HistoricSiteMarkers
American Revolution

Grand Union Flag Raised on Prospect Hill

Somerville, Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Marker Inscription

On this Hill the Union Flag with its thirteen stripes the emblem of the united colonies first bade defiance to an enemy january 1 1776.

The Story

On the first day of 1776, on the heights the Continental Army had seized during the siege of Boston, the newly organized army raised a flag of thirteen stripes representing the thirteen united colonies. The gesture came from the ring of fortified hills where Washington's troops held the British bottled up inside the town. It was one of the earliest displays of a common banner for the colonies acting as one.

Why it matters

The raising marks the moment thirteen separate colonies began to present themselves under a single flag — a small but potent step toward the idea of a united nation still months before the Declaration of Independence.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

In the winter of 1775 into 1776, the American Revolution had settled into a tense standoff around Boston. Following the outbreak of fighting the previous spring, colonial forces had penned the British army inside the town, ringing it with fortified heights. This was the Siege of Boston, and Prospect Hill, in what is now Somerville, was one of the commanding positions the Americans held.

The army manning those hills was new and still becoming itself. General George Washington had recently taken command of the forces gathered around Boston, working to forge disparate colonial militias into a single Continental Army. It was cold, difficult, uncertain work, carried out within sight of a professional enemy.

The date on this marker — the first of January, 1776 — sits at a hinge in time. Independence had not yet been declared; the colonies were in open conflict with the British crown while still, on paper, British subjects. The question of who these thirteen colonies were, and whether they were one thing or many, hung unresolved in the winter air over these heights.

People & events

On that New Year's Day, on the fortified heights his army held, a flag went up — a banner of thirteen stripes standing for the thirteen united colonies. Raised where Washington's troops kept the British bottled up inside Boston, it was a deliberate gesture of defiance, a visible claim flung toward the enemy in the town below.

What made the moment resonate was the flag's meaning. Thirteen stripes for thirteen colonies was a statement that these separate provinces were acting as one — presenting a common emblem at a time when unity was more aspiration than fact. It was among the earliest displays of a shared banner for the colonies acting together, and it flew from the very ground the army had seized and fortified during the siege.

The marker's own words capture the spirit: on this hill, the flag of thirteen stripes first bade defiance to an enemy. There's something fitting in the timing — a brand-new army, a brand-new year, and a brand-new symbol of common cause, all converging on a single hilltop in the first hours of 1776.

Its place in the American story

This raising marks a small but genuine step in one of the most important transformations in American history: the shift from thirteen separate colonies to a single united people. Long before that unity was formalized, it had to be imagined and expressed — and a flag is one of the most powerful ways a people declares that it is a people.

The thirteen stripes did visually what the Revolution was struggling to do politically: gather the colonies under one emblem, presenting them to the world and to their enemy as united rather than divided. That this happened months before the Declaration of Independence underscores how the idea of a unified nation was taking shape in symbols and actions well ahead of any formal document.

The stripes on that early banner would echo forward into the flag the country flies today. To stand where such a flag first rose in defiance is to stand near the headwaters of American national identity — a moment when the notion of "united colonies" moved from words into cloth flying over a battlefield.

If you visit

Come to Prospect Hill for the vantage as much as the history — this was high, commanding ground for a reason, and standing here you can appreciate why the army chose these heights to hem in the enemy below. Let the elevation tell part of the story before you even read a word.

As you take in the site, set your imagination to the first day of 1776: a cold winter around a besieged town, a young Continental Army still finding its feet, and a flag of thirteen stripes climbing into the air as an act of defiance. The gesture was modest in scale but bold in meaning, and this hilltop is where it happened.

It's a rewarding stop on any tour of Revolutionary sites around Boston, where the events of the siege are scattered across a landscape now filled with neighborhoods and streets. Give yourself a moment to consider that the unity we take for granted was, on this hill, still a fragile and daring idea — one first hoisted here, months before the country formally declared itself.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

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Related people

  • · George Washington

Related events

  • · Siege of Boston
  • · Raising of the Grand Union Flag, January 1, 1776

Themes & tags

American RevolutionMonument

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