Month: June 2026

While I was researching my latest pet psychic mystery, Giddy Up for Murder, I discovered a few fun facts about the events surrounding the Revolutionary War that might change the way you remember these exciting events. 

For instance, how would you like your Stars and Stripes with six-pointed stars?

When a group of men including George Washington visited Betsy Ross to ask her to create a flag to represent our new country, Washington suggested the six-pointed star used by his Mason Lodge. Betsy showed the general how much easier it was to cut out a five-pointed star. So, our current flag may have come to us because the original seamstress was tired.

How do we know the story told by Betsy’s children is true? We don’t, but several factors support this version.

• Several family members signed affidavits swearing her story was true.
• Paperwork exists that shows the Ross’s did work for George Washington
• Her late husband’s uncle was on the Flag Committee
• On May 29, 1777, the Pennsylvania State Navy Board paid Betsy for making flags, and on June 14, 1777, Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as our official national flag.

I’m going with yes, it’s true.

How about the story of Paul Revere shouting, “The British are coming! The British are coming!” True? Or false?

While Henry Wadsworth Longfellow made Paul famous in his 1860 poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” in reality, our hero rode into the night with two other men, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott. Paul was detained by a British patrol in Charleston, while Prescott made it to Concord.

“Listen, my children, and you will here

Of the midnight ride of Samuel Prescott,”

Admittedly, this does not rhyme, so I understand Longfellow’s creative choice.

Two other riders are rarely mentioned: Isreal Bissel and Sybil Ludington, but theirs is a story for another day.  

Much of the research an author does winds up in a file for possible future use. The Betsy Ross episode made it into my book; Paul Revere’s ride did not.

In Giddy Up for Murder, pet psychic Frankie Chandler attends a Revolutionary War reenactment. When a man dies, the only witness to what really took place is a horse with a vendetta against a person who could not possibly have committed the crime. 

If you’d like to check out the book, the preorder is available now. 

So, while you’re celebrating America’s semiquincentennial this year, why not dig into the patriotic tales you remember from childhood. What you find may surprise you.

Material on Betsy Ross gathered from Historic Philadelphia, Inc. article “Did She or Didn’t She?”

Material on Paul Revere’s ride gathered from Constitutional Facts article “The Five Riders.”