13 alternating red and white stripes (like the current Flag of the United States), but with the upper inner corner or canton being the British Union Flag of the time (prior to the inclusion of St. Patrick's cross for the 1801 unification of Ireland with Great Britain).
By the end of 1775, during the first year of the American Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress operated as a de facto war government authorizing the creation of an Army, a Navy and even a Marine Corps. A new flag was required to represent the Congress and fledgling nation, initially the United Colonies, with a banner distinct from the British Red Ensign flown from civilian and merchant vessels, the White Ensign of the King's Royal Navy, and the British Union flags carried by the King's army troops on land. Individual states had been using their own independent flags with Massachusetts using the Taunton Flag and New York using the George Rex Flag prior to the adoption of the Grand Union Flag.
The American colonist's (Continental Colour) was first hoisted on the colonial warship Alfred, in the harbor on the western shore of the Delaware River at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 3, 1775, by newly-appointed Lieutenant John Paul Jones of the formative Continental Navy. The event had been documented in letters to Congress and eyewitness accounts. The flag was used by the American Continental Army forces as both a naval ensign and garrison flag throughout 1776 and early 1777.
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