In the extract from the King's Regulations for the British Army, we have shown that the ensign of the different regiments differed in color according as the facings of the uniforms of the particular regiments to which they belonged differed. We have seen, in the Crusades, the different nations were distinguished by different colored crosses on their surcoats, from which the particular colored cross was transferred to the national banners of at least Scotland and England. Here the striking distinction was color. The same practice prevailed at the time of the Revolution in the colonies.--See the Proceedings of the Provincial Congress of Connecticut, "July 1, 1775. One standard for each regiment, distinguished by their color, as follows, viz.: For the seventh, blue; for the eighth, orange."[54] [54] American Archives, 4th series, vol. ii. p. 1582. With this practice of nations, then, before them, and evidently applied by them, viz.: that of applying some badge of distinction in use in their armies to their national banner, combined with that of indicating different portions of their armies by different colors for their flags; and of two nations, when uniting, adopting as a common ensign something to indicate their union, and still preserve the original banners (both as to devices and color), under which they had respectively achieved signal triumphs, especially as this last example was that of the mother country, we may expect to see the colonies carrying out this practice in their Union flag. They were British colonies: and, as we have shown, they used the British Union, but now, they were to distinguish their flag by its color from other British ensigns, preserve a trace of the colors under which they had previously fought with success, and, at the same time, represent this combination in some form peculiar to themselves. The mode of distinction by color could not well be applied by the United Colonies in a single color, as the simpler and most striking were exhausted in application to British ensigns; but, if applied, must have been used in a complex form or combination of colors. This being the case, stripes of color would naturally be suggested as being striking, as enabling them to show the number and union of the colonies, _as preserving the colors of the flags previously used by them_; and also the badge of distinction, which, at the time of the adoption of this flag, marked the different grades in the ununiformed army before Boston. Hence, probably, the name, _The Great Union Flag_, given to it by the writer in the _Philadelphia Gazette_, before quoted, doubtless Colonel Joseph Reed, inasmuch as this flag indicated, as respected the Colonies, precisely what the Great Union Flag of Great Britain indicated respecting the mother country.