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In this season of counting blessings, it seems fitting that today brings the happy anniversary of New York City’s liberation from imperial rule. It was on this day in 1783 that the last British soldiers left their last American stronghold. At the Fraunces Tavern Museum website, Mary Tsaltas-Ottomanelli sets the scene on Nov. 25, 1783, after the last British soldier shoved off from the city and as American troops were marching in: Cheering crowds gathered along the Bowery and down to Capes Tavern, where they waited for the American flag to be raised over Fort George. The British left one last parting gift for the Americans during their evacuation – a Union Jack flag still waving in the wind at Fort George. The British nailed the flag to the pole, the halyard removed, and the pole greased… John Van Arsdale, a young sailor, volunteered to take on the
impossible task: removing the last vestige of British occupation. Arsdale fashioned a pair of wooden cleats and attempted to climb the greased pole, but it proved unstable. He returned from a local hardware store with a saw, hatchet, gimlets, and nails. It was reported that “willing hands sawed pieces of the board, split and bored cleats, and began to nail them on.”… The group fashioned a ladder to help Arsdale ascend the pole, replacing the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes. While the American flag billowed into the air, the cannon salute began. Artillerymen began firing the thirteen-gun salute, signaling to Washington to start the final leg of the procession into Fort George and officially take possession of New York
City.
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