The flag we know as the “Bunker Hill flag” has been widely associated with the Battle of Bunker Hill, fought on June 17, 1775. While a flag likely did fly above the American position that day, no surviving artifact preserves its exact form - real or reconstructed. The design recognized today reflects the established flag traditions of New England at the opening of the Revolution.
The Bunker Hill flag features a blue field with the red Cross of St. George in the canton and a green pine tree displayed within the upper-hoist quadrant of that canton. Each of these elements carries deep regional roots.
New New-England Legacy
Prior to the American Revolution, the Cross of St. George had long served as England’s national emblem and subsequently appeared in colonial ensigns throughout the Atlantic world. In New England, it formed part of a distinctive regional banner used as early as the 1600s. That banner paired the cross with a pine tree—an emblem that symbolized the region’s identity, economy, and political character...
By the mid 1700s, the pine tree had become a recognized symbol of New England. It represented both the mast trade that supplied the Royal Navy and the colonies’ growing sense of local solidarity. Pine tree imagery appeared on flags, seals, and other provincial devices.
As it pertains to the American Revolution, the visual language would have been familiar to Massachusetts militia companies by 1775.
The Bunker Hill flag is planted firmly within the New England tradition of flag symbology. Its structure reflects the long-standing New England practice of combining the Cross of St. George with a pine tree emblem.
Furthermore, the blue field variation aligns with documented colonial color schemes used in maritime and militia contexts. Together, these elements form a banner that expresses both inherited English forms and distinctly New England identity.
Bunker Hill’s Banner - Echoes of '75
The battle itself took place in what is now the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Charlestown has preserved and commemorated its Revolutionary heritage for generations, most visibly at the Bunker Hill Monument.
Within that landscape of memory, the Bunker Hill flag has become a recognized symbol of Charlestown and its role in the opening phase of the American Revolution. The flag's continued association with Bunker Hill reflects the lasting identity of the community that stood there in 1775.
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