Flag at Fort Boonesborough?

[threefeathers]

I am looking for thoughts, speculations, and general feelings about what flag might have flown at Fort Boonesborough during the siege in September 1778. Historical accounts from the period indicate that Boonesborough did have a flag ploe and that a flag was flown during the siege. However, I know of no description of what flag was flying. This is a point of mystery for Boonesborough researchers. Currently I am involved in a project to make some new displays for the muesum at the fort and one of the dioramas will be of the fort during the siege. The scale will be so small that a detailed flag will not be possible however, I would like to make an accurate "suggestion" of the flag. I would welcome thoughts from this forum about what might be a likely possibility.

[Peter Ansoff]

Hello, welcome!

The Boonesborough flag is an interesting problem. The US flag in 1778 was the 13 star/13 stripe version. There was no standard design of this flag at the time, and there were many variations -- stars with 5, 6 and 8 points (sometimes different numbers of points on the same flag!), red, white and blue stripes, and all sorts of different star arrangements. If they flew a US flag at Fort Boonesborough, my guess would be that it would have been a homemade version, with the stars in a random pattern.

Given the history of Fort Boonesborough, though, it's anybody's guess whether or not they would have flown the US flag, as opposed to some sort of locally-created colors.

If you unearth any information about the Boonesborough flag, please let us know!

Best,

Peter Ansoff

[threefeathers]

Thanks. Fortunately there are a lot of people around here that know quite a lot about Boonesborough. However, none of us can put a handle on this issue. We have speculated that the flag could range from a "Transylvania Company" flag, not that there is a record of such a flag and Henderson's plan for Transylvania fell apart prior to the siege. It might have been a Virginia flag from the time or as you point out a 13 stars and stripes version. The quest has almost become a thing of ruling out the least likely to find the might have beens.