<P> The flag closely resembles the British East India Company flag of the era, and Sir Charles Fawcett argued in 1937 that the company flag inspired the design . Both flags could have been easily constructed by adding white stripes to a British Red Ensign, one of the three maritime flags used throughout the British Empire at the time . However, an East India Company flag could have from nine to 13 stripes, and was not allowed to be flown outside the Indian Ocean . Benjamin Franklin once gave a speech endorsing the adoption of the Company's flag by the United States as their national flag . He said to George Washington, "While the field of your flag must be new in the details of its design, it need not be entirely new in its elements . There is already in use a flag, I refer to the flag of the East India Company ." This was a way of symbolising American loyalty to the Crown as well as the United States' aspirations to be self - governing, as was the East India Company . Some colonists also felt that the Company could be a powerful ally in the American War of Independence, as they shared similar aims and grievances against the British government tax policies . Colonists therefore flew the Company's flag, to endorse the Company . </P> <P> However, the theory that the Grand Union Flag was a direct descendant of the flag of the East India Company has been criticised as lacking written evidence . On the other hand, the resemblance is obvious, and a number of the Founding Fathers of the United States were aware of the East India Company's activities and of their free administration of India under Company rule . In any case, both the stripes (barry) and the stars (mullets) have precedents in classical heraldry . Mullets were comparatively rare in early modern heraldry, but an example of mullets representing territorial divisions predating the U.S. flag are those in the coat of arms of Valais of 1618, where seven mullets stood for seven districts . </P> <P> On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution which stated: "Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation ." Flag Day is now observed on June 14 of each year . While scholars still argue about this, tradition holds that the new flag was first hoisted in June 1777 by the Continental Army at the Middlebrook encampment . </P> <P> The first official U.S. flag flown during battle was on August 3, 1777, at Fort Schuyler (Fort Stanwix) during the Siege of Fort Stanwix . Massachusetts reinforcements brought news of the adoption by Congress of the official flag to Fort Schuyler . Soldiers cut up their shirts to make the white stripes; scarlet material to form the red was secured from red flannel petticoats of officers' wives, while material for the blue union was secured from Capt . Abraham Swartwout's blue cloth coat . A voucher is extant that Capt . Swartwout of Dutchess County was paid by Congress for his coat for the flag . </P>

When was the american flag flown for the first time