The national flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S. flag, consists of thirteen horizontal stripes, alternating red and white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows, where rows of six stars alternate with rows of five stars. states united, while the 13 stripes represent the thirteen colonies that won independence from Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War. At the time of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, there were no flags with any stars on them; the Continental Congress did not adopt flags with "stars, white in a blue field" for another year. While scholars still argue about this, tradition holds that the new flag was first hoisted in June 1777 by the Continental Army at the Middlebrook encampment.