Prospect Hill

‘Twas when the flower of England’s troops,
Intrench’d in Boston lay,
On Prospect Hill were anxious groups,
All eager for the fray;
Their hearts had long defiance hurl’d,
Though every voice was still,
Until old Putnam here un furl’d,
The Flag of Prospect Hill.

Soon after their retreat from Bunker Hill, colonial troops took up defensive positions on Prospect Hill, then in Charlestown, but now part of Somerville, Mass. General Israel Putnam ordered the erection of a 76 foot mast taken from a burned schooner as a flagpole and on 18 July 1775 raised a flag bearing on one side the motto, AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN and on the other, the arms of Connecticut with the motto, QUI TRANSTULIT SUSTINET, or “He who transplants sustains.” According to a newspaper account of the ceremony in the New Hampshire Gazette of 25 July, the shouts of the gathered troops on Prospect Hill reached the “Philistines” on Bunker Hill who, “being very fearful, paraded themselves in Battle Array.” Throughout the fall of 1775, the men on Prospect Hill were bombarded by British fire, but their fortifications held.

January 1, 1776

Meanwhile, in England, King George was losing patience with his rebellious subjects. On 27 October 1775, he gave a speech to Parliament vowing “to put a speedy end to these disorders by the most decisive exertions.” Of course, being a reasonable man, he added that “when the unhappy and deluded multitude, against whom this force will be directed, shall become sensible of their error, I shall be ready to receive the misled with tenderness and mercy!” In a letter to Joseph Reed in Philadelphia, George Washington related what happened when a copy of that speech reached Prospect Hill:

We are at length favourd with a sight of his Majesty’s most gracious Speech, breathing sentiments of tenderness & compassion for his deluded American Subjects … And, farcical enough, we gave great Joy to them (the red Coats I mean) without knowing or intending it, for on that day, the day which gave being to the New Army (but before the Proclamation came to hand) we had hoisted the Union Flag in compliment to the United Colonies, but behold! it was receivd in Boston as a token of the deep Impression the Speech had made upon Us, and as a signal of Submission—so we learn by a person out of Boston last Night—by this time I presume they begin to think it strange that we have not made a formal surrender of our Lines.

It is uncertain what the flag raised on Prospect Hill that day looked like, although quite clear that it was seen and its significance noted by those on the opposing side. Lieut. William Carter of the 40th Regiment of Foot noted in a letter that “The Provincials have entered on the New Year with spirit,” raising “an Union flag (above the continental with the thirteen stripes)” and the captain of a British transport reported that the “Rebels” had burned a copy of the King’s speech before hoisting “the Union Flag which is here supposed to intimate the union of the Provinces.” The flag also appears prominently (although not in detail) in a contemporary sketch of Prospect Hill by British officer Archibald Robinson. 

Alfred Morton Cutler, who waged a newspaper campaign in the 1920s to cement Somerville’s place in history with regard to the Prospect Hill flag, thought it “probable that it was 13 stripes, alternately red and white with Great Union of Great Britain in the canton.” A report published in the Annual Register for 1776 noted that the troops had “changed their colours, from a plain red ground, which they had hitherto used, to a flag with thirteen stripes, as a symbol of the number and union of the colonies,” adding credence to Cutler’s hypothesis. More than a year passed from the raising of the Prospect Hill flag before the Continental Congress finally settled on a design for an official flag, “thirteen stripes, alternate red and white … the union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

Prospect Hill in the Civil War

Now to this spot the patriot turns
Though years on years have fled,
For Freedom’s torch undim’d still burns
Above the hallowed dead.
And though those manly hearts that beat
For Freedom, now are still
Yet here their sons with pride still greet
The Flag of Prospect Hill.

During the Civil War, Prospect Hill was used as a training ground and campsite for the Somerville Light Infantry (whose Captain George Brastow is pictured on the cover of this month’s feature) and Somerville Guards. As they had during the Revolution, the men of Somerville heeded the call of their country, heading to the front when Lincoln issued calls for troops after the in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Fort Sumter and throughout the war.