Meeting of the Minds

The first meeting of those individuals interested in forming a Color Guard for the Anthony Bledsoe Chapter, TNSSAR took place on 21 April 2012 at the home of Glen and Bettye Freudenthal. I think all there would agree Bettye's green beans deserve special mention.

First and foremost it was decided we wanted to honor our ancestors and represent the SAR by looking as authentic as possible. The majority of us already have reenactor quality militia outfits and will be wearing those. Some members will wear the Continental uniform and for that it was decided the coats would be blue with buff facing if your ancestor was an officer and blue with red facing if your ancestor was enlisted. Whether attired as Militia or Continental, it was decided to wear the "knee" breeches with stockings and buckled shoes. In future posts I will get into detail on the clothing and personal equipment.

I have begun to post some vendor sites and you may want to look on eBay as from time to time they will have an item, to included regimental coats, at a good deal...I bought my Fugawee buckled shoes from there. I have also posted a few sites referencing the SAR Color Guards as a whole. The NSSAR site has links to the National Color Guard Handbook as well as past issues of the National Color Guard newsletter. The TNSSAR is a link for the state's Color Guard Handbook.

In future posts I will put in a link or two concerning what we will be covering at our next practice or something of historical relevance and instructions for an upcoming event in which we plan to participate.

All events we attend must have approval of our Chapter President and I, or a designee, will need to contact the local Chapter representative and or State Color Guard Commander. If possible, from this moment on Color Guard members are asked to "dress out" for Chapter meetings. This is a duty of each Color Guard as well as it will give us another chance to correct or make suggestions on attire and equipment to one another helping us to ever improve ourselves. For each meeting we will select a few members to post the colors as well a one to give the verbal commands. This will help us cross train in one another's duties. I will maintain a Color Guard Reporting Form for each member to maintain a record for points which will eventually lead to the Color Guard Medal. Remember these points don't have to cover consecutive years and please make sure I have a record of each event you participate in (I'll try and do a quarterly scrub with the unit as a whole).

Thank you for your dedication in this endeavor. I look forward to working with each and everyone of you.