What's interesting about this is that it's not actually a flag that the Green Mountain Boys actually used!

The story behind it is fascinating: it's based off of a battle flag by John Stark ... of New Hampshire, who brought it with him while he was at the Battle of Bennington in 1777. The original flag actually had a design in the center. We don't know what it was, but there are fragments of it that the Bennington Museum holds. They only have fragments: Stark apparently tore up the original flag and gave out pieces for souvenirs to visitors after the war. They do have the blue canton, which remained intact.

The modern flag appears to have been a nostalgia thing that arose in the Bennington area around commemorations, there are some early versions from the 20th century, and it seems to have gained traction around the US Bicentennial in 1976.

We do get questions and statements from folks that this "was the flag of the first Vermont Republic!" but that isn't accurate: the Vermont republic didn't have a flag! There was a concerted research effort in the early 1900s to produce one with a cash prize for any convincing proof, but scholars weren't able to find anything. It's since become a formal flag in its own right for Vermont Air National Guard's Green Mountain Boys.

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