News

Two new Warriors were welcomed to the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Virginia at the 2026 Spring Court held at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond, Registrar Lewis Taylor Cowardin has reported.

John Alan Osborne, Jr. and John David McGurl were presented with Society rosettes and Lieutenant Governor Peter Lawshe Henderer administered a Jamestown Oath that Captain John Smith first spoke upon being appointed to the Virginia Company governing council in 1609. New Warriors also received copies of the General Society’s Honoring our Colonial History: Tablets, Monuments and Memorials Placed by the Society of Colonial Wars 1982-2010.

Queen Elizabeth I, as portrayed by award winning actress and Smithsonian Scholar, Mary Ann Jung, was the royal guest speaker at the April 9 Spring Court for the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Governor Blair Hearn Nelsen reported.

“Good Queen Bess led us through the often surprising social norms of the English Court during her reign in addition to helping us understand the political and cultural forces that laid the foundation for the exploration of North America,” Nelsen commented.

Sixty-five Warriors and guests attended the reception, dinner and presentation held at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond. At the event, Registrar Lewis Taylor Cowardin welcomed two new Warriors, John Alan Osborne, Jr. and John David McGurl, into the Society and Lieutenant Governor Peter Lawshe Henderer administered the Jamestown Oath.

Two new Warriors were welcomed to the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Virginia at the February 2026 Cy Nichoas Luncheon held at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond

Registrar Lewis Taylor Cowardin presented Taylor F. Turner III and Troy G. Arnold III with Society rosettes and Lieutenant Governor Peter Lawshe Henderer administered a Jamestown Oath that Captain John Smith first spoke upon being appointed to the Virginia Company governing council in 1609. New Warriors also received copies of the General Society’s Honoring our Colonial History: Tablets, Monuments and Memorials Placed by the Society of Colonial Wars 1982-2010.

The featured speaker for the 2026 Cy Nicholas Luncheon at the Commonwealth Club Brigadier General Chad Manske, USAF (Ret), described his analysis of forces and challenges in current global affairs.

Gen. Manske had a distinguished career as a pilot and held command at the squadron and wing levels. He served as an Air Force Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and in various command positions including in Southwest Asia and as Deputy Commander, Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Region. His final posting was as Commandant of the National War College, Ft Lesley J. McNair, in our nation’s capital.

Following his distinguished 30-year military career, he continues to assist the national security community as a Senior Advisor to the CEO of the National Defense University (NDU) Foundation. He flys for American Airlines and leads his own strategy and logistics consulting company. Gen. Manske holds a BA from Michigan State University, an MAS from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and two Master’s degrees from the Air University at Maxwell AFB.

Read his remarks here.

Officers and Council members for the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Virginia were elected and installed at the 2025 Fall Court held October 17 at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. All current Officers were reelected and Philip Carter Strother was elected as the new Assistant Treasurer. John Nicoll and John Moncure Daniel III were elected to serve vacancies in the Council Class of 2023, joining C.L. Sigmon, whose terms expire in 2026. Jeffrey Claiborne Doughty, Robert Sherman Claiborne, and Christopher Kilian Peace, were elected to serve in the Council Class of 2025, whose terms expire in 2028. (See full list.)

(Photo: Officers attending the Fall Court are installed.)

Registrar L. Taylor Cowardin and Lieutenant Governor Peter Lawshe Henderer welcomed four new warriors at the Fall Court, administering the Jamestown Oath and presenting rosettes along with General Society’s Honoring our Colonial History: Tablets, Monuments and Memorials Placed by the Society of Colonial Wars 1982-2010. (Photo:  (L to R) Michael Patrick McComas, Harry Stuart Holman, James Camp Goodloe IV, Robert Leigh Frackelton, Jr., Peter Henderer.)

Dr. James Craik, personal physician to General George Washington, portrayed by actor, writer, historian and reenactor Robert Plott, Manager of Character Interpretation from Mt. Vernon, made a house call at the Fall Court October 16 at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. His captivating talk covered his decades-long friendship with Washington, service as Surgeon General to the Continental Army and treatment of the former president at his death. He included detailed descriptions of 18th-century medicine, the tools and implements of the art and science at the time and the potions used for treatments.

The Virginia Society has presented its first award recognizing outstanding achievements in Colonial history to Dr. William M. Kelso, C. B. E., at a ceremony on September 20, 2025 at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond, Virginia Governor Blair H. Nelsen reported.

“As part of the events during our hosting of the General Society of Colonial Wars’ 44th General Assembly, we have recognized Bill Kelso, a renowned archeologist and historian who revolutionized the knowledge and understanding of Jamestown, the first permanent English colony on the American continent,” Nelsen said.

Kelso is currently the Emeritus Director of Archaeology and Research at the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, having retired in 2021. In the 1990s, as Director of Archaeology for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (now Preservation Virginia), Kelso was convinced that the original Jamestown fort had not, as prevailing opinion held then, washed into the James River over the centuries.

His team’s excavations on Jamestown Island uncovered the footprint of the fort’s southern palisade in 1994. That discovery and subsequent excavations profoundly and permanently changed what we know about our nation’s founding and earliest years.

“The award, known as the Russell Cecil Scott Award, will be given from time to time to a person or organization whose work is judged to have made significant contributions to our understanding of the Colonial era, its people and events, “said Nelsen.

Scott, a Virginian and engineer whose career included work on guided missile programs for the Navy and on guided missile propulsion at Experiment Incorporated in Richmond, died in 2018. He had served as Governor General of the General Society of Colonial Wars and Governor of the Virginia Society as well as a member and participant in numerous other lineage groups such as Society of the Cincinnati, Sons of the Revolution (past member of the board of managers of the Virginia Society) and Order of First Families of Virginia 1607-1624/5.

He led many efforts as Governor General to identify and memorialize important Colonial era events and landmarks and was, in addition to his interest in history, an avid waterman and a dedicated environmentalist for the Chesapeake Bay.

The Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Virginia has completed funding for a fellowship in Colonial History at the College of William and Mary in partnership with the General Society of Colonial Wars intended to memorialize former Society Governor General Russell Scott, Virginia Governor Blair H. Nelsen reported.

“In the second of our initiatives with the General Society that are awarded through the history program at America’s premier institution for the study of Colonial History, we will be providing an annual stipend to a graduate student in the school,” Nelsen said.

“The grant, known as the Russell Cecil Scott Fellowship, will be a permanent yearly support going to a graduate student chosen by the History faculty whose area of study seeks to contribute to our understanding of the Colonial era, its people and events,” said Nelsen.

Scott, a Virginian and engineer whose career included work on guided missile programs for the Navy and on guided missile propulsion at Experiment Incorporated in Richmond, died in 2018. He had served as Governor General of the General Society of Colonial Wars and Governor of the Virginia Society as well as a member and participant in numerous other lineage groups such as Society of the Cincinnati, Sons of the Revolution (past member of the board of managers of the Virginia Society) and Order of First Families of Virginia 1607-1624/5.

He led many efforts as Governor General to identify and memorialize important Colonial era events and landmarks and was, in addition to his interest in history, an avid waterman and a dedicated environmentalist for the Chesapeake Bay.

Click below to read the Governor's Message about the change in how we communicate with Warriors:

Letter to Members re Communications.pdf