Episode 3 of 4

Early Flights and Battle Use

When: June – September 11, 1777
Where: Middlebrook encampment, Fort Schuyler, and Brandywine
Part of: Adoption of the Stars and Stripes Flag

Tradition holds the new flag first flew at Middlebrook in June 1777; its first battle flight came at Fort Schuyler on August 3, 1777.

While scholars still debate it, tradition holds that the new flag was first hoisted in June 1777 by the Continental Army at the Middlebrook encampment. The first official U.S. flag flown in battle was on August 3, 1777, at Fort Schuyler (Fort Stanwix) during the Siege of Fort Stanwix. A flag associated with the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, less than three months after the flag act, ranks among the earliest stars-and-stripes flags.

Sources

Flag of the United States Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-19

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.