Today I went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in South Boston with my roomie Christopher. I have gone to the parade for the past eight years. But today was the first time I saw Red Coats in the parade (as you can see in the picture above.) At first I did not think anything of it.
But Southie is still a predominantly Irish Catholic neighborhood and as the Red Coats passed along the procession a lot of people were asking, "What are Red Coats doing here?" There was some booing and jeering. Some thought their inclusion was inappropriate. I mean if you are going to include Red Coats in a St. Patrick's Day Parade why not just have an Orange Day Parade while you are at it. In fact, when the Red Coats reached the end of the parade some of the revelers chanted, "Kill the Brits!!! Kill the Brits!!!"
However, there is a historical significance to having the Red Coats in the parade. The procession passes Dorchester Heights which overlooks the harbor and much of the City of Boston. In March 1776, General George Washington led American soldiers in fortifying Dorchester Heights which forced the evacuation of the British Army from Boston along with a thousand United Empire Loyalists who fled to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
This decisive victory for the Americans ended the siege of Boston which began almost immediately after the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 (which is commemorated in Massachusetts and in Maine on Patriots Day every third Monday in April.) The triumph at Dorchester Heights also marked Washington's first victory as Commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
To this day, schools and government offices in Boston are closed on March 17th in observance of Evacuation Day. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Evacuation Day happens to fall on St. Patrick's Day. So the bars and taverns do a very brisk business.
3 comments:
Little did you know, we are actually not the Redcoats!! Check this out....
http://www.army.mil/FIFEANDDRUM/about.html
Yeah, about being British!! Um those uniforms are actually what the Musicians wore in the continental army. They wore the opposite colors of the unti to which they were assigned so they could be scene easier by there commanders in battle to rely orders. In 1784 the continental army wore blue coats with red facing therefore the musicians of the unit wore red coats with blue facings. It is comman miss conception about this unit that they are redcoats but this is not the case!!
They are not redcoats, they were the conitinental musicians uniform which were the oppsoite of the unit the were assigned. The continental army of 1784 wore blue coats with red facing and there fore the musicians wore red coats with blue facings!!
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