AFL's Participation at the 225th Anniversary of the Victory at Yorktown, October 18 - 22, 2006 - a report by William Kirchner
AFL's Participation at the 225th Anniversary of the Victory at Yorktown, October 18-22, 2006 - a report by William Kirchner, AFL's President AFL's "delegation" for the 225th Anniversary Celebration of the Sept.-Oct. 1781 Battle at Yorktown included some of our more recent members... Mrs. Janice Wolk, (NJ), now our Corresponding Secretary; Alan Hoffman, (NH), who will publish his translation of Auguste Levasseur's "Lafayette en Amerique1824-25" in '07; and Mr. Enoch O'D. Woodhouse II, (MA), Lt. Col. (ret.), USAF. Enoch, a member for some years, has been at our last three annual meetings and has been elected as AFL's second vice president. Active members from the Yorktown-Norfolk area who attended were Mrs. Anne Hazen, Mr. John Scotton, and Mrs. Betty McPherson, who is AFL's representative to The Yorktown Day Association. Betty's home is a little more or less than a football field's length from the 1881 Yorktown Victory Monument.
Also attending were Bill Kirchner, President since 2002, and Mrs.Linda Kirchner, (TN); Phil Schroeder, AFL Treasurer, and Mrs. Barb Schroeder, (PA); and completing the group were Mrs. Jean Hultgren (NJ) and Mrs. Caroline Lareuse, (NJ), who until recently served as Honorary Consul of France for New Jersey. On Yorktown Day, October 19, Caroline served as AFL's honorary flag bearer during the traditional and impressive wreath-laying ceremony at the Victory Monument.
The three most significant anniversary celebrations of the victorious 1781 siege of Yorktown were the 1881 Centennial ceremonies, the 1931 Sesquicentennial, and the 1981 Bicentennial. The 2006 Yorktown celebration and related programs were spread over four very full days; a major departure, decidedly, from the usual two day observances in years between major half-century celebrations. It would seem Yorktown 2006 got swept up in Virginia's carefully planned and spectacular celebrations for the state's 400th Anniversary, next year, in 2007. It was May of 1607 - four centuries past - when the first settlement of English colonists/adventurers was successfully established on the banks of the James River. Check out the internet site www.Americas400thAnniversary.com. Aha, so then... Yorktown 225 is "An America's 400th Anniversary Signature Event."
The 2006 Yorktown Victory Celebration was designed to serve as the "kickoff event" for a series of diverse and spectacular historical programs and ceremonies which will chronicle and interpret the material, cultural, social and religious, and political life and history of the state of Virginia and her significant influence on the course of America's history as a nation. The following printed material is taken from an 8x11 twelve page brochure... 225th Yorktown. It should provide a really good idea of the events and programs... many of which were very, very good.
Please click here to view the Schedule of Events in PDF format.
Some of you may find it "curious" that a 2007 Four Hundredth Anniversary Celebration began in 2006. I for one did so. Will it lap over into 2008? I wouldn't be surprised. Friday afternoon Linda and I visited the old Custom House on Main St. It had been restored by the Comte de Grasse Chapter, NSDAR, of Yorktown, in the early 20th Century; we were looking for a good-sized bronze tablet which had been dedicated there in Oct. 1931 during the Sesquicentennial Celebration. We knew what it would say. Mary Ann Philyaw, chapter member, let us in. She had been doing tours. It took several minutes to locate it .. affixed to the outer North wall on a side porch. It was difficult to read .. " For Freedom... A Swiss Nobleman .Baron Gaspard De Gallatin .. Aide-De-Camp To Comte de Rochambeau .. Led the French Grenadiers in their Attack on Pigeon Quarter Oct. 6, 1781... Erected by the State of Virginia D.A.R.... 1931."
Ms. Philyaw had not known of it. The 1931 ceremony had been brief... Music at the outset by the U.S. Coast Guard Band; Then a Dedicatory Address by Hon. Hiram Bingham, U.S. Senator from Conn. Followed by the Unveiling... done by Mrs. George D. Chenoweth, Regent, Comte de Grasse Chapter, D.A.R. ... Official Ceremony concluded... Music by U.S. Coast Guard Band.
Baron Gaspard Gabriel de Gallatin was born 1758 in Geneva (a year after Lafayette), he was a fifth cousin of Albert Gallatin... remember the fine Annual Meeting, 2004 . Pittsburgh; hats off to Al Oberst and Donald Miller. Senator Bingham's address in full can be found in: THE YORKTOWN SESQUICENTENNIAL... published in cloth by the U.S. Government Printing Office, Wash. D.C. 1932 (382pp.) beginning on p. 255, concludes p.268. (p. 254 "Tablet to Baron Gaspard de Gallatin). An American living in France, Warrington Dawson, discovered a hand-written journal by Gallatin, unknown for almost 150 yrs., carefully compiled by Rochambeau's aide in 1781, and persuaded a family descendant of 2nd Lieutenant Gallatin to allow it to be reproduced by Dawson. Dawson had the French Department at William and Mary translate it into English. It was then published by GPO as Senate Doc. No. 322, 71st Congress, 3rd session.
Just as I came upon a few pages of the translation in a display case at the Custom House, given by Dawson (and an 18th century engraving of Gallatin and his wife), Linda spied one of our 1934 bronze Flanagan medallions in another corner of the display case. A yellowed paper strip described it as a gift from the French Government in 1931. We told Ms. Philyaw the medallion wasn't cast until May of 1934.
The following afternoon a few of our AFL group returned to the Custom House for a private session with Ms. Philyaw and the Regent, Mrs. Marion Clayton. Pictures were taken on the porch under the Tablet, and I retold the story. Ms. Philyaw asked me to send her a written account, which I did a couple of weeks after returning to Chattanooga. Warrington Dawson was a member of AFL in 1933 and subscribed for one of our Flanagan Medallions in 1934. Interestingly, I also found Mrs. George D. Chenoweth, Regent of the Yorktown Chapter... who had unveiled the Tablet in 1931, as a member of AFL in 1934; she also purchased one of the Lafayette Medallions in 1934.
Friday evening, our group attended a lovely, spirited reception and cocktail/light hors d'ouevres party at Betty McPherson's home on Bacon St. Several of her friends and neighbors interested in Lafayette came also. The Yorktown Park Superintendent and his wife stopped by for a few moments. All enjoyed themselves.
(William Kirchner)