[Illustration: FLAG CARRIED IN THE REVOLUTION BY THE FIRST REGIMENT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE] _Fifth._ If Washington and the others had agreed on a design in June, 1776, as Mr. Canby claims, Washington would have had it officially adopted, because he above all men knew the necessity of a national emblem, and more especially would he have done so immediately after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in July following, and he would not then have fought at Trenton and Princeton in December, 1776, under the State ensigns, or at Long Island or White Plains under the flags mentioned. _Sixth._ The first official record of the Stars and Stripes being carried in battle was at the Brandywine in September, 1777, although it is claimed that at Oriskany, fought on the 22d day of August, 1777, when Fort Stanwix was invested by the British, an American flag was made by using white shirts, a red petticoat and Captain Abraham Swartout's blue coat (see Lossing's field book of the American Revolution, Vol. 1, page 242; also Preble's Origin of the Flag, page 276). _Seventh._ In view of the above-recorded facts, the Betsy Ross story fails to convince the student and searcher after historical facts as to its authenticity. It is "the imagination of the artist" told in story. He says: "I fix the date because Washington at that time was in Philadelphia;" but no one else fixes the date of the Betsy Ross incident, not even the relatives from whom it is claimed the story was obtained. And further in the same statement it says: "Washington came to confer upon the affairs of the army, the flag being no doubt one of these affairs." Mere guess-work. And if a true guess, then the argument already used by Preble as to what became of the design and the flag from that time, June, 1776, to June, 1777, holds good. It was further claimed that stars and stripes were in general use a year before Congress adopted them; but it fails _to show one instance to sustain the assertion_; besides, the Richards letter of October, 1776, _it being official, completely upsets the claim_. Washington Irving in his life of Washington says that the General, accompanied by Mrs. Washington, left New York on the 21st day of May, 1776, and that they were the guests of John Hancock while in Philadelphia; but neither Irving, Sparks, nor any other writers of Washington's life mention anything whatever of the Ross incident. If it happened, it surely would have been mentioned by someone. Even Washington himself fails to say anything about it in any of the letters he has written, his diaries, or statements made, nor are there any allusions to the subject in the published correspondence of his contemporaries. So therefore the Ross claim simply rests on the statements claimed to have been obtained from relatives, while against it are the various facts above given and hundreds of others not mentioned in this article.