In fall 1775, the United States Navy was established by Commander in Chief of all Continental Forces, General George Washington, before Esek Hopkins was named Commodore of the Navy, with seven ships, often called "Washington Cruisers", that flew the simple triangle shaped green tree with a trunk, the "Liberty Tree Flag" with the motto "Appeal to Heaven" according to the 20 October 1775 letter of Washington's aide Colonel Joseph Reed, that is in the Library of Congress. The illustration on this page shows four flags, the one in the upper left is a common artist's rendition, but is incorrect at least as far as the motto, which is "Appeal to Heaven", not "AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN" according to the letter from Washington's aide, and Caslon was the common font of the day, used on both the Declaration and the Constitution, not Arial as shown on the flag image. Further for survivability in the high winds at sea, a simple triangle shape evergreen liberty tree is far more likely than an intricate many branch liberty tree.
Those first ships were used to intercept incoming British ships carrying war supplies to the British troops in the colonies to both deprive the supplies to the British and to supply to the Continental Army. One ship captured by Captain John Manley had 30,000 pairs of shoes on it, but the admiralty agent demanded his 2 1/2 per cent commission before he would release the cargo for Washington's army, so many soldiers marched barefoot in the snow. To aid in this, the Second Continental Congress authorized the mustering of five companies of Marines to accompany the Navy on their first mission. The first Marines enlisted in the city of Philadelphia, and they carried drums painted yellow, depicting a coiled rattlesnake with thirteen rattles, and the motto "Don't Tread On Me." This is the first recorded mention of the future Gadsden flag's symbolism.
At the Congress, Continental Colonel Christopher Gadsden represented his home state of South Carolina. He was one of seven members of the Marine Committee who were outfitting the first naval mission.
Before the departure of that first mission in December 1775, the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Navy, Commodore Esek Hopkins, received the yellow rattlesnake flag from Gadsden to serve as the distinctive personal standard of his flagship. It was displayed at the mainmast.
Gadsden also presented a copy of this flag to the Congress of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. This was recorded in the South Carolina congressional journals on February 9, 1776: "Col. Gadsden presented to the Congress an elegant standard, such as is to be used by the commander in chief of the American Navy; being a yellow field, with a lively representation of a rattlesnake in the middle in the attitude of going to strike and these words underneath, "Don't tread on me." "
