The South Hadley American Legion Post 260 commemorated America’s 250th with a ceremony last Thursday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
Officially, the Continental Congress declared its freedom from Great Britain on July 2, 1776, when it voted to approve a resolution submitted by delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, declaring “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown …”
South Hadley’s American Legion chose July 2 as the day to celebrate. The ceremony paid tribute to local heroes of the Revolutionary War, including Massachusetts’ Deborah Sampson, America’s first woman veteran, and Caesar Cambridge, an enslaved South Hadley resident who fought for American independence.
This event included a Revolutionary War reenactment, musket demonstration and historical presentation, followed by a talk led by local historian Leo Labonte, “South Hadley in the Revolutionary War; Col Woodbridge and the 25th Regiment.”