"G" is for Gadsden Flag

"G" is for Gadsden flag. The Gadsden flag, consisting of a gray, coiled rattlesnake on a bright yellow background with the words DON’T TREAD ON ME inscribed beneath, became a popular symbol of the American Revolution. Dating back to the French and Indian War, the indigenous rattlesnake had been an important political symbol in the American colonies. Inferential evidence and the weight of tradition attribute the creation of this particular flag to Christopher Gadsden, one of South Carolina’s delegates to the Continental Congress. Gadsden presented “an elegant standard’ to the South Carolina Provincial Congress on February 9, 1776. As a member of the Naval Committee of the Continental Congress, Gadsden had also presented the flag to the commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy, who used a version of the Gadsden flag as the country’s first naval jack.