2X3 FT BULLDOG BENNINGTON EMBROIDERED STARS   This flag is made of cotton.  It is not recommended for outdoor use as it does not wear well.

BENNINGTON FLAG FACTS

The Bennington Museum located in Bennington, Vermont has a flag known as the Bennington or Fillmore flag.  The red and white stripes have faded to a light-brown from aging.  There are thirteen seven pointed stars in the canton, eleven arranged in a semicircle and the remaining two in the upper right and upper left hand corners of the canton.  In the middle of the canton under the semicircle of stars is the number "76" in white tape.  A plaque on the frame states: "Flag used at the Battle of Bennington, August 16, 1777.  Oldest stars and stripes in existence".  It was raised by the Vermonters and others who fought with General Stark.

A flag historian, John Spargo, was responsible for drawing public attention to the Bennington or Fillmore flag in his book, THE STARS AND STRIPES OF 1777, published in 1928.  Nathaniel Fillmore, according to Spargo, fought in the battle of Bennington and later in the battle of Saratoga in 1777.  He guarded a storehouse in Bennington and at some point he came to possess a flag which he kept until 1812 when he gave it to a nephew, Septa Fillmore.  The flag was handed down in the Fillmore family several generations and finally came to Franklin Bosworth Fillmore of Champaign, Illinois.  He carried the flag in a parade at the national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1884.  Franklin left the flag unattended while in a restaurant and a souvenir hunter cut off the top stripe and one of the stars.  The mutilated flag then passed to Franklin's children when he died.  His daughter, Maude, lent it to the Chicago Public Library for display .  In 1926 she gave it to the Bennington Battle Monument and Historical Association where it was displayed for some time before being moved to the Bennington Museum.