Credit for the term 'Stars and Stripes' has been given to the Marquis de Lafayette, a French soldier who volunteered his aid to the Continental Army, led by George Washington, in the Revolutionary War against Britain. The 'Stripes and Stars' was a popular phrase into the 19th century. ĭuring the Revolutionary War era, the 'Rebellious Stripes' were considered as the most important element of United States flag designs, and were always mentioned before the stars.

states, and the 13 stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from Great Britain, which they obtained in their victory in the American Revolutionary War. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 U.S. flag, consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton, referred to as the union and bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows, where rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternate with rows of five stars. The national flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S. Thirteen horizontal stripes alternating red and white in the canton, 50 white stars of alternating numbers of six and five per horizontal row on a blue field