The size of the Flag of the army is six feet six inches in length, by four feet four inches in width, with seven red and six white stripes. The first seven stripes, (four red and three white,) bound the square of the blue field for the stars, the stripes extending from the extremity of the field to the end of the Flag. The eighth stripe is white, extending partly at the base of the field.
According to the act of Congress, April 4, 1818, on the admission of every new State into the Union, a star was to be added to the galaxy of the most brilliant Banner of earth.
Mrs. Betsy Ross put all her household to work in earnest, and the “FLAGS,” made of silk and bunting, were not only admired, but afterwards approved and adopted by the committee of Congress. General George Washington, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, frequently visited her store, to see what progress she was making, and were not only pleased, but expressed their astonishment at her dexterity and judgment, and in the most flattering terms complimented her for her remarkable skill with the SCISSORS, as she folded a piece of white silk and with one cut formed the beautiful five-pointed star.
Mrs. Ross, by order of the Government, continued making the army and navy Flags of the United States for upwards of fifty-five years, and after her death, in 1832, her daughter, Mrs. Clarissa S. Wilson continued the business, and they became generally and widely known as the most patriotic ladies of America. After the death of Mr. John Ross, she was married to Mr. John Claypoole, the grandson of Sir John Claypoole, the grandson of Oliver Cromwell, who came to Philadelphia with William Penn. She afterwards moved from Arch near Third street, to Second street near Dock, where she resided until her death, at the good old age of four score years and ten.
Mrs. Betsy Ross was of medium height, strong in form, but remarkably graceful and erect; she had a handsome face, a very fair transparent complexion, projecting eyebrows, blue sparkling eyes, and light brown hair. She was a perfect “FRIEND” in all her speech and movements; possessed of the most refined sprightly intellect and polished education; in fact she was well known throughout the whole of Philadelphia city, as a “_sharp, thorough going woman_.” FIRST in Friends’ Meeting, where the spirit moved her to speak and to act; FIRST amidst the Daughters of Benevolence, furnishing clothing and lint for the Continental troops, scattering printed patriotic songs and appeals amongst them; and FIRST and most effective in her attentions to the sick. She was, in truth, what her friends styled her, “A Healing Medium,”—but respected and esteemed by all the physicians and surgeons of Philadelphia, as “_the true Friend of the sick_,” for when her hand touched and bathed the burning fevered brow of the sick soldier, he knew that he had one friend, and that friend was a true one. Whenever she entered the sick chamber, she saturated her handkerchief with vinegar, (that she carried in a phial in her pocket, as a precaution against contagion,) and after wiping her forehead, lips and hands, she quietly approached the bedside of the afflicted invalid, and placing her hand upon his forehead, she would whisper these words, “_In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray that your health may be restored_,” and then she would administer the medicines and restoratives as directed by the visiting physicians; and her angelic nature, purer than that of Jeanne Dare, was the powerful agency of health. She was the worthiest Heroine of the Revolution.