The Battle of Long Island was a pyrrhic victory for the British. Washington and the Continental army retreated into Manhattan and from there to New Jersey in a running campaign, surviving to fight another day. The Battle of Long Island was the first real test of America's fledgling army and they succeeded in keeping themselves alive. After the battle, Washington engineered a complete nighttime retreat across to Manhattan under the noses of the victorious British, then a fighting retreat across the Hudson River and into New Jersey. The Continental Army headed South, losing a tremendous amount of men and material...but they survived, continuing the war of attrition against a most powerful foe. British forces, particularly their paid German mercenary allies, captured a flag in that battle on Long Island, a flag cobbled together from a British Red Ensign...
The Huntington Flag was crafted in Huntington, New York, a town on Long Island. After hearing of the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776, the townsfolk created a flag, likely a British red ensign with the Union portion removed from the flag's field. This left a big red flag, to which the word LIBERTY was sewn or painted on. The exact position of LIBERTY is unknown, it could have been across the bottom, perhaps it was in the middle. The flag was then carried into the Battle of Long Island by the 1st Regiment Suffolk County Militia, where it was captured by Hessians, the aforementioned German military mercenaries employed by the Crown.
Presumably, the Huntington Flag was taken back as a war trophy, and eventually found its way into a museum. Apparently, the flag was still in existence up until World War Two. Some say it was displayed in Dresden, but it could have been in a museum elsewhere in Germany. As the story goes, the Huntington Flag met its end in 1945, consumed in the flames of an Allied aerial fire bombing. As the city of Dresden was virtually destroyed in this manner, more than likely this Revolutionary War flag was kept there and ceased to exist after 169 years. Irony...
