DEERFIELD — Travel through time back to 1775 next month and experience the early days of America’s Revolution at Historic Deerfield’s Patriot’s Day Revolutionary Muster.
The annual event, scheduled this year on Saturday, April 14, features re-enactments of period crafts and activities, open hearth cooking, horse-drawn wagon rides, fife and drum music, cannon and musket firing and an assemblage of troops dressed for battle. Along with activities, all of Historic Deerfield’s restored houses will be open for guided tours.
“The Revolution played out in different ways all across our state as people responded to the news of what happened on April 19, 1775, in Lexington and Concord,” said Laurie Nivison, director of marketing at Historic Deerfield. “This event will give visitors the opportunity to gain a richer sense of what life was like in early America during this period.”
The opening “Reveille” in a colonial encampment will begin the day’s events at 10:30 a.m.
Later, there will be a procession, accompanied by the fifes and drums, to the town Liberty Pole, a reading of an official “muster” and the re-enactment of a messenger returning to town with news of the Revolutionary War. Throughout the day, ongoing demonstrations include silversmithing, gunsmithing, camp cooking, sewing uniforms and children’s toys and games.
Music will be performed by The Nathan Hale Ancient Fifes & Drums, of Coventry, Conn., according to Nivison. The group has performed at a number of historic sites including Old Sturbridge Village, Heritage Plantations, Van Cortland Manor and Valley Forge.
Coinciding with outdoor events, an exhibition of 75 powder horns from the French and Indian War and American Revolution will be on display in Historic Deerfield’s Flynt Center of Early American Life.
The Muster will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Admission is $18 for adults over 18 years old, $5 for youth. Children under 6 years old, Deerfield residents and Historic Deerfield members are free. Family-friendly food will be available for purchase.
For more information, including a detailed schedule of the day’s activities, which will be available a few days prior to the event, visit: historic-deerfield.org or call 413-775-7214.
You can reach Andy Castillo
at: acastillo@recorder.com
on Twitter: @AndyCCastillo
or 413-772-0261, ext. 263