TRUMBULL FLAG

John Trumbull and Charles Wilson Peale, artist-historians of the American Revolution, both served as officers during the War.  During the War, and afterwards, they produced many sketches and paintings that today form a contemporaneous account of what took place. While Peale gave the world many paintings of the leaders of that era, Trumbull, while he painted portraits as well, is best known for his National History series which depicted several events and battles of the Revolution. Because both artists were known for being meticulous in their detail and accuracy, flags depicted in their works are considered by most to be accurate versions of what existed at the time.

Trumbull depicted the stars as six pointed in all his works, except one that showed five pointed stars.  Peale also depicted stars as six-pointed.

Edward W. Richardson observed, in his book Standards and Colors of the American Revolution:

"Peale depicted a wide circle of small six-pointed stars in a square blue field in his paintings of Washington at Trenton. . . .Trumbull's favorite pattern was a square of twelve (stars) with one in the middle (Yale's Yorktown, and Burgoyne, and Princeton). He also used the circle (Detroit Institute's Yorktown) and rectilinear (Yale's Washington at Trenton) patterns."