Tampa Chapter
Sons of the American Revolution
April 2013
Contents
Meeting announcement
Revolution History note
Program Schedule
Misc. reminders and information
The April meeting of the
Tampa Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, will held on Saturday, April,
20th at the Piccadilly Cafeteria, located at 11810 Dale Mabry Highway North, Tampa, Florida
(813-963-1660). Our April
meeting will be our annual luncheon for the JROTC cadets who received our award
this year, their instructors and families. Our meeting room will be set up
classroom style with no tables. Everyone will dine in the main room and then
move to the private room for the program. We are reverting to our past practice
of asking our members to sit with a cadet and/or instructor during lunch and
pick up their tab, if possible. If you end up with multiple tabs, see if
another member will take one. If all else fails, give the extra tabs to our
Treasurer and he can write a check to the restaurant. This only applies to the
cadets and instructors, not their family members. This will help our Chapter
keep expenses down. Let’s be sure to
make our guests feel welcome.
An
agenda for the meeting will be provided and the membership will be given updates
from officers and the various committees.
American Revolution Notes:
The
skirmishes at Lexington
and Concord are
a natural for our April note. What
follows are passages from several American/US History books and how they treat
the events of April 19th,
1775. They are all from textbooks currently used in my classes at SPC and PHCC. I
thought the memberships might find it interesting.
Enduring
Vision—used at the Tarpon Campus of
St. Petersburg College:
“The
British government ordered Massachusetts Governor Gage to quell the “rude
rabble” by arresting the principal patriot leaders. On April 19, 1775, aware that most of these leaders had
already fled Boston,
Gage instead sent seven hundred British soldiers to seize military supplies
that the colonist had stored in Concord. Two couriers, William Dawes and Paul Revere, rode out to warm the nearby towns of the British
troop movements and target. At Lexington, about seventy
minutemen confronted the soldiers. After
a confused skirmish in which eight minutemen died and a single redcoat was
wounded, the British pushed on to Concord. There they found few munitions but
encountered a growing swarm of armed Yankees.
When some minutemen mistakably became convinced that the town was being
burned, they exchanged fire with the British regulars and touched off a running
battle that continued for most of the sixteen miles back to Boston.”
Give
Me Liberty—used at all campuses of Pasco-Hernando Community
College
“On
April 19, a force of British soldiers marched from Boston toward the nearby town of Concord seeking to seize
arms being stockpiled there. Riders from Boston,
among them Paul Revere, warned local leaders of the troops’ approach. Militiamen took up arms and tried to resist
the British advance. Skirmishes between
Americans and British soldiers took place at Lexington and again at Concord.”
Of
the People---used at Gibbs Campus of
St. Petersburg College
“In
the spring of 1775, Gage received orders from England to take decisive action
against the colonists. He was determined
to seize the colonists’ military supplies stored at Concord.
The British soldiers arrived at Lexington
at daybreak and ordered the militia, which had gathered after being warned of
the British advance, to surrender, which they refused to do. Exactly what happened next remains unclear. The colonists
swore British soldiers opened fire. The
British major insisted that the first shot came from behind a tree. British soldiers lost control and fired all
about, and the colonists returned fire.
When order was restored, eight Americans were dead, most killed while
trying to flee.
At
the same time, the Concord
militia had assembled. Fighting broke out when a fire that the British troops
had set to the Concord
liberty pole spread to the courthouse.
Determined to protect their town, the militia began marching on the
British. When the militia drew near, the
British fired. In the ensuing exchange,
three British soldiers were killed and several more were injured. The British were forced back across North Bridge. The entire battle took two or three minutes.”
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Elwin Thrasher
We regret to report the death
of long-time member Elwin Thrasher on March 12th of this year. Elwin
joined the Tampa Chapter in Feb. 1986 and held continuous membership from that
time forward. He served as newsletter editor from 1996 to 2001, and genealogist
/ registrar from 1997 to 2001. Due to failing health Elwin was not able to
attend meetings in recent years but faithfully followed the chapter’s
activities. He was 91.
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PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Below is the tentative program schedule for the 2013
calendar year. As always send along any
suggestions for speakers.
April ROTC
Luncheon
May Speaker Veterans Memorial Park
and Museum
Sept. TBA
Oct. Law Enforcement; EMT;
Fire Fighter Medal
Nov. Joint meeting with C.A.R.
Dec. Installation of Officers
Misc. Notes and reminders:
Chapter Website—always remember you can find information about the chapter and
programs on the chapter website. http://www.patriot-web.com/
One of the duties of the
Chapter Chaplain is to send cards to our members that are sick. If you know of
anyone that I need to send a card to, please mention it at our next meeting.
Another duty is to send a sympathy card to the family of a member who has
passed away.
Chapter officers and
committee chairman are encouraged to send any pertinent information they wish
included in the newsletter to the editor.