Sign up for Blue Crab Parade
Editor, The Sun:
This year’s Blue Crab Festival will be held on Saturday, Sept. 26th in Panacea’s Woolley Park. The parade will be on Hwy 98 and starts at 10 a.m. with line-up at 9:30a.m. Parade entry forms are available on-line at VisitPanacea.org/Blue-Crab-Festival. Send your completed form to Wakullaoptimist@yahoo.com. Coastal Optimist Club is in charge of organizing the parade. Entrants will receive an email to let them know their place in the line-up. Email danielsj@rocketmail.com with any questions. We hope everyone will come and join us for a lot of fun.
Jo Ann Daniels, President
Coastal Optimist Club
Celebration of Dolly set for Oct. 2
Editor, The Sun:
August 25 was a sad day for many people. Dolly Parton passed away from cancer.
Wakulla Community Theater is hosting a “Celebration of Dolly” on Oct. 2 qt 7 p.m. at the Sopchoppy Theater and Conference Center (Old Sopchoppy School Auditorium). Doors will open at 6:30. Dolly songs will be performed by many awesome singers. There will also be raffles, trivia, a silent auction and a Dolly look-alike contest! Civic Brewing Co. will be selling beer and wine onsite. Proceeds from this event will help Wakulla High School Theater pay for districts.
Purchase your tickets at: wakullacommunitytheater.org.
History highlight: Decisive victory
Editor, The Sun:
By 1781, the War of Independence had raged for six years and was a stalemate. On both sides of the Atlantic, sentiment prevailed that if no decisive victory was scored soon, the colonies would be pressured by both the British and their allies, the French, into a negotiated settlement with difficult compromises. The British would likely retain the colonies they occupied; Georgia, South Carolina and perhaps, New York, as well as all the land west of the Appalachians Mountains.
Washington and Rochambeau, French commander of the allied troops in America, planned a joint attack on New York. Meanwhile, British General Cornwallis moved his army into Yorktown, Virginia. The French navy blocked his escape by water, and the combined forces of France and the U.S. cornered his troops between the York and James Rivers. A siege operation was undertaken and in October 1781, the British army surrendered. More than 8,000 British were taken as prisoners; both army soldiers and navy seaman, as well as thousands of armaments, hundreds of artillery pieces and over three dozen British ships. It was the decisive victory the Americans had sought!
It was not readily apparent, however, that the British surrender meant the end of hostilities. General Clinton still commanded a large contingent of British forces in New York. Would the British send reinforcements and continue to press the offensive? General Washington was not convinced that the victory meant an end to the war. King George urged Parliament to continue fighting, but Parliament, in February, 1782, moved to stop the war with the American colonies. Benjamin Franklin, one of the peace commissioners appointed by the Continental Congress, warned, “We cannot be safe while they keep Armies in our Country.” The U.S. won remarkable peace terms: all 13 colonies remained in the U.S. and the lands west of the Appalachians to the Mississippi River were ceded to the U.S. This was territory the native Americans had occupied for centuries. Within 50 years, they would be banished from these homelands. The Anglo-American negotiations concluded with the Treaty of Paris of 1783, nearly two years after the surrender at Yorktown. Tens of thousands of loyal British subjects who lived in the colonies left their homes and livelihoods for exile. In exhilaration, the new nation now began the difficult work of hammering out a government.
Don’t miss out on the Wakulla County Historical Society’s signature America 250 celebration. “Threads through Time”: a historic costume fashion show and tea. History told through the clothes we wore. Saturday, Sept. 12, 2 to 5 p.m.
At the Crawfordville Women’s Club. Tickets for sale at wakullahistory.org. Limited seats available!
Andrea Carter, President
Wakulla County Historical Society