Pentagon Marks Armed Forces Day With Special Flag

The War Department celebrated Armed Forces Day with a newly unveiled America 250 version of the Betsy Ross flag, unfurled over the outside of the Pentagon today at sunrise.

At 20 feet long and 28 feet wide, the flag has 13 alternating red and white strips and 13 stars arranged in a circle with “250″ in the center.

Betsy Ross was a professional upholsterer in Philadelphia from the early 1770s until she retired in 1827. While there is no historical evidence, many people believe she designed the American flag.  

Born Elizabeth Griscom on Jan. 1, 1752, in Gloucester City, New Jersey, Ross was raised by a Quaker family in Philadelphia. 

She apprenticed under John Webster, becoming a seamstress and upholsterer.  

In 1773, she married John Ross, which got her expelled from the Quaker community, since marrying a non-Quaker was taboo. Together, they ran an upholstery shop in Philadelphia and joined the Christ Church. John died in 1776, and Ross became a widow at 24. She continued to run the shop, and according to legend, Gen. George Washington, commander of the Continental Army, along with two other Founding Fathers, visited her in the summer of 1776. Washington showed her a sketch of a flag featuring 13 stars and stripes, and Ross advised some minor changes. Many flags at the time featured six-pointed stars; Ross proposed five.

In 1777, Ross married Joseph Ashburn, a merchant sailor, and they had two daughters. However, Ashburn was captured by the British and charged with treason. He died in a British prison in 1782. John Claypoole, a fellow patriot who had been imprisoned with Ashburn, visited Ross to tell her that he had died.   

Claypoole and Ross became friends, fell in love, got married and had five daughters. They were married for 34 years before Claypoole died in 1817. Ross retired at 76 and died Jan. 30, 1836; she was 84. 

The Betsy Ross flag legend was started by her grandson, William Canby, in 1870, according to womenshistory.org. Canby presented a paper to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania recalling the story his grandmother told him. Although there are no historical records, what is known is that during and after the Revolutionary War, Ross made a variety of military flags over the course of 50 years.