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In keeping with tradition, we have been busy planning a full week of Tartan Week activities, including the famous pre-parade Ceilidh on Friday evening, a Tartan Week Cocktail Party, the Parade morning Kirking of the Tartan, and of course the Post Parade Party that will again be held at Stout NYC. We encourage you to visit www.tartanweek.com for more information on Tartan Week activities, as we frequently update the site. The National Tartan Day New York Committee wishes you warm holiday greetings and hopes to see the familiar faces and welcomes new friends on April 5, 2008.

About the National Tartan Day New York Committee
The New York City Tartan Day Parade is proudly and solely organized exclusively by the all-volunteer National Tartan Day New York Committee. The National Tartan Day New York Committee is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation organized under the laws of the State of New York. The Committee was created in 2002 in order to organize New York City's Tartan Day Parade, help perpetuate Tartan Day and coordinate New York's Tartan Week activities. The Committee was founded by three New York based Scottish organizations: Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York, 1756, New York Caledonian Club, 1856, and American Scottish Foundation, 1956. Three additional organizations, Clan Campbell Society, the New York Police Pipes and Drums and the New York Tartan Army were later additions to the Committee. The Committee is grateful for the collaboration and efforts of Epic Concepts of Edinburgh who helped develop New York's Tartan Day Parade.

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Greetings members and friends of the New York Caledonian Club!

A very warm welcome on a cold and bitter December evening here in New York City.

I would like to thank Iby Sprott, our webmaster, who has done an exceptional job in creating our new website. Iby has also produced the New York Scottish Pipes and Drums website at www.nyscottish.org and the Campbells of New York City website at www.campbellsnyc.org

I also want to give special thanks to Steve O'Connor for giving us permission to play his wonderful tune "Hail Caledonia", which is quickly becoming a grass-roots anthem in Scotland. I am sure we will be seeing Steve in New York City shortly.

Enjoy the website! I wish all of you a happy holiday season and all the best for the New Year.

George A. Campbell
76th Chief

More about Steve O'Connor on this link:
www.aardvarkrecords.co.uk/steve_oconnor.htm

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Memorial Day 2007 at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument

I want to thank the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Association for the privilege of speaking to you on this singular day. I represent both the New York Caledonian Club and the New York Volunteer 79th Highlanders' Regiment. These organizations have a uniquely intertwined history, running parallel for more than one hundred and fifty years, and now intersecting on this solemn day.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, Thousands of native born Scots, plagued by oppression, famine, and dwindling opportunity in the Highlands of home, had come to New York City with their skills and passions and kilts. They stayed close together and continued the volunteer militia begun as the old "Highland Guard" during the War of 1812.

Then came the Missouri Compromise, John Brown's raid, the rumblings of secession, then the crash of Confederate cannon fire at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on the 12th of April, 1861. The next morning, the newly elected President, Abraham Lincoln, issued and urgent call for volunteers. He asked for 75,000 men. His plea was read out at the Regimental drill that night, and to the last man those Scots, many of them members of the five-year old Caledonian Club voted to offer their services to President Lincoln for the duration of the war. They were the first men in the nation to volunteer. They were promptly accepted and asked to recruit four new companies. Thirty days later the strengthened 79th Highlanders entered the pages of history. Captain Robert Gair, of Brooklyn has left us a first-hand account.

He wrote: "The citizens of New York gave us a grand send-off at the Cortland Street Ferry, where we entrained for the defense of Washington. I shall always remember that Sabbath day we left Jersey City for the front. How few of us realized the task we had undertaken."

The pipes played All the Blue Bonnets Are Over the Border, and 1,087 men left in high spirits. They were among those who tasted defeat at the first Battle of Bull Run. In the following days and months they won some ground and fell in other fields from Kentucky to Louisiana. They served under General Grant at Vicksburg. Captain Gair rose to command the Regiment at Spotsylvania, when General David Morrison was gravely wounded. Captain Gair called this command "The finest medicine I ever took?the success I later achieved, I owe to my service in the 79th Highlanders".

Yes, 1,087 men answered Lincoln's call-and four years later 190 came home.

They formed a Veteran's Association and promptly made Ulysses Simpson Grant an honorary member. Then, to recognize the civilians who had formed their core and had brought the Scot's traits of strong and devoted service to the 79th, the veterans voted to extend honorary membership to every future Caledonian Chief in perpetuity. It is that tribute we honor today. As honorary Veterans of the United States Army's, first and only kilted Regiment, The New York 79th Highlanders, We respect their memory and are honored to be in your company and to join in the Walk of Remembrance to the General Grant Memorial at noon today.
Thank you.

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