Probably the flag made by the skillful fingers of Mrs. Elizabeth Griscom Ross was sewed with the tiniest of stitches imaginable; but it is absolutely certain that the flag which made its appearance August 3, 1777, at Fort Schuyler, afterwards Fort Stanwix, was not put together with any such daintiness of workmanship. For twenty days the little fort in the New York wilderness, where Rome now stands, was besieged by British and Indians. Reinforcements brought the news of the adoption of the new flag. The troops within the fort had no flag, and therefore, in true American fashion, they set to work to make one. There was not even a country store to draw upon for materials, so they made the best of what they had. As the story has been handed down, a white shirt provided the white stripes and the stars, and the petticoat of a soldier's wife the red stripes. As for the blue ground for the stars, it was cut from the cloak of Captain Abram Swartwout. The result was not very elegant, but it was a flag, and it was _the_ flag, and the besieged men were as proud of it and stood for it as bravely as if it had been made of damask with the daintiest of needlework. August 22, 1777, the fort was relieved, and after a few days Captain Swartwout began to be anxious about his blue cloak. Colonel Peter Gansevoort, who commanded the fort, had promised him a new one to take the place of the one which he had sacrificed for the flag, but it had not arrived. Seven days he waited. At the end of the seventh day he sent a note from Poughkeepsie, where he then was, back to the fort, saying: "You may Remember Agreeable to Your promise, I was to have an Order for Eight Yards of Broad-Cloath, on the Commissary for Cloathing of this State In Lieu of my Blue Cloak, which we Used for Coulours at Fort Schuyler. An opportunity Now presenting itself, I beg You to send me an Order." Broadcloth was broadcloth in those days, and a "Blue Cloak" was not so easily obtained. It is no wonder he wrote it with capitals. It is to be hoped that the good captain received his order; but it must have been a very large cloak to require eight yards of "Broad-Cloath."