America's 250th

Looking Toward Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of
the Signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026

On the 4th of July 2026, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of members of the second Continental Congress voting their approval the Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia. The handwritten manuscript document was immediately printed and read publicly over the next few days in Philadelphia and read publicly in Alexandria about a week later.

An account of our congregation’s involvement with the revolutionary events of this period is presented here in preparation for considering what led thirteen colonies in British Colonial America to declare their independence from the mother country in 1776; to fight and win a war for independence; and then form an entirely new government under the Constitution of the United States, which began operating when the U.S. Congress convened for the very first time on 4 March 1789.

A second account presents the history of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the Revolutionary War, located in the churchyard burial ground. It images of a ceremony conducted there in 2012, which included re-enactors of the First Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line.

~ Donald C. Dahmann, History and Archives Committee