We are only four hours from the start of the annual Under The Redcoat event at Colonial Williamsburg. The recent mid-Atlantic heat wave has not spared the Virginia Tidewater area; today’s forecast is for high’s in the mid 90’s and its only going to get warmer as the weekend progresses.

Come on out and check it out. 4th Coy will be assembling at the Fife and Drum building at 11:00 with the first scheduled event being the occupation of the town and raising of the Union Jack at the Capitol building at noon.

New photos from several events have been posted. First, a new photo gallery for the May drill at Sully Plantation can be found at www.brigadeofguards.org/2010-sully-plantation. Two other older photo galleries have had additional photos linked - Guilford Courthouse 2010 and Guilford Courthouse 2008. Be sure to check both galleries, but the 2010 Guilford Courthouse addition is a pair of really great photos taken by a spectator and found on flickr.

Quick post on the conclusion of the 2010 edition of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. Day Two unfolded similar to the first day with companyy drill at Tannenbaum Park prior to a quick nooning (lunch) and prep for the afternoon tactical demonstration. This time, the march to Counrty Park found us closer to the crowd and not in our traditional location in the trees. 4th Coy took tits customary position on the right of the Redcoat Crown forces. For this scenario, all redcoated Crown forces represented the Guards ar Guilford. The Hessians were augmented by the ble coated 2nd South Carolina. It was a little odd to see a Continental unit in formation with our Hessian allies but at a dustance they appeared to blend in and provided some “bulk” to the Hessian lines, giving a more realistic feel to the engagement.

After the demonstration, 4th Coy marched back to Tannenbaum Park, which was nearly two miles from Counrty Park. Early in the march we were joined by two (very) young recruits who brought their own (toy) muskets to the line. Our two recruits kept up for the entire march and didn’t peel off until we made it back to camp and were dismissed.

Overall, a great event and a gereat way to finally open the 2010 campaign season.

The first day of the 2010 Guilford Courthouse reenactment is in the books. Despite some ominous weather reports, the day’s events went off without a hitch. We were fortunate to have two recruits kitted out and another couple of potential recruits stop by to say hi and check us out. Our nine muskets and additional officers and musicians made 4th Coy the largest unit of the Crown forces. Today’s tactical demonstration followed the same script as previous evets but tomorrow promises a little variety with a change in the tactical demonstration. Come on out tomorrow!

It’ll be a march in time, as the annual reenactment has returned to Country Park. A few years ago, the tactical demonstration was moved to Price Park as an attempt to improve the public viewing of the both the encampment and the battle reenactment. A disadvantage was the removal of the link to the original battlefield that Country Park offered. While not on the National Park itself, Country Park is near enough to allow 4th Coy to march along the path the two Guards battalions took in 1781.

4th Coy will still be camped in Tannenbaum Park, with the 64th and 7th Foot. Be sure to stop by on March 13th and 14th for the event! Visit www.brigadeofguards.org/guilford-courthouse for more information on the Battle of Guilford Courthouse and directions to the reenactment.

Additional photos from several events have been linked. The events include 2008 Fort Ward, 2009 Fort Ward, and 2009 Mount Vernon. Also, the February edition of the Gazette has been published. Enjoy!

In 2009, it was the rain. In 2010, it will be the snow. The city of Alexandria has canceled all major outdoor events this weekend due to the snow emergency in the Washington DC area. Unfortunately, our Fort Ward reenactment is considered a major event so we won’t be doing battle with the Continentals on St Valentine’s Day.

This is probably a good thing since one member was trying to figure out how to cook all the pasta for the company social without power. Like that was an issue in 1781…

More information about the schedule for Alexandria’s President’s Day celebration is available on their website.

Britain formally ends hostilities on this date in 1783.

The Battle of Yorktown is generally considered to be the end of the war, but Crown forces were still located in the American colonies for some time. These forces ceased offensive operations, and were slowly being withdrawn from the colonies while the various parties to the hostilities negotiated separate peace treaties. In the weeks leading to this date, a preliminary peace treaty is signed between America and England in Paris, and England signs separate preliminary peace treaties with Spain and France.

General George Washington, at his headquarters in Cambridge, hoists the Continental Union Flag on this date in 1776.

This flag is generally thought to be the first flag of the United States of America, and had flown from an American warship (the Alfred) the previous December. It is generally believed that the thirteen alternating red and white stripes were meant to represent the thirteen colonies, with the Union Jack is the upper left corner acknowledging the British origins of the colonies. General Washington flew this flag high over the Continental positions near Boston, high enough that the Crown forces in Boston could see it.

A year and a half later, the Union Jack was replaced with the now familiar field of blue marked by white stars.

The Continental Union Flag is very similar to the flag used by the East India Company during the 18th century.

If you would like to learn more about the Continental Union Flag, there are several good websites, including here and here.

Its been a long time since there has been a post on this blog. Hopefully that will change over the next couple of weeks, but just to show that we haven’t been completely inactive, a few of the photo gallery pages have recently been updated with additional photos.

Check out the 2008 Jerusalem Mills, the 2009 Under the Redcoat, and 2009 Carlyle House galleries for additional photos. And a new gallery has been added for the recent event at Jerusalem Mills.

Enjoy!