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Join us in our Sandra and William H. Speiden auditorium for a presentation by Jim Bish, a local historian who will present on the leadership of the Culpeper Minutemen Battalion and their role in winning American Independence.

The Culpeper Minutemen were authorized to organize with the formation of the 3rd Virginia Convention which met on 17 July 1775 and they passed an ordinance on 19 August 1775 authorizing the formation of county minutemen. By early September recruitment resulting in the mustering of the Culpeper Minutemen began at ""Clayton's old field"" on the Catalpa estate of Philip Clayton (present-day Yowell Meadow Park). A Regular Rifle Company was led by Captain John Green and Lt. Richard Taylor and the Minute Battalion was led by Col. Lawrence Taliaferro of Orange, Lt. Col. Edward Stevens of Culpeper, and Major Thomas Marshall of Fauquier.

The riflemen were talented sharpshooters. Newspaper reported that in a competition, every member of one company placed shots in a seven-inch target at 250 yards and a Virginia marksman fired eight successive shots through a 5X7 inch board at 60 yards.

This program will be live streamed at this link: https://www.youtube.com/@history-to-go8789/streams