Weekend Events Honor Military in Triangle

By Matt Poms Friday, May 28, 2010

The Historic Triangle will remember its military history and service members this weekend with a variety of events.

Colonial Williamsburg will honor American service members, offering free admission for active and retired members of the military and their families. The organization will also mark Memorial Day with a 45-minute service along Duke of Gloucester Street, recognizing those killed in the Revolutionary War as well as service members from Bruton Parish Church who lost their lives in conflict.

“We’ve done this for at least five years, and we just feel it’s the right thing to do,” CW spokesman Tom Shrout said. “They sacrifice so much on behalf of our country, and the ability to come to Colonial Williamsburg and do it in a way that enables them to see it for free is a nice opportunity in a place where so much of our history began.”

Friday through Monday, active duty, retired and reservist military members, as well as veterans, are eligible for the free “Honoring Service to America” pass, providing admission to the Revolutionary City program, Capitol, Governor’s Palace, Dewitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Museum, Bassett Hall and the rest of Colonial Williamsburg. Also included is a walking tour of the area, a showing of the movie “Williamsburg, the Story of a Patriot,” and free parking and shuttle service at the Visitor Center.

Passes are available to the family of service members as well, and family of currently deployed troops can receive the tickets with appropriate identification.

At 10 a.m. Monday, the Memorial Day Commemorative Program will take place led by the Fifes and Drums. The service will start in front of the Governor’s Palace with a wreath-laying ceremony recognizing Revolutionary War dead and a musket salute. The group will then proceed to Bruton Parish Church, laying another wreath for veterans who were parishioners of the historic church. The event will conclude with a march to the French gravesites near Providence Hall, where a final wreath and cannon salute will be offered to commemorate French service members of the Revolutionary War.

“There is a cemetery near the Governor’s Palace where there are graves of Revolutionary War dead, and that’s a very special place,” Shrout said. “This really brings to focus so many service people, that have sacrificed so much, and it certainly started with the Revolutionary War.”

Special events will also be held at Yorktown, with the Colonial National Historical Park commemorating Yorktown's Civil War history Saturday and Sunday between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Union and Confederate soldiers will be represented at troop encampments that feature re-enactment units who demonstrate military tactics and skills in areas of artillery, cavalry and infantry. These will take place next to the Yorktown Battlefield Visitors Center. A Confederate hospital will be recreated inside the Nelson House on Main Street, with demonstrations of Civil War surgical procedures.

A wreath-laying ceremony will take place Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Yorktown National Cemetery and the adjacent Confederate Cemetery. In
keeping with Memorial Day traditions, the public is also invited to place fresh flowers on the soldiers’ graves.

On Monday at noon, U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-1) will present awards to York County student winners of the “York County Remembers Poster and Essay Contest” sponsored by the York County Historical Committee.

The awards presentation is part of a Memorial Day service, also sponsored by the committee, at the War Memorial on the grounds of York Hall, 301 Main Street, Yorktown. The committee’s remembrance program will salute our nation’s fallen heroes including over 100 York County citizens named on the War Memorial. The public is invited to attend, and light refreshments will be served.