deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

The Green Mountain Boys were a militia organization established in 1770 in the territory between the British provinces of New York and New Hampshire, known as the New Hampshire Grants and later in 1777 as the Vermont Republic (which later became the state of Vermont).

Headed by Ethan Allen and members of his extended family, it was instrumental in resisting New York’s attempts to control the territory, over which it had won de jurecontrol in a territorial dispute with New Hampshire.

Some companies served in the American Revolutionary War, including notably when the Green Mountain Boys, led under the command of Ethan Allen while being assisted by Benedict Arnold, captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain on May 10, 1775, and invaded Canada later in 1775. 

The remnants of the Green Mountain Boys militia were largely reconstituted as the Green Mountain Continental Rangers. Command of the newly formed regiment passed from Allen to Seth Warner. Allen joined the staff of the Northern Army of New York’s Major General Philip Schuyler and was given the rank of lieutenant colonel. Under Warner the regiment fought at the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington in 1777. The regiment was disbanded in 1779.

The Green Mountain Boys flag, also known as the Stark flag, is a reconstruction of a regimental flag commonly stated to have been used by the Green Mountain Boys. The flag of the Green Mountain Boys has also been associated with the Vermont Republic.

The common reconstruction consists of a green field and a constellation of thirteen five-pointed white stars representing the thirteen colonies arranged in a natural pattern within an azure canton. The existing fragments of Stark’s flag consist of the canton from the flag, which has remnants of green silk on three sides, and a piece of green cloth with flourish from elsewhere on the flag.

The flag is the model for the Vermont National Guard today. I have it for the historic value, it being one of the earliest recognized symbols of the young United States.