Revolutionary War history comes alive

The Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution can trace their ancestors back to someone who lived in the American Colonies during the Revolutionary War period. Two of those descendants visited Odessa last week Wednesday to talk about U.S. history and the life and times of the colonists. One of the two was former Odessa resident Gale Palmer (a history teacher at Odessa High School who lost his wife and two of his three children in the horrific explosion and fire that swept through a carnival that was in town for the weekend in late August of 1961). The other was Stan Wills. Both men now live in Spokane.

Wills and Palmer brought with them items of interest from the Colonial period, such as musket balls, coins and paper scrip used by the colonies and later by the 13 original states to use as money. Each state, Wills, said, had its own type of scrip, and based on the examples they showed, none of it was very professional looking. Several different flags from the period were also on display, many of them bearing the rattlesnake depicted in one of the more well-known flags that said “Don’t Tread On Me.”

Also of major interest to several of the children who attended the presentation were muskets from that early era. Palmer explained that they would be using styrofoam “bullets” in the interest of safety. Wills expressed his wonder that the Colonists were able to prevail over the British, particularly when they had such rudimentary weapons with no rifling in barrel, no sights on the end of the barrel and accuracy that was almsot non-existent. Often, he said, Colonial soldiers would load their weapon, fire a single round and then run for their lives. Only after France began sending more modern weapons with rifling that were also easier to load and fire, did the Colonies make better progress in their battles against the well-armed British soldiers. In 1777, France supplied the continental army with 20,000 muskets (with bayonets) and blue uniforms. Each state was allowed to choose the color of trim for the new uniforms (cuffs and collars), some choosing red, tan, white or light blue. Both Palmer and Wills wore the blue and red combination of the state of Virginia.

After their presentation, the two men mingled with the crowd and offered to allow a volunteer to fire one of the muskets. Much to the chagrin of the many youngsters present, only adults and older teenagers were allowed to fire the gun, its styrofoam bullet notwithstanding. Only Elena Hernandez was brave enough to meet the challenge. Unfortunately, the gun misfired, not just once but two or three times before she finally got off a shot. Therefore she was caught off guard when the gun finally did fire, and she turned her head away from the gunpowder blast – not that actually looking at the target would have improved her accuracy with that particular weapon.

The Town Council had voted to give its prior consent to allow the historical weapons to be used for demonstration purposes in the park. Normally, no guns of any kind are allowed in Reiman Park.

The program was well received, and the gentlemen were thanked by the crowd for presenting their history lesson in such an interesting manner.