The Ceremony Honoring the Rhode Island Regiment Soldiers and the Five British Officers Buried in the same Mass Grave in Wilmington, DE

As you can see from the program above, a number of distinguished guests were on hand to dedicate the memorial to the 28 Rhode Island Regiment soldiers - 14 white and 14 African American - and 5 British officers buried in a mass grave in the Wilmington & Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington, DE.

Of special interest is that Jason Roomes, a member of the 6th Regiment United States Colored Troops and a descendant of Rhode Island soldier Caesar Rose buried in this cemetery, attended the ceremony.

Wilmington Mayor John Carney gave the Keynote Address followed by commemorative remarks by Gregg Armore, Secretary of State for Rhode Island, Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez, Secretary of State for Delaware, and Colonel Thomas Archer-Burton, Military Attache to the United States from the United Kingdom. SAR President General Allen Greenly and DAR Delaware State Regent Carolyn Foxwell read some of the names of the Rhode Island Regiment Soldiers.

The City of Wilmington Police Color Guard and the Delaware State Police Bagpipes led the procession to the memorial site where the Monument was unveiled. Rev. Dr. Kirtley Yearwood of Trinity Episcopal Church offered a Graveside Prayer, followed by the playing of "Amazing Grace" and a musket salute by members of the Rhode Island Regiment and others. The ceremony concluded with the playing of "Taps" and "Last Post" (UK).

Below is a link to a PowerPoint presentation I created of the RIR Ceremony last week. If you click on the file it will open up in Google Slides. If you prefer to watch it in PowerPoint, download it first and then open it. Go to SLIDE SHOW, click on FROM THE BEGINNING and it will advance automatically.

The ceremony attracted significant press coverage. Below we offer you links to both the local newspaper's (The News Journal) PRINT coverage as well as links to ONLINE coverage, including the Smithsonian and Yahoo.