Revolutionary War ceremony

Revolutionary War ceremony

(video frames included below)

at Tallapoosa (Bethany Baptist Church, 420 Bethany Church Road)
Starts on June 2, 2007 at 2:00PM
 Ends on June 2, 2007 at 4:00PM

Pomp and circumstance will be the order of the day at this august and yet colorful ceremony sponsored by the Casimir Pulaski Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. Attendees from several surrounding states might swell total attendance to 200.

An avenue of about 30 colonial flags will decorate the field, joined by a color guard unit. A mock Revolutionary War militia unit will fire a musket volley salute as the gravesite receives both a flush-ground grave marker and a bronze SAR monument. Hear a government proclamation and several short speeches, including a biography of Revolutionary War soldier Goggans. Musicians will include two bagpipers and a bugler, who will sound taps. The SAR, DAR and various local historical societies will decorate the gravesite with wreathes.

For full details, read the flyer here, or watch an enlightening short video featuring retiring Georgia SAR president George Wheeless speaking on this ceremony, the SAR and other local Revolutionary Era events here.

Writer Dr. John Ferling is professor emeritus of history at our local University of West Georgia, where he taught for thirty-three years. A scholar of the American revolutionary era, he is the author of ten books (and editor of others) including from the venerable Oxford University Press. He has enjoyed the signal honor of being interviewed about his professional work on national television for a full three hours, constituting an episode of the BookTV program In Depth, which you can view in its entirety via the related Web page here.

GOGGANS, ALEXANDER.

Alexander Goggans, a soldier of the Revolution, was born in Richmond County, Va., January 14, 1758. In early life, his parents emigrated to Newberry District, South Carolina. Young Goggans was an active soldier in the Revolutionary service. He was in Col. Williams' command at the battle of King's Mountain, where he was wounded in the left shoulder. Sometime afterwards while with a scouting party he was wounded in the left leg. And again, in another skirmish, he was struck down by a severe sabre stroke on the head and left for dead upon the field. After his recovery from this third wound, he rejoined his comrades and continued an active partisan to the end of the war. After peace was made, Mr. Goggans married Mary Dashields, who died in 1800. About 1815, he married Elizabeth Kilpatrick. After many years' residence in South Carolina, Mr. Goggans emigrated to Lincoln County, Tennessee. Thence in 1819 he emigrated to Lawrence County, Alabama, where he resided until the death of his wife in 1836. He then moved to Carroll County, Georgia, where he died March 21, 1852, in the triumphs of a living Faith. He was buried the next day with military honors in the graveyard at Bethany church.-- Condensed from a sketch in Jacksonville Republican, Jacksonville. Ala., June 8, 1852.

Note: This name appears in "Revolutionary Soldiers in Alabama"; Bul. 5, 1911, Department of Archives and History, as Alexander Goggans, when it should have appeared as William Goggans.

Source: Thomas McAdory Owen's Revolutionary Soldiers in Alabama

See also KINGS MOUNTAIN GEORGIA PARTICIPANTS







(Note: The captioned times in the video frames above are one hour too early)

Find A Grave Web site entry

high-resolution headstone photo

While they often incite passionate interest in the events of the past, films made to provide entertainment often consciously do so at the expense of historical fidelity, rationalized by the justification of "artistic license".

The controversial 2000 film, "The Patriot", depicts the American independence war in South Carolina, setting of the real-life adventures of Mr. Goggans. Multiple excerpts from the movie can be seen online at the collections of links here.