Revolutionary War Battles & Encampment At Putnam State Park

REDDING — The sounds of musket fire and drums will mix with the smell of campfires and stew cooking in iron kettles at Putnam Memorial State Park, on Saturday and Sunday, June 2 and 3, when redcoats and rebels set up camp to reenact portions of the American Revolution.

Reenactors portraying Revolutionary War American and British soldiers will bring history to life for park visitors from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and then from 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday. The event is called “The Raid on Redding Ridge.” Battle reenactments will be staged at 3 pm on Saturday and at 2 pm on Sunday.

The park entrance is at the junction of routes 58 and 107 in Redding. A donation of $3 per adult is requested. For additional information contact Jeanine Herman at 203-938-3171 or Robert Doscher at 746-6332.

History buffs portraying the soldiers will set up their camps as the patriots did on the site 223 years ago, when General Israel Putnam’s army of some 2,500 men endured the winter of 1778-79 in log huts. Accompanying the soldiers will be their wives and children, known back in the days of Putnam as “campfollowers.” Also present will be craftsmen demonstrating Colonial-era trades.

The reenactors and craftsmen will set up their tents, camp kitchens, and workbenches along “fireback row,” where Putnam’s troops established a line of log huts. All that remains of these huts are the remnants of “firebacks,” or chimneys.

The reenactors will also help visitors to step back in time during what is being billed as “living history” weekend. The reenactors will be dressed in period clothing and put on demonstrations of military drills and maneuvering, gunsmithing, tinsmithing, musket ball making, cooking, craftsmanship and day-to-day activities of the armies that fought in the American Revolution. Although no battles took place during the encampment of 1778-79, the reenactors will stage a battle reenactment marking the 224th anniversary of the British raid on Danbury.

A fashion show will showcase clothing and equipment of the period. Archaeologists will lead visitors on a tour of park sites that are the subject of recent archaeological investigations, including one excavated last year that uncovered a field officer’s quarters during the Revolutionary War encampment.

Activities for children, coordinated by the Children of the American Revolution, will also be part of the day’s activities. Souvenirs for both children and adults will be available. Girl Scouts also will sell food and beverages to park visitors.

The park was one of three camp sites in Redding used by 2,500 American soldiers and dozens of artificers and other support personnel during the Revolutionary War.  Under the overall command of Putnam, the soldiers were guarding the extreme eastern flank of Gen George Washington’s main American army in New Jersey.

At the Redding encampments, the soldiers were within easy striking distance of both the Hudson River and Connecticut coast, where British attacks were feared. A year before the encampment in 1777, the British marched through the park on their way to destroy American military supplies in Danbury.