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Flag of the Month January 2021 - The Bedford Flag

Started by Mahamotorworks, March 03, 2021, 09:22:46 PM

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Mahamotorworks

Good morning & Happy New Year!

You've all seen the myriad flags we fly at Project Appleseed events nationwide, and you may also have noticed that we don't often have the chance to tell you about many of them.

At the suggestion of a student in New Mexico, Project Appleseed proudly brings you... drumroll please.....  dun dun DUN!!!
Flag of the Month!

Since this is the FIRST installment of Flag of the Month, it seems only fitting that we begin at, well, the beginning.

Allow me to introduce you all to the Bedford Flag! The original Bedford flag is believed to have been made perhaps as early as 1710, and is widely considered to be the first flag in American History.  It was hand painted on red silk damask, and if you look closely at the photograph, you can still see the remnants of the silver fringe and tassel. It measures 29x27 inches, which is unusal, and features an armored hand grasping a sword. The Latin motto reads VINCE AUT MORIRE ("Conquer Or Die")



A commission displayed with the Bedford flag names members of the Page family of Bedford, Massachusetts in flag-bearing military positions. The commission was submitted to the Bedford Free Public Library in 1737. The combination of facts suggests that the Bedford flag may have been carried by enlisted members of the Page family as early as 1720.

Based on written passages of oral history, historians agree that it is reasonable to conclude that the Bedford flag made an appearance in the American Revolution at the Battle at North Bridge, Concord, Massachusetts.  It is here, on April 19, 1775, that Nathaniel Page is believed to have carried the flag out to meet the British in battle.  It's entirely possible, perhaps even likely, that the flag referred to in Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem "The Concord Hymn," was, in fact, the standard borne by the Bedford Militia at the Battle of Concord.

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world."



The first mention of the "Bedford flag" by that name doesn't come until 1875. Cyrus Page sent the flag to the centennial celebration at Concord on April 19, 1875, and flew it from the old Page homestead for the 1879 Sesquicentennial of Bedford. In 1885, just before his death, he entrusted the flag to the Bedford Free Public Library, where it is still on display.

MAHA
Sufficient speed, Acceptable drag.

So what is Project Appleseed Business?  What would the Ghost of Project Appleseed say to us?

"Business!'" cried the Ghost of Project Appleseed, wringing its hands again.  "Liberty was my business; Heritage, History, Freedom, and Pursuit of Happiness, were, all, my business. The deals of Marksmanship were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
-Adapted from Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol.

cornhskr