The Stars And Stripes flag that was (according to tradition), carried at the Battle of Cowpens by the Third Maryland Regiment is variously known as The Batchelor Stars.
As noted above, according to tradition, on 17 January 1781, at the Battle of Cowpens, this flag was carried by William Batchelor of the Third Maryland Regiment
Some researchers have claimed that this flag was not used during the American Revolutionary War, but instead during the War of 1812. It is believed, by some, to have been carried in the Battle of North Point by Joshua Batchelor.
The Batchelor Flag is the one pictured in the painting, Spirit Of '76 by Archibald MacNeal Willard.
The validity of this flag design being linked to the Third Maryland Regiment has also come into question. This flag was a variation of the official flag resolution of the Marine Committee of the Second Continental Congress ~ which called for thirteen stripes alternating red and white, and a canton consisting of a blue background on which were to be thirteen white stars "in a new constellation". The land forces were not authorized to carry the Stars And Stripes flag until the early 1800s: artillery in 1834, infantry in 1841 and cavalry in 1862. According to that information, this flag should not have been carried in either the Battle of Cowpens during the American Revolutionary War or in the Battle of North Point in the War of 1812. But it is known that some units (both regiments and battalions) carried a version of the 'national' Stars And Stripes, so there was a real possibility that the Third Maryland Regiment would have carried this, or a similar, flag.
