YOUNGSTOWN N.Y. — Grown men played war Friday at Old Fort Niagara. With 30-foot sailing ships anchored in the river, cannon blasts shook the ground and some 2,500 volunteers refought one of the key battles of the French and Indian War.
Bill Snow, 60, said he did it for history. “You’re representing an actual time and an actual place,” said Snow, who commanded four French cannons Friday as British ships attacked one of his country’s schooners. “You don’t get this stuff [easily] out of books.” More than 4,000 people descended on Fort Niagara Friday to watch the re-creation of the Battle of Fort Niagara — a skirmish that was a turning point in the prequel to the American Revolution that tipped the scales in the British favor.
Friday’s re-enactment was part of a weekend-long event commemorating the battle’s 250th anniversary. “Nations risked lives and treasure for this spot,” said Kathryn Vedder, director of development for the site. “We like to say, ‘If not for this battle, we’d be speaking French.’ ”
French pioneers built the citadel on Lake Ontario in 1726 as a turnpike of sorts for the Great Lakes. In effect, whoever controlled Fort Niagara controlled all shipping into the early American heartland, Vedder said. The idea of Friday’s re-enactment was to create a living history of the period and perhaps to escape from the modern world, said David Reed, 61, who came to Fort Niagara from Elma for the weekend. “No cell phones, no newspapers, no TV, no radio,” Reed said. “It’s not like trying to keep up with the Joneses.”
Re-enactors Friday made bread by hand in front of their tents and drank water from tin mugs. Organizers were planning to conduct church services this morning, with Catholics in the Frenchheld base and Protestants in the British camp. Some of the participants became so wrapped up in their parts that it became hard to distinguish fantasy from reality. Jay Levenson, 42, spoke in present tense about the battle (which was to be fought on a soccer field) and discussed the role of the Mohicans in colonial society and the plight of America’s first settlers. “A lot that’s taught about Native Americans in public schools is incorrect,” said Levenson, who was dressed in war paint and feathers, referring, briefly, to the 21st Century. “We weren’t all running around scalping people. . . . We were doing this for survival.”
For others, attendance at the event meant nothing more than a chance to be outdoors. More than a thousand people gathered around a field outside the fort to watch a pitched battle between French and British infantry. The skirmish seemed like a cross between a performance and a fireworks display; volunteers fired mounds of gunpowder from muskets and cannons, and some even played dead, usually after their muskets broke or a commander tapped them on the shoulder. “Very well performed,” said Elaine Mahoney, 62, who had driven from Tucson, Ariz. “The costumes and the history — [the participants are] so eager.”
After the British forces took Fort Niagara, the site changed hands between England and the fledgling United States several times until after the War of 1812.
The U.S. Army used the base for training through World War II. Since then, it’s been used solely as an attraction for tourists and re-enactors. But, as Snow pointed out, a cannon blast will always be a cannon blast. “The concussion, the powder, the sound,” Snow said. “You get a rush out of it.” The French surrender at 3 p.m. Sunday.
By Danny Yadron
NEWS STAFF REPORTER, The Buffalo News
12# French Cannon Shot Saturday, July 4th.
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