800px-Sprit_of_’76.2

Originally entitled Yankee Doodle, this is one of several versions of a scene painted by Archibald MacNeal Willard in the late nineteenth century that came to be known as The Spirit of ’76. Often imitated or parodied, it is one of the most famous images relating to the American Revolutionary War. The life-sized original hangs in Abbot Hall in Marblehead, Massachusetts. The flag in the painting, often assumed to be the Betsy Ross flag, is actually the Cowpens flag, flown during a major turning point in the war, the Battle of Cowpens.