Revolutionary War re-enactors demonstrate musket skills. (Photo by Gianna Palmer)
Today marks the 234th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Washington, a decisive American loss in the Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, Inwood residents happily commemorated the event in Fort Tryon Park Sunday afternoon.
Visitors entering the park at Margaret Corbin Circle encountered deafening blasts from a live musket demonstration as men from two Revolutionary War re-enactment groups, stood shoulder to shoulder in full-on colonial garb. Though the guns contained no bullets, they produced convincing puffs of smoke when fired.
“We’re just here to show what they would have done,” said Sharon Morrison of the Second New York Regiment re-enactment group. Morrison, playing a camp follower in a long skirt, apron and bonnet, watched as her husband Alan, in the role of an army sergeant, barked orders to his musketeers. This re-enactment was one of the Morrisons’ favorites, she said.
Alan and Sharon Morrison have re-enacted Revolutionary War battles for a decade. (Photo by Gianna Palmer)
Another crowd formed around Bill Fitzgerald, a seventh generation blacksmith, as he heated iron rods to 1000 degrees and bent them into hooks, nails and fire pokers, pausing frequently to answer questions and banter with his audience.
Event co-director Steve Simon called Fitzgerald “the star of the show,” but Fitzgerald said he was just happy to share his decades of blacksmithing. “I love dealing with the public, I love dealing with kids,” he said.
Pointing to the safety rope around his work station, he joked, “That rope is to keep me in, not to keep them out.”
Nearby, actress and comedian Erin McGuirk, in a bright red cape, led historic tours every few minutes. She played Margaret Corbin, famous for taking charge of a cannon after her husband was killed during the Battle of Fort Washington.
McGuirk kept the mood light. Introducing herself to a tour group as Margaret Corbin, she added, “I know I look good for being dead.”
McGuirk, who has played Corbin for four years, said she loves learning more about her character. “I thought I knew the whole story but I keep learning more and more every year,” she said.
Michele Bergen, a Washington Heights resident on one of McGuirk’s tours, said she was enjoying her first time at the battle commemoration. “When you think of Revolutionary War re-enactments, you think Pennsylvania,” she said. “You don’t think Washington Heights,” she said.
Organizer Steve Simon understood Bergen’s point. “People don’t know the revolutionary war started in New York,” he said. Margaret Hopper, a fellow Parks Department employee, co-directs the event.
The day also featured a re-created Continental Army campsite and a talk by historian Barnet Schecter on the battle’s significance. Kids could learn to handle wooden guns and make tri-cornered paper hats.
Not everything about the event was historically accurate, however: Jerry Dixon, dressed as a 18th century Scottish soldier, wandered the park playing “Hava Nagila” on his bagpipes.
