2011

Year in Review

The first year of the Sesquicentennial arrived with a flush of new blood into the ranks, stepping off with the traditional back-to-back St. Patrick Day Parades on Long Island, only this time we had our Confederate comrades in the 9th Virginia march with us at the Westhampton Beach parade. Interest in the 150th anniversary of the Civil War snared a library program in Centereach and a full sized, media heavy Memorial Day weekend event at Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. In October, we returned to Brooklyn for our first ever visit to Plymouth Church where our original regiment was born thanks to the efforts of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. We returned to the usual road events such as Neshaminy, Gettysburg Living History, Cedar Creek, and Remembrance Day with an increasing number of Fresh Fish in the ranks. However, for this first year of the sesquicentennial, the main event was the 150th Anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run that henceforward we all know as HOTnassas. With temperatures well over 100F, pommeling sunshine, and not a trace of wind, it was a miracle there weren’t any real deaths on the field. Nevertheless, we managed to return home to recover.