This flag represents the earliest known surviving flag of the United States Army to date. This flag was identified at auction as an 1830’s NY State Miltia Flag. Leading flag scholars assert this flag was made for an unidentified unit from 1812-1830’s! In this document, it can be proven that the flag was made by
Robert Scot, the US Great Seal maker for Gen. Arthur St. Clair.

You can download this document here

The St Clair Papers

The Life and Public Service of Arthur St. Clair
Soldier of the Revolutionary War, President of the Continental Congress; and Governor of the North Western Territory
With the Correspondence and Other Papers arranged and annotated by
William Henry Smith (1882)

Volume I  |  Volume II

Thanks so much for your time and suggestions today. Arthur St. Clair was a man that never seemed to receive any credit or public attention for his achievements, but was often "scapegoated" for the mistakes of others. As a result, historians have avoided him because to them, the embattled general must have appeared to have been "damaged goods."

Some history professors often sum up his life with this phrase, "he was an unfortunate victim of circumstances who deserved better." After six years of research I found that to be a great understatement and set out to tell his untold story. In fact , the book is really a collection of untold stories about Arthur St. Clair's 40-year military and public service career. More info is enclosed as well as visuals

St. Clair was of enormous help to George Washington, especially in the area of strategic military planning which was not his strongest point in the early years of the Revolutionary War. The cover of the book was designed to suggest the two in a before-battle session.

Regards.

Dick Phillips

Sometimes there’s a story behind a story which might be inconvenient truths for, or expose the agendas of, those in charge. Often the public never hears those back stories, mostly for political reasons. The effects of these falsely reported stories can be disastrous to the reputation of the person involved.

But for 240 years?

Such occurrences happened often during the formation and development of America, when Congress was micro-managing every military aspect of the war. During his 40-year military and public service to America, Arthur St. Clair survived three such actions by Congress and although his career grew steadily, his deserved reputation as a brilliant strategist and courageous military leader did not. And yet this patriot, who became a Major General, a Congressman, President of Congress and Federal Governor of the Northwest Territory, has generally been ignored by historians for centuries.

St. Clair walked with the giants of the American Revolution, Franklin, Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Green, Lafayette, Adams and others.

It was Washington who recruited him as one of the early Scottish Freemasons in America. Many St. Clair/Sinclair descendants even say that Ben Franklin inducted him. Perhaps one reason why historians haven’t written about this courageous Scot is because he thought and acted outside the box. He always tried to do what was right, regardless of the consequences. This often put him in the crosshairs of the powers that be and he paid a heavy price.

“It’s one thing to help your commander restore his reputation, like St. Clair did for Washington in the last days of 1776-77. Although he expected no credit then, it was quite another to be made a scapegoat for military mistakes of Congress and others One doesn’t easily recover from that,” says author, R.W. Dick Phillips, who recently released the book entitled, ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, THE INVISIBLE PATRIOT, which is available on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and other book stores.

At 328-pages and 24 chapters, the book deals with this native Scot becoming a British officer to fight the French in Canada’s Seven Years War. After retiring and settling in western Pennsylvania, he spent most of the next decade helping the Scottish settlers fight off Indian attacks and worked in various judicial capacities assigned by Governor Penn. After he learned that the Indian raids had been incited by the British command in Virginia, he became increasingly critical of the British taxation and their brutal treatment of Colonists and their families.

Accepting a commission as Colonel in the Continental Army. his recruiting talent, strategic planning and leadership experience quickly became known and he found himself promoted to Brigadier General and assigned to Washington’s senior staff within a year. But the war was not going well and Washington had lost most of his men during 1776 and was suffering trust issues with his Major Generals Charles Lee and Horatio Gates. When his most experienced Major General Mercer died in the battle of Princeton, Washington saw St. Clair, the man that had helped him turn around an all-but-lost revolutionary war with three victories in New Jersey, as his next Major General. The two were trusted fellow combatants and remained friends during the first 20 years of the Republic

This book details the stories behind several incorrectly-reported stories of St. Clair’s life. The author describes the book as both biographical and an historical commentary, reflecting his extensive research. A retired PR agency exec., the Phillips’ moved to the Ohio Valley to be closer to their family and he became interested in its rich history.

“After some newspaper and magazine articles about early pioneers began appearing, my fellow Rotarians suggested I look at Arthur St. Clair, the namesake of our city, St. Clairsville, Ohio,” said Phillips, adding, I didn’t expect to take on a retirement project of this magnitude, but after researching the Library of Congress and about 70 other sources, I was hooked. St. Clair’s story needed to be told!”

Reach R. W. Dick Phillips on Facebook (also under book title). See reader reviews on Amazon.com, also available on Walmart.com, Barnes and Noble and various museum Book Stores, such as Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian, Scotland