pictures, unless otherwise noted, by Kirk Sheap, Norma Sheap, & Cat Schwetke.
5 Dec 2015 Chesapeake, VA
The SAR Color Guard presents the colors at Great Bridge.
The 240th Anniversary of the Battle of Great Bridge was marked by a stirring ceremony at the site of the battle today and blessed with perfect weather: sunny, high 50's, and an occasional breeze to stir the flags. 240 years ago the Culpeper Minute Battalion, as part of a force assembled under Col Woodford, commander of the 2nd Virginia, repulsed an attack by British regulars backed by Tory Militia and freed slaves. They inflicted significant casualties on the British and their allies at the cost of one minor wound to one of their own. The defeated British soon took to the safety of their ships leaving Virginia in the hands the patriots. The CMM were well represented by five members and three wives: Richard Knight, (dual member from Tennessee), Jim Lillard and his wife Linda, Lon Lacey and his wife Mary Margaret, Mike Lyman, and Bill Schwetke and his wife Cat.
CMM representatives at the monument to the Culpeper Minutemen of Fauquier County. Left to right: Linda (Jim Lillard's wife), Jim Lillard, Mike Lyman, Bill Schwetke, Richard Knight, Cat Schwetke, Mary Margaret Lacey, Lon Lacey.
Four members of the CMM marched in the SAR Color Guard: CMM Color Guard Commander Lon Lacey, Jim Lillard, Mike Lyman, and Bill Schwetke.
The CMM Color Guard participants listen to the opening remarks at Great Bridge prior to the parade of Colors. Left to right: Bill Schwetke, Mike Lyman, Lon Lacey, and Jim Lillard.
The crowd gathers for the ceremony
 Vice President General Mike Elston (also Virginia SAR 2nd Vice President) |  Virginia SAR President Reverdy Wright. |
 CMM President Bill Schwetke, on right, with Cat Schwetke. |  Jim Lillard, just before the program starts. The pin in his hat is a 1.5 inch diameter button that Jim found at the site of a Revolutionary War fort on the Sanatee River in SC. Part of the original gold covering is still on the pin. |
That evening the SAR Color Guard augmented the Norfolk Chapter in marching in the Chesapeake Christmas Parade.
The Color Guard in the Chesapeake Christmas Parade, left to right: Virginia SAR Color Guard Commander Darrin Schmidt, Chris Melhuish, SAR Foundation President Sam Powell of North Carolina, CMM President Bill Schwetke, Norfolk past President Tom Whetstone (also chairman of the Great Bridge Commemoration of 2015), and Fairfax Resolves President Vern Eubanks (picture by WCTV Chesapeake).
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