Write a commentCrown and Continental troops converge on Fort Ontario State Historic Site, located at 1 E. Fourth St. in Oswego, for a weekend of Revolutionary War living history and battle reenactments on Saturday and Sunday, June 22 and 23.
Event programming runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday and is included with regular fort admission. Activities include battle scenarios, a running street fight from Washington Square Park to the Fort, drills and camp life, children’s games, toys, music, and more.
The Fort remains open with regular programming until 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. Active-duty military and their families will be admitted free as guests of the Friends of Fort Ontario.
Saturday’s activities kick-off at 10 a.m. with dedication of an interpretive panel commissioned by the Empire State Society Sons of the American Revolution. The panel is a commemorative project of the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War. It describes Fort Ontario’s history during the war and to 1796 when it was turned over to the United States by Great Britain. A musket salute will conclude the dedication.
Immediately following the panel dedication, Continental forces will gather on the lawn of the Richardson-Bates House Museum at 135 E. Third St., Oswego. At 10:45 a.m., they will attack a British outpost in Washington Square Park located at the corner of state Route 104 and East Fourth Street in Oswego. A battle area will be roped off and spectators may gather to watch the action. After a sharp exchange of musket and cannon fire in the park, the Continentals will drive the smaller British force north up East Fourth Street to the safety of the walls of Fort Ontario.
At 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and again at noon on Sunday, the popular music group Liaison’s Plaisantes, comprised of reenactor historian musicians, will delight visitors with 18th-century music performed in the cool underground of the West Artillery Casemate.
Saturday’s activities wrap up with a 3:30 p.m. fashion show illustrating men’s and women’s 18th-century clothing, uniforms, hats and accoutrements worn by history interpreters in front of the Enlisted Men’s Barracks.
On Sunday, historian and Fort staff member Jonathan Kobelia delivers an illustrated program inside the Enlisted Men’s Barracks at 11 a.m. on the history of Lt. Colonel Marinus Willet’s failed campaign against British-held Fort Ontario in February 1783. The doomed assault ordered by General George Washington was the last Continental Army campaign of the Revolutionary War and included African American troops of the Rhode Island Regiment alongside troops of Willet’s Levies.
Throughout the event, Shari (“Historian of Fun and Bad Puns”) Crawford will issue and supervise 18th-century toys and games for children to play with on the parade ground. Picnic lunches are encouraged, and the museum gift shop will be open with cold drinks and Fort Ontario clothing and souvenirs for sale.
Visitors are welcome to stroll through the camps to experience the sights, sounds and smells of 18th-century life. Sutler will offer a variety of reproduction 18th-century dry goods for sale such as clothing, kitchen wares, musket parts, tools and more.
Any new details on event activities will be published on the Fort Ontario Facebook page.
For information about the event or the Fort, contact Paul Lear at 315-343-4711 or [email protected].
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees more than 250 parks, historic sites, recreational trails, golf courses, boat launches and more, which are visited by 78 million people annually. For more information on any of these recreation areas, visit www.parks.ny.gov, download the free NY State Parks Explorer mobile app or call 518-474-0456. Also connect on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
