Book excerpt: Flags are an important part of the military history of colonial America. Not only are they essential artifacts that help reconstruct battles and wars and the stories of various regiments, but they are also vivid, colorful, evocative visual depictions of wars from an era before photography. In this meticulously researched book, military flag expert Steven W. Hill displays and explains the flags of the regiments which fought in North America in the French and Indian War and the American War of Independence. Comprehensive and in-depth, Battle Flags of the Wars for North America, 1754–1783: Foreign Armies and Regiments covers the regimental flags of the major combatants in the two major wars for North American in the eighteenth century—flags carried by regiments from Britain, France, Germany, and Spain. This has long been a subject surrounded by myth, legend, and inaccuracy; the last “standard” work is more than forty years old. Hill digs deep to correct old errors and assembles a complete record of the flags, drawing from archives and artifacts, and creates a reference that will stand the test of time—not only during the coming 250th anniversary years, but far beyond.