^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Green Mountain Boys (U.S.)

Historical

image by Rick Wyatt

See also:

The Bennington Museum has the remnant of a green silk flag with a blue canton. The canton has 13 stars in an irregular pattern. It is known as the "Green Mountain Boys" flag, and there seems to be no dispute over its claimed use during the 1770's.
Nick Artimovich, 15 November 1996

The Green Mountain Boys were a part of the New Hampshire militia during the Revolutionary War. My (Living History) unit, the 2nd New Hampshire Continental Regiment, fought with the Green Mountain Boys at Hubbardton, where we were all routed or captured. None of us would have gotten away if it had not been for the 'Boys counter-attacking the Hessians.

It should also be noted that most of the militia units of the northern parts of New York adjacent to Vermont were "Loyalist" units and all of the New Hampshire units in the same area were "Patriot" units. Don't forget the victors get to write the history!
Dave Martucci, 15 November 1996

The remnants of this flag are preserved at the Bennington Historical Museum, near where John Stark led the Green Mountain Boys to victory over Gen. Burgoyne's Hessians, August 17, 1776. Earlier, under Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, the Green Mountain Boys (from the hills of Vermont and New Hampshire) took Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
Randy Young, 20 April 2001

The so-called flag of the Green Mountain Boys isn't any such thing. What we have is a blue canton from a flag which had green fabric on at least three sides of it. It is very much like the canton on the 3rd Virginia Regimental Flag that was sold by Sotheby's in 2006. It is possibly the missing canton from the Headman Flag or another of the Gostelowe flags. There has never been a shred of evidence to associate it with the Green Mountain Boys. It was in the possession of the descendants of General Stark and they said it was his. Stark commanded a force of New Hampshire troops at the Battle of Bennington in 1777 but it is not clear that this flag was there. The Green Mountain Boys were never commanded by Stark (or any other Continental officer). If it is a Gostelowe flag, it certainly was not at Bennington or any place else in 1777 as they were made later. As a general officer, Stark would not have a claim to any particular Regimental Flag but he may have acquired it at the time or shortly thereafter.

See my comments on the so-called Green Mountain Boys flag in the New England Journal of Vexillology issue number 23 (www.vexman.net/neva/NEJV23.pdf).
Dave Martucci, 13 September 2011