Happy Evacuation Day! November 25, Evacuation Day, was a national holiday for eighty years, until the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln introduced the Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, which called on Americans to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving. Thereafter, Evacuation Day faded from public memory. Fortunately, a great symbol of the event remains in Union Square Park: a statue of George Washington. The statue, designed by Henry Kirke Brown and financed by New York merchants, was unveiled in 1856, on the eightieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Although replaced as a national holiday by Thanksgiving, Evacuation Day should never be forgotten. It was the denouement of the U.S. victory in the war for independence, and it is a day about which to be grateful. Here’s to the men who caused it. —Robert Begley
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 20:15:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015