The Proctor Flag

Created for the very first American troops west of the Allegheny Mountains, comes a battle flag known as Proctor's flag.  Proctor's flag, made in the fall of 1775, predates the Stars and Stripes by two years and is the only surviving "Don't tread on me" rattlesnake flag from the American Revolution. On May 16, 1775, less than a month after Massachusetts militiamen faced down the King's troops at Lexington and Concord, the settlers of Westmoreland County Pennsylvania gathered at the courthouse in Hannastown, six miles north of present day Greensburg.  Upon hearing the news, the leaders in Hanna's Town unanimously declared that it had "become the indispensable duty of every American... to resist and oppose the execution of it; that for us we will be ready to oppose it with our lives and fortunes." They further resolved to "form ourselves into a military body, to consist of companies to be made up out of the several townships under the following association, which is declared to be the a