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Don’t Tread on Me
By Frederick Boyce
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In December 1775, Benjamin Franklin, writing anonymously in the Pennsylvania
Journal as “An American Guesser,” described an unusual symbol he had noticed be
ing used by the very first companies of U.S. Marines that were then being raised in
Philadelphia:
“I observed on one of the drums belonging to the marines now raising, there was
painted a Rattle-Snake, with this modest motto under it, ‘Don’t tread on me.’ As I
know it is the custom to have some device on the arms of every country, I supposed
this may have been intended for the arms of America.”
This anonymous writer, “in order to divert an idle hour,” went on to expound fur
ther on the appropriateness of the rattlesnake as a symbol for the fledgling nation:
“She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, never surrenders: She is
therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. She never wounds ’till she has
generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of
treading on her.” He further observed astutely that “the Rattle-Snake is found in no
other quarter of the world besides America” and that the ever-watchful rattlesnake
“may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance. I confess I was wholly at a loss
what to make of the rattles, ’till I went back and counted them and found them just
thirteen, exactly the number of the Colonies united in America; and I recollected too
that this was the only part of the Snake which increased in numbers. ’Tis curious and
amazing to observe how distinct and independent of each other the rattles of this ani
mal are, and yet how firmly they are united together, so as never to be separated but
by breaking them to pieces. One of those rattles singly, is incapable of producing
sound, but the ringing of thirteen together, is sufficient to alarm the boldest
man living.”
Franklin is, of course, well known for having opposed the bald eagle, which he
considered “a bird of bad moral character” as a national emblem, but the rattlesnake
proved to be a very good choice in terms of intimidating an enemy—especially the
snake-poor British. On July 27,1776, the London Chronicle, with dread dismay,
reported that “The colours of the American fleet have a snake with thirteen rattles, de
scribed in the attitude of going to strike, with this motto: ‘Don’t Tread on Me.’” There
Were several versions of the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag—the first real flag of the United
States. The best known are the First Navy Jack, with an uncoiled rattlesnake stretched
diagonally across thirteen red and white stripes, and the familiar yellow flag with a
loosely-coiled snake that was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a colonel from South
Carolina who served in the Continental Congress and who helped select Esek Hop
kins as commander-in-chief of our first Navy. Hopkins used the Gadsden flag as his
personal standard on his flagship, the Alfred.
The snake that inspired the first versions of the symbol in Pennsylvania, including
the striped Navy Jack, was no doubt the highly variable and then-common timber
rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus, which still follows the spine of the Appalachians from
blew York and Vermont down to Georgia and northern Florida, and extends west past
the Mississippi to eastern Texas and up to Minnesota. In its coastal form, traditionally
Called the “canebrake” rattlesnake, it goes no farther north than the Chesapeake area
of Virginia. It is still found in eastern NC, and here on Bogue Banks, but only in the
k.oosevelt Natural Area, where it is now very rare and strictly protected.
The Gadsden flag, born in South Carolina, appears to have been based on the east
ern diamondback, Crotalus adamanteus, a majestic snake of the low country coastal
plain that only just reaches into southeastern NC. While neither emblem bears much
Resemblance to an actual rattlesnake, the Gadsden flag does have discernible diamond
shapes running down its back.
Of course, some four-score and seven years after the events of 1775, the nation
faced an entirely different type of rebellion, and many who fought on the Confederate
^ide, including General Robert E. Lee, were the sons or grandsons of soldiers who had
Served bravely during the Revolution in the previous century. Throughout the South,
and right here on Bogue Banks, the rattlesnaakes also sided with the Confederates. It
Is reported that the Union troops who landed at Hoop Hole Creek in 1862 found the
iiumerous rattlesnakes on the island to be far more worrisome than the Confeder
ate fire from Fort Macon. I plan to revisit the natural history of these remarkable and
DONT TREAD ON Kffi
The Gadsden flag (left) and the First Navy Jack—/mages compliments of Wlkimedla Commons
fascinating animals—my favorites, actually—in a future column, but this month I felt
it would be appropriate to focus on the unique and important role they played in our
country’s early history.
In 19801 had the great fortune to spend much of the year living in Kenya, formerly
known as British East Africa, where I made numerous good friends of the British ex
colonial persuasion. As I was preparing to return to the US., I extended an invitation
to a British lady to “come and visit us sometime in the States.” She had been born and
raised on a continent that is home to many of the most formidable and famous ven
omous snakes in the world—cobras, mambas, gaboon vipers and puff adders—and
her reply fills me with a certain amount of pride to this day: “Oh no,” she demurred,
in her fine accent, “you have rattlesnakes.”
Most of the historical information on the flags and “Don’t Tread on Me” emblem
is from a website created by Chris Whitten—foundingfathers.info, a fascinating site
I have returned to often for information on this topic. The quote about the London
Chronicle is from an equally interesting book. The Snakebite Survivors' Club by British
travel author Jeremy Seal (Harvest, 1999).
Frederick Boyce is the staff herpetologist at the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.
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July 2017 i The Shoreline
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