[1] The flag's design is consistent with the 1777 Flag Act, which does not specify the location of the stars and stripes: "That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

According to local legend,[2] the flag was hoisted when the Declaration of Independence was publicly read in Easton, Pennsylvania by Robert Levers on July 8, 1776, two days before a copy of the Declaration reached New York City.

[3] Its history is closely connected to the local Beidleman family who worshiped at Pennsylvania German Reformed and Lutheran churches in Easton and the Straw Church near Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

It was presented to the infantry by Rosanna (Rosina) Beidleman Wagener (1775-1848) who married a local Schwenkfelder descendant prominent in Northampton County commerce and finance, and there is speculation that the now-uncommon arrangement of components of the design may have been because the Beidlemans did not use English and may have used German prepositions to understand proposals for an American flag.

The flag was given in 1821 to the Easton library for safe-keeping when the company returned.