Wreaths Across America Honors Fallen Back to Revolutionary War

Wreaths Across America ceremony honors fallen colonial soldiers
Newark Post Online
By Josh Shannon
Mon Dec 15, 2014

NEWARK POST PHOTO BY JOSH SHANNON
Wreaths Across America
Kevin Conley's service dog Angus, who helps him control his PTSD symptoms, mingles among the crowd at the Wreaths Across America ceremony at Pencader Heritage Museum on Saturday.

As part of a nationwide observance, dozens gathered Saturday near the site of the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge to lay wreaths in honor of the 24 colonial soldiers who died in the only Revolutionary War battle fought in Delaware.

“When our forefathers came to this ground in 1777, on their lips and in their minds was what freedom really stands for: independence and liberty,” State Rep. Earl Jaques told the crowd gathered at the Pencader Heritage Museum on Route 72. “They gave us that with their blood and with their ultimate sacrifice.”

Jaques, a brigadier general in the Delaware National Guard, was one of 10 people chosen to lay the wreaths, which are part of the Wreaths Across America program.

The effort began in 1992 when the Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine, had a surplus of wreaths and arranged to have them laid on graves at Arlington National Cemetery. The tradition continued, largely unnoticed, until 2005, when a photo of the wreaths went viral online.

The attention led to an influx of funds and volunteers, and the project expanded. Today, more than 540,000 wreaths are laid at 900 locations in all 50 states and in cemeteries on foreign soil.
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