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Guilford Courthouse (U.S.)

Historical

image by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 29 August 2001

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The flag was raised over the Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina on March 15, 1781.

Why does the Guilford Courthouse Flag have only twelve stripes (as shown in a photo of the flag at ncpedia.org/guilford-courthouse-flag?

There are very small remnants of what appear to be a 13th and a 14th stripe on the bottom hoist edge of this flag. The hoist edge is also not finished, and there is speculation that there many have been two more stars at the hoist matching the two stars at the fly edge of the canton.

As a result, some speculate that this was actually a 15 star/15 stripe flag dating from the War of 1812. Grace Cooper goes into some detail on this flag in her study of ancient American flags, my copy of which is in hiding at this moment.
Devereaux Cannon, 14 September 2002

From the book "Flags to Color, Washington to Lincoln," page 4, and is titled "Guilford Courthouse flag, c.1795."

Quoted from the book -
"Colors: Dark blue stars on a white canton; eight dark blue and seven red stripes."

"Today this flag has thirteen stars and twelve stripes. However, there is evidence that the flag originally was considerably larger and had the appearance shown here. Certainly its size precludes use on the battlefield. There is no known significance to the six and eight points on stars frequently seen in early American flags, although some have hinted at Masonic symbolism as a possible origin. American coins unit the mid-nineteenth century frequently had stars of more than five points."
Randy Young, 20 October 2004

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