While we may fairly infer from General Washington's letter, that this emblem of union had presented itself to his mind as such, we may also infer from his not describing its accompanying devices, to mark the compliment to the United Colonies, that he supposed Colonel Joseph Reed, his military secretary, fully acquainted with them; and from this we may conclude Colonel Reed had something to do with its preparation. This conclusion is strengthened by the fact, that Colonel Joseph Reed was Secretary to the Committee of Conference sent by Congress to arrange with General Washington the details of the organization of the army, which went into being January 2, 1776. And, at the very time that Committee was in session at the camp at Cambridge, we find Colonel Reed having the subject of flags under consideration. To the reply to a letter written by him at that time, we may possibly trace the origin of the use of a modification of the British ensign, a drawing of which is given under Queen Anne's proclamation before quoted, as the flag of the United Colonies. And we shall give good reasons to conclude that this modification consisted in applying to its red field a sufficient number of white stripes, to divide the whole into thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, as above shown; and we will show the propriety of this by establishing the fact that a _stripe_ was the badge of rank in the ununiformed army that assembled about Boston in defence of liberty. Colonel Joseph Reed, Secretary to the Committee of Conference from Congress, and Military Secretary of General Washington, the Committee being then in session, wrote, October 20, 1776: "Please fix upon some particular color for a flag and a signal by which our vessels may know one another.[48] What do you think of a flag with a white ground, a tree in the middle, the motto, 'Appeal to Heaven?' This is the flag of our floating batteries." To which Colonels Glover and Moylan replied, October 21, 1775: "That as Broughton and Selman, who sailed that morning, had none but their old colors, they had appointed the signal by which they could be known by their friends to be 'the ensign up to the maintopping lift."[49] [48] From this, we may justly conclude that the Committee of Conference, composed of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Harrison, had the subject of the flag under consideration, and that the flag prepared under their supervision was the one displayed as the flag of the United Colonies, on the day the army organized by them, General Washington, &c., went into being. [49] Siege of Boston, p. 261.