Fort Ticonderoga 2016 Reenactment

The reason we picked this particular weekend for this trip is because it allowed us to attend this year's AWI reenactment at Fort Ticonderoga. The fort is a privately run site, funded by contributions, memberships and a modest park entrance fee for visitors. Although the French and Indian war and AWI fort would have been primarily earth works, the current depiction of the re-built fort represents a later time, possibly of partially questionable historical accuracy. Still the placement of all of the structures remains as it was in the AWI and the stone barracks at the time were stone and have been accurately restored.  The fort's exhibits are extensive and include a climate controlled portion underground that allows for more delicate artifacts to be displayed. 

The mountain shown below is Mt. Defiance, which the British used to compromise the fort with artillery fire during the fort's capture.

Outside the fort the reenactors cook meals in an earthen multi-port field oven. Shown in modern clothing is Charlie, fellow conspirator and chef, discussing the oven with the period cooks.

Reviewing the troops inside the fort.

The diagram on the wall in the museum showing the number of cannons installed in the fort by year.  Also photographs of fellow conspirators enjoying the museum's displays.

As the British reenactors described them using period French terms, Les Savage. The native American loyalist scouts. They're a terrifying sight in camp and particularly in the woods! Also with them some British rangers.

Two British 3 pounder light guns. Used in the reenactment even these 'small' guns projected a fearful report even without shot loaded in them.









The British regulars line up in parade formations and prepare to march into the reenactment area in the woods.

The reenactment's first skirmish starts. Our vantage point started within the American lines, but as they were pressed, the British eventually passed by our location providing excellent views of both armies. In addition to these photographs, I've also uploaded six short videos of the action to my YouTube channel. I was using my still camera, so I apologize for the poor audio quality.

The regulars are coming!

The second phase of the reenactment happens closer to the fort, near the Carrilon battlefield area. This was a much more heavily sloped area with poor sight lines for photography, although I did get a couple of nice shots of the American battle line, which was quite impressive considering the number of reenactors available. This was approximately 40 men. Imagine a battalion of 500! Note the smoke from just a couple of volleys from 40 muskets.

Neilson House - Saratoga Battlefield

The Neilson house is the lone original building remaining on the Saratoga battlefield. According to our guide, there was also another house on the battlefield at the time of the battlefield that was similarly constructed. The plaque says this is a replica, so possibly the other one is the original. Either way, this is as accurate as you can get for a Saratoga house. This small house was the home for 11 people during the period before the battle.

According to our guide, the front porch was most likely a post-battle addition, probably done by the park service for the comfort of visitors to provide some cover during rain. The interior of the house is currently furnished as it might have been during the battle - as Benedict Arnold's headquarters. I took ample photographs of this building in hopes of making one for myself using my laser engraver.

Saratoga National Park Visit

The second day of our trip was to Saratoga National Park. For those who haven't visited this park I would highly recommend it. The park is well preserved and encompasses the area for both battles (Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights) as well as the entire American Camp at the top of Bemis heights as well as a majority of the British non-combat areas.

We hired a private tour guide, Jim who was excellent. Jim's knowledge of the battlefield was vast, including being up to date on current interpretations from various sources and authors. Jim wore an authentic Canadian Coureur de Bois reenactor's uniform to add to the ambiance of the day. Jim had experience playing boardgame wargames and tailored some of his explanations to our hobby for us which was fantastic.

My only regret is that I took very few good photos of the battlefield terrain itself. For more photos, you can see the photos from my previous visit to the battlefield here. Amazingly enough, our guide Jim was also at the battlefield that day as my previous photos show. This was a fantastic day, even bearing to mind the oppressive 95-degree heat.

Bennington Battlefield Visit

Last week, six of my fellow Northern Conspirators and I took a four day road trip to visit the nearby AWI battlefields of Bennington, Saratoga and Hubbardton as well as to attend the 2016 reenactments at Fort Ticonderoga. Since I took a ton of photos, and some video at the Fort Ti reenactment, I will be breaking the trip up into multiple posts. This first one will cover the first stop on our tour, the Bennington battlefield. The Bennington battlefield is preserved by the State of Vermont. It is the battlefield that we collectively knew the least about, despite having gamed it several times. The primary feature is the hilltop location of the German fortifications. The height of this and the slope of the surrounding terrain is impressive. It's not quite as rocky or difficult to climb as the front face of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, but the rise and run of the elevation are both greater when compared to the more well known feature. 

At the top of the hill there are a couple of plaques which give a general layout of the battle as well as a highly detailed cast (bronze?) relief map of the battlefield area showing the layout of the hills and valleys.  This was a quick stop at the end of our half-day drive from the seacoast of NH to Bennington, which is on the western border of Vermont.