General Assembly to Meet in CW Saturday

By Sam Thrift Friday, January 27, 2012

The General Assembly will meet in special commemorative session at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Capitol in Colonial Williamsburg to address current issues in Virginia and in observance of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War.

The joint session of the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates is the 25th in a series of ceremonial assemblies begun in 1934 with the dedication of the reconstructed Capitol on its colonial-era foundation.

Civil War historian Dr. James I. Robertson Jr., the Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus in History at Virginia Tech, will speak to members of the General Assembly in observance of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War.

Dr. Robertson is the executive director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and a charter member of Virginia’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books that include award-winning studies of the Civil War. His biography of Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson won eight national awards and was used as the basis for the Warner Bros. movie, “Gods and Generals,” for which Robertson was chief historical consultant.

Due to space limitations inside the Capitol, attendance at the joint commemorative legislative session is by invitation only, but the session can be viewed through a closed circuit television in the Lane Auditorium at the Bruton Heights School Education Center, 301 First St., in Williamsburg.

Following the tradition that began almost 80 years ago, members of the General Assembly return to the Hall of the House of Burgesses in the Colonial Capitol at Williamsburg to “renew its inspiration and to strengthen its resolve to preserve the fundamental principles of free governments.”

During that first session at the Capitol dedication ceremonies on Feb. 24, 1934, the senators and delegates passed legislation enabling the General Assembly to hold future sessions at the Capitol “at times that might seem proper.”