Commemorative Events

Nathan Hale

This event commemorates the execution of the 21-year-old patriot after his capture by the British. The Corps provides a color guard and lays a wreath at the statue of Hale in City Hall Plaza donated to the City by the Sons of the Revolution New York in 1893. Hale was born June 6, 1755 in Coventry, Connecticut. After graduating from Yale University in 1773, he became a schoolteacher. In 1775 he joined a Connecticut regiment and took part in the siege of Boston. He was made a captain in 1776 and helped capture a British provision sloop on Long Island. He volunteered to spy on the British troop and weapons placements along Long Island and provide detailed sketches to General Washington. He successfully penetrated the British lines but was captured upon his return on September 21, 1776. He was hanged the next day without a trial. "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country," were Hale’s last words uttered on the gallows. A British officer who witnessed the hanging was so moved by Hale's bravery that he delivered the news personally to General Washington under a flag of truce.

Sons of the Revolution Annual Church Service in commemoration of Washington’s Birthday

The 119th Annual Church Service was held Sunday, February 22 at Fordham University Church. The Service commemorates the birth of George Washington and is held in memory of those SRNY members we lost in the past year. Rev. Christopher M. Cullen, SRNY's Chaplain, celebrated this year's service at the 11:00 AM mass at Fordham University Church. This is the first time SRNY has held the commemorative service at Fordham's university chapel. The Veteran Corps Color Guard leads the procession to the altar for presentation of the Colors.

Washington’s Inauguration

George Washington’s 1st Inaugural Ceremony sponsored by the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masonry of the State of New York is reenacted at St. Paul’s Church on Broadway in lower Manhattan. Members of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masonry in the State of New York, with clergy from St. Paul's Chapel, commemorate the first official act of our Founding Fathers by reenacting the 1789 Inauguration of our first president and fellow Mason, George Washington. The event is held at and sponsored by the St. Paul’s Church on Broadway in lower Manhattan. Promising to uphold liberties and freedoms under "a government instituted by themselves," President Washington's stirring words to a fledgling nation are among the most influential words that shaped the identity of the United States. The original Bible used by President Washington at his inauguration on April 30, 1789 is owned by St. Johns Lodge No. 1, AYM, F&AM.

Liberty Pole

Old Dutch Reform Church, Ft. Greene Park-Brooklyn

The Corps provides a color guard and field music to lead the line of patriotic and civic group marchers. The New Utrecht Reformed Church, 1827 84th Street, is a Georgian Gothic structure constructed in 1828 as the center of the original Dutch settlement. During the time of the British occupation, 1776-1783, Bensonhurst residents erected flagpoles, called liberty poles, on which they raised the flag of independence, as a sign of derision for the British. The liberty pole that stands on the lawn of The New Utrecht Reformed Church marks the site of the first liberty pole.

Annual 1st Provisional Regiment Memorial Service

Held in the cemetery at Sleepy Hollow, this memorial service is jointly sponsored by both the VCA and the New York Guard. It is traditionally held on the first Sunday of each May, on the grounds of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, New York. The purpose of the ceremony is twofold: firstly, to render honors to the memory of the dedicated men of the First Provisional Regiment, NYG; who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the New York City Reservoir System during World War I, and secondly, to remember our comrades in arms who have passed on in the previous year. William Rockefeller donated the plot at the Sleepy Hollow cemetery to the organization. The boulder that makes up the monument forever memorializes the forty names of those First Provisional soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice.

Annual Massing of the Colors

The VCA Color Guard provides an escort and honor guard for the Annual Massing of the Colors church service with Evensong at St. Thomas Episcopal Church sponsored by the New York Conference of Patriotic and Historical Societies. The service is followed by a collation at the Genealogical and Biographical Society.

Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Cemetery

Descended from survivors of the Spanish Inquisition, these pioneer American Jews called themselves the "remnant of Israel" -- in Hebrew, Shearith Israel. The original "23 souls, big and little," as a Dutch document called them, grew into a religious community that has served New Yorkers for more than two centuries. Congregants have included Benjamin Cardozo, a noted U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Emma Lazarus, who penned the lines on the base of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor ..." and Judith Kaye, chief judge of the NYS Court of Appeals.
The VCA provides a color guard and field music renders Taps as part of the Annual Memorial Ceremony at the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Cemetery in Chinatown, NYC. The ceremony honors the memory of Mordecai Myers, VCA Brigade Major (1825) and Adjutant (1826) whose mother is buried in the cemetery. Notably several current members of the Corps have ancestors interred in the cemetery.