Editor’s note: Mark Bushnell is a Vermont journalist and historian. He is the author of “Hidden History of Vermont” and “It Happened in Vermont.”
To some, the Vermont state flag is a thing of beauty — a vibrant symbol of our agricultural heritage, flora and fauna. To others, the flag lacks originality, making it hard to distinguish at a distance from about two dozen other state flags that also feature blue backgrounds.
Still, few would argue that the current flag isn’t an improvement on some earlier versions of the state flag.
Before 1803, the state of Vermont had no official flag. That might seem odd to us now, in a day when we have an official state song, three official state rocks and an official state amphibian.
But early Vermonters did have an unofficial flag of sorts. At the Battle of Bennington in 1777, roughly 300 Green Mountain Boys fought under a “star spangled green banner” dubbed the “Stark Flag,” in honor of their commander, Gen. John Stark. The flag was sage green with a blue canton (that rectangle in the top left corner of many flags) emblazoned with 13 white stars, one for each of the rebelling colonies. Stark kept that flag for the rest of his life. Upon his death, people cut up the green field for souvenirs.
The blue canton survives in the collection of the Bennington Museum.
Some believe the Green Mountain Boys’ flag was the de facto flag of the so-called Republic of Vermont. Few flags, if any, would have flown over Vermont during the 14 years between 1777 and 1791, when the region became the 14th state. Flags were expensive items, almost entirely reserved for military purposes. The Green Mountain Boys’ flag lives on today. The Vermont National Guard flies it, as does the state’s secessionist movement, the Second Vermont Republic.
Though Vermont became a state in 1791, it waited 12 years before getting around to declaring a state flag for the militia to use. You would think a dozen years would be enough to come up with a pretty nifty design. What Vermonters devised, however, looks rather like what art students might create if they suddenly realized their project was overdue. The flag is essentially an American flag, but one crammed with 17 stars and stripes (representing the original 13 states, plus the new states of Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio). But to make clear that this is a Vermont flag, the word “VERMONT” is stitched in capital letters along the top border. Artful or not, the flag remained Vermont’s standard for 34 years, until the Legislature selected a new one.
Again it seems like the deadline snuck up on the designers. The new version was also modeled on the American flag. But this one did have some improvements. The word “VERMONT” was removed from the flag, which featured a less-cluttered 13 stripes this time, to match the American flag. A large white star, resembling a sun, replaced the field of stars. And here comes the Vermonty touch: inside the star sat the state coat of arms.
The coat of arms, inspired by the state seal, features a verdant landscape with distant mountains and a yellow sky. At the center of the design stands a tree, representing a large pine that stood on the Arlington property of Vermont’s first governor, Thomas Chittenden. Three sheaves of wheat and a red cow stand in the middle distance to represent the state’s agriculture — wheat was once a major Vermont crop. A stag’s head, presumably representing the state’s wildlife, tops the coat of arms. The coat of arms rests on a pair of evergreen branches, reminiscent of the sprigs worn for identification by some Vermont troops dating back to the American Revolution, and a banner proclaiming the state motto, “Freedom and Unity.” This was the official Vermont state flag for more than 80 years. The coat of arms was unique, but the stars and stripes were more than a bit derivative.
In 1919, the state Legislature decided it needed to clarify and codify the design. It firmly stated that the star must have five points. The original legislation hadn’t specified how many points and some flag makers had created eight-pointed stars.
Whether five-pointed or eight, neither version of the flag was flown often. And when it was, few Vermonters seemed to notice. Many Vermonters were said to be unaware what the state flag even looked like. Maybe that’s because, unless flying in a stiff breeze, the state flag was virtually indistinguishable from the American flag.
Today, few, if any, of these historical flags still exist. None are in the collections of the Vermont Historical Society, the Vermont Statehouse or the State Archives.
If no one championed these early flags, maybe that’s because soldiers seem never to have carried them into battle. An association with battle has a way of turning a flag into a sacred object. The Civil War did that for the American flag, says Vermont historian Woden Teachout, an expert on the American flag and author of “Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism.”
“Flags took on a whole new significance during the Civil War,” says Teachout. “They became almost a language unto themselves: a way to express meanings that were military, political, and even spiritual.”
The forces clashing in the war rallied around their own flags. “There were flags for the North, the South, individual states, the abolitionists, secessionists, and those who wanted to preserve the Union,” notes Teachout. “And because of their role on the battlefield, they became a profound symbol of blood and sacrifice. By the end of the Civil War, flags were at the center of American culture.”
At the start of the Civil War, a Vermont regiment marched into battle beneath a white silk flag bearing the state coat of arms, according to research by the late Gerald Hinckley, a Vermonter with a particular passion for the state flag’s history. Other regiments kept the coat of arms but changed the background color from white to blue.
Sound familiar? It should; it’s the basis of our current state flag, however it wouldn’t be adopted for more than half a century. Only in 1923 did the Legislature decide the state deserved a flag that could easily be distinguished from the American flag, and made the Civil War-era regimental flag the official state flag.
A different flag would be flying over Vermont today, however, if Ira Allen had had his way. Allen sought to unite Vermont with Canada. In 1796, Allen sailed to France and purchased thousands of muskets to arm French-Canadians, whom he hoped would overthrow the British who controlled the region and join with Vermont to create a new nation.
Allen took with him a flag he planned to fly over this new country, which he would call United Columbia. The flag was comprised of five vertical strips — red, white, green, white and blue — merging tricolors of France with the green of Vermont.
But the British seized Allen’s ship and his guns as it sailed for North America. His dream of creating a new nation crushed, Allen no longer needed his flag.
