OLD TRINITY CHURCH

++Celebrating 350 Years++

ca. 1675 - 2025

www.oldtrinity.net

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT


350th Anniversary "Kick-Off" Weekend

&

210th Anniversary of the Battle of the Ice Mound


February 8-9, 2025

(Saturday & Sunday)


Featuring the "Chesapeake Independent Blues" & the "Fort McHenry Guard"

1718 Taylors Island Road

Church Creek, MD 21622


Parking is available along "Old Trinity Church Road"

SATURDAY - FEBRUARY 8


Our 350th Anniversary Kick-Off Weekend commences on the 210th anniversary of the "Battle of the Ice Mound", which took place in 1815 off the nearby James and Taylors Islands.



Old Trinity Church will be hosting the Chesapeake Independent Blues and the Fort McHenry Guard, both nationally recognized War of 1812 interpretive organizations from Maryland. "The Blues" and "The Guard" will be visiting our campus to pay honor to the war veterans who are buried on our sacred grounds -- among them, those who fought in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 (including members of the 48th Maryland Regiment).


The day's events will feature:

--A fife & drum military salute

--A three-volley musket salute across Church Creek

--Prayers of Commemoration for American Veterans

--A recreation of Militia actions at the Battle of the Ice Mound

--A special "Star-Spangled Banner" flag program with the public

--The new NPS "Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail" mobile visitor center onsite


EVENTS SCHEDULE


10:00 - NPS "Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail" mobile visitor center opens to the public

10:30 - Recreated Maryland Militia Morning Formation

11:00 - Fife & Drum Military Salute and Musket Firing Salute

11:30 - Engagement of the Militia at the Battle of the Ice Mound

12:30 - Hands-on public "Star-Spangled Banner" Flag program

01:30 - Commemorative Program Concludes



BATTLE OF THE ICE MOUND


The last known skirmish with the British in the Chesapeake started when HM Schooner Dauntless, sitting offshore in the Bay, sent a tender into the Little Choptank River system to raid local farms and requisition their livestock. Anchoring the tender within 400 yards of James and nearby Taylors Islands, the crew woke on the morning of February 7 to find their ship enclosed in ice. The local militia was gathered by Joseph Fookes Stewart (1777-1839), a private in Captain Thomas Woolford's company of the 48th Maryland Regiment, in order to engage the tender. After carefully making their way across pack ice, the militia commenced firing their muskets. The British quickly surrendered.



Chesapeake Independent Blues – https://www.facebook.com/Friends-of-Americas-Wars-for-Independence-100290131394493/


NPS Fort McHenry Guard – 

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine (U.S. National Park Service)


NPS Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail –

 Learn About the Park - Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service)


Cambridge's own Lil' Bitta Bull will be onsite for Saturday's event, selling hot drinks, cookies, hamburgers/hotdogs and more!

SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 9


You are invited back to Old Trinity Church on Sunday, February 9 at 11:00 am, for the first of three HISTORIC ANGLICAN SERVICES that we plan to do over the course of our 350th Anniversary year.

This service will feature Holy Communion from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, the liturgy in use when our "Venerable Pile of Bricks" first began holding services for the early settlers of Dorchester County in the 17th century.


Vestments and furnishings will be arranged in keeping with the period. Father Dan will use his time in the pulpit to explain the changes that the Anglican/Episcopal tradition has seen since Old Trinity's construction ca. 1675.