The 148th annual observance marking the 248th anniversary of the Battle and Massacre of Wyoming is 10 a.m. July 4 at the Wyoming Monument National Historic Site, Wyoming Avenue, Wyoming.
The date coincides with the 250th anniversary of the founding of America and makes this event especially significant as the Battle of Wyoming was the most significant battle of the American Revolution fought in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Battle and Massacre of Wyoming was fought on July 3, 1778.
Dr. Christopher Pearl, Department chair of the history department and co-coordinator of the American Studies program at Lycoming College, will serve as keynote speaker. Pearl earned his PhD at Binghamton University and his research focuses on the American Revolution and the founding of America. His newest book, “Declarations of Independence: Indigenous Resilience, Colonial Rivalries, and the Cost of Revolution,” was published by the University of Virginia Press and received the Walker Cowan Memorial Ptize first a work of scholarship in 18th-century studies.
The chair and master of ceremonies at the event will be William Conyngham, who is a direct descendant of Col. Zebulon Butler, who commanded the colonial forces who fought at the Battle of Wyoming in 1778. He is the outgoing board president of the Luzerne County Historical Society and was the co-founder of the North Branch Land Trust.
The chaplain for the event will be the Rev. Thomas P. Looney, C.S.C., the president of King’s College. He earned his PhD from the Catholic University of America abd serves on the board of the University of Notre Dame.
The annual observances at the Wyoming Monument began on the 100th anniversary of the Battleof Wyoming on July 3, 1878 and the keynote speaker at the event was the then President of the United States, Rutherford Hayes.
The event — sponsored by the Wyoming Commemorative Association — is free to the public.