Tampa Chapter
Sons of the American Revolution
January 2021
Contents
Meeting
Announcements
Message From the Chapter President
Revolution History note
Program Schedule
Color Guard Activity
SAR and events update
Misc.
reminders and information
Meeting Announcements
January
It is hoped that everyone enjoyed
Christmas and the holidays and are still healthy and safe. We will have a
virtual meeting on Saturday, Jan. 16 at noon. (our usual day and time). President Dave Bryant will send out a zoom
link to everyone prior to the 16th so you can log on and participate. Our January 16th virtual Zoom meeting will
feature William L. (Larry) Kidder, author of this book, live from New Jersey,
thanks to our Sgt.-At-Arms Roger Roscoe.
This meeting will also be our
virtual Officer Installation meeting.
Florida SAR Past President Patrick Niemann will perform the
installation.
December
Chapter President Bryant’s
Message
Happy New Year Compatriots,
While the COVID virus
continues to limit our contact, it has not shut us down. We will continue to meet virtually by Zoom
this month as well as February and March.
My expectation is that the vaccine will be effective by April and
everyone will be safe, feeling comfortable to resume life the way it was and
should be.
It is understandable that
when the future is unknown and the present consumes everyone's attention,
honoring and studying the past gets put on hold. Our mission of promoting awareness of
American history is a lower priority when we are in the midst
of a public health crisis.
However, we have adapted trying to make the best of the situation by
getting speakers who would typically not be available for a regular lunch
gathering. We will continue with these Zoom
meetings for the first 3 months of this year.
In April I hope we will be able to meet again and do the work of the
chapter. We have several new members to
welcome and some awards to present.
While I prefer to wait to do these live, I understand if anyone would
rather that I just mail them. Let me
know. One such medal is the Military
Service medal. If you are Honorably
Discharged from any of the armed forces of the United States for any period,
please send me a copy of your DD214 if you have not already done so.
Revolution History Note
Reading History forward, not
backward
Dutch historian Johan Huizinga (1872 – 1945) once wrote: “The Historian…must always maintain towards his subject an indeterminist point of view. He must constantly put himself at a point in the past at which the human factors still seem to permit different outcomes. If he writes of Salamis, then it must be as if the Persians might still win.”
We read history backwards. People at the time did not know what was going to happen, they were living history forward. Since we know what happened, we tend to see outcomes as inevitable. And we identify certain events as turning points instead of seeing them as they were seen at the time. If we read history forward, however, apparent turning points may not be as significant as we think.
Take, for example, Saratoga in the American War for Independence. It is usually singled out as the turning point since it resulted in the French alliance. That presupposes that after Saratoga the British never had a chance to win and the Americans were not going to lose. While I still teach that Saratoga is important because it did result in the French alliance, I no longer use the phrase turning point. No one in London or the American Congress at the time thought the war was now a foregone conclusion.
The French alliance kept Washington’s army supplied and, in the field, but since there was no major fighting in the north after Monmouth, those supplies did not lead to victories. It is also true that the alliance forced England to divert resources to protect other parts of its empire and it did bring a French fleet into American waters in October of 1781. But that circumstance could not have been predicted after Saratoga.
While Saratoga thwarted the British campaign of 1777, Britain did not give up on suppressing the American rebellion. They launched their southern campaign in 1780 with the full intention of it succeeding and bringing the Americans to heel. The French were a non-factor in the American south so there is no connection between an American victory at Saratoga and American successes in the south in 1780 and 1781.
Today we piece together a sequence of events that runs from Kings Mountain to Cowpens to Guilford Courthouse and then to Yorktown. At the time, while each represented a setback, the British did not view them as a string of events inevitability leading to the loss of the colonies. Indeed, had Cornwallis, chosen to fall back to his base at Charleston or even to spend the winter re-supplying and refitting at Wilmington, there would have been no Yorktown and there would have been a new campaign in 1782.
As Huizinga wrote, we must put ourselves “at a point in the past at which the human factors still seem to permit different outcomes.” If you want to pick that point at which the human factor could still permit different outcomes, it would be Cornwallis’ decision to head to Virginia after Guilford Courthouse, instead of spending the winter in Wilmington or Charleston preparing for a spring campaign in 1782.
Reading history backward, as we are wont to do, allows us to make history neat and tidy with simple explanations for how things turned out. Reading history forward is usually not as tidy, but much more interesting.
Program schedule
January 16 (Zoom) William L Kidder & Officer Installation
February 20 (Zoom)
March 20 (Zoom)
April 17 TBD
May 15 TBD
Color Guard Activity
There are no known Color Guard
opportunities in the Tampa area over the next few months. Other Chapters and State Societies continue
to hold virtual Color Guard events. That
information will be forwarded as it comes available.
On the State level. the Florida
Society C.A.R. has asked the Florida SAR State Color Guard to present the
Colors at the opening of their Annual Conference Banquet on Saturday, February
20, in St Augustine. The Florida Society
DAR has asked the Florida State Color Guard to present the Colors at the
opening of their Spring Conference Banquet on Friday, March 5, in Orlando. These are both State Events for those of you
counting points toward the Bronze SAR Color Guard Medal.
Currently, there are plans to
hold in-person Commemorations of the Last Naval Battle on Merritt Island on
March 13, the Battle of Thomas Creek in Jacksonville on March 27 and the Battle of Pensacola on May 8. More information will be provided as we get
closer to those events. These are all
National Events for purposes of counting points toward the Silver SAR Color
Guard Medal and the SAR Von Steuben Medal for Sustained Achievement in the
National Color Guard.
While many of you were attending
the December meeting by Zoom on December 19, Color Guard Commander Dick Young
and Terry Doan were at the Wreaths Across America Ceremony at American Legion
Post #5 in Tampa. They are pictured
below with representatives from Desoto Chapter DAR, Winding Waters Chapter DAR and Fort Brooke Society C.A.R. They also took a minute to place a wreath and
recognize a Vietnam veteran resting in the public cemetery adjacent to the
Veterans Cemetery.
Other important dates
February 20
Florida C.A.R. Annual Conference
February 22
George Washington’s Birthday
March 5 Boston Massacre
March 5 Florida DAR
Spring Conference Banquet
March 20 Last Naval
Battle Commemoration
March 27 Battle of
Thomas Creek Commemoration
April 13 Thomas Jefferson’s
Birthday
April 19 Battles of Lexington &
Concord
May 8 Battle
of Pensacola Commemoration
SAR Events
The 2021 Congress is scheduled to
be held in-person in Renton, Washington (Seattle) on July 8 – 14. Information is available on the SAR
website. The 2022 Congress will in
Savanah, Georgia. The 2023 Congress will
be held in Orlando. Plans are being made
and volunteers will be needed.
Miscellaneous Reminders
The new face book page for the Tampa Sons of the American Revolution is
Tampa Sar. The password to add anything is American1776. Please feel free to upload pictures or comments. Invite all your friends to take a look.
Chapter Website—remember
you can find information about the chapter and programs on the chapter
website. http://www.tampasar.org/
One of the duties of the
Chapter Chaplain is to send cards to our members that are sick. Another is to
send a sympathy card to the family of a member who has passed away. If you know
of anyone that should be the recipient of these cards please mention it to
Chaplain Sessums or one of the other officers.
Chapter officers and
committee chairman are encouraged to send any pertinent information they wish
included in the newsletter to the editor.