Arlington USCT Commemoration: Cancelled

James H. Harris, Section 27, Arlington National Cemetery

Over the past few months I’ve made a few references to a program that was to be held at Arlington House: The Robert E. Lee Memorial on May 18th that would commemorate General Orders No. 143, which established the Bureau of Colored Troops.

Today, I learned that the powers that be have decided to cancel the event.

The reason?

Well, your guess is as good as mine.

The great bugaboo of the sequester cannot be given as the reason, since the event required no extra staffing costs and the re-enactment unit that had agreed to participate was coming for free.

So if you were in the mood to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at a USCT grave, hear a rousing recruiting speech by a Frederick Douglass impersonator, or watch an infantry demonstration by a USCT re-enacting unit, well…

Maybe you should attend one of these events.

This is a troubling decision made by a site that already has a “conflict of interpretation.”