Do you know who designed the first approved American flag?Well if you said Betsy Ross you would be wrong. In fact there is absolutely no historical evidence that she even sewed any flag at all for Washington. We do know that as a widowed upholster she had done some sewing for the army and maybe a few repairs of General Washington's uniforms when he was in town but the scene above never happened. There could be speculation that she was pressed into service to help make additional flags for the Continental Navy but that is about as far as we can trace back. So from where did the design of the "Betsy Ross" flag arrive?It is strongly believed that the flag with the stars in a circle were never before seen till the above painting when Chalres Weisgerber painted it in 1893. That sure is a lot of years after 1776. In fact the story of Betsy Ross did not become public till 94 years after the said event by one of her grandsons, William J. Canby. He was speaking at a historical society meeting and told of how his Grandmother with the help of Washington and an uncle developed the design for the first flag of these United States.
History actually supports the fact that Francis Hopkinson, a Congressman from New Jersey and a signer of the Declaration of Independence designed the first flag and it is so stated in the first journals of the Continental Congress. On November 6th, 1776 Francis was appointed by the Continental Navy Board to begin his work. By the year 1780 he had not only completed the design for the "flag of the United States", but also several ornaments, devices, checks and bills of exchange seals for the Admiralty and Treasury but also the Great Seal of The United States. The design of the first Stars and Stripes by Hopkinson had the thirteen stars arranged in a staggered pattern along with the thirteen stripes of red and white.