The hills of Chemung County rang with the echoes of musket shots and cannon fire Sunday afternoon, as they do right around this time every year.
The occasion, of course, was the annual reenactment of the Battle of Newtown, which occurred 229 years ago during the Revolutionary War.
According to the history books, Newtown wasn’t much of a battle. Nearly 3,500 rebel militiamen took on approximately 1,000 British soldiers and their Iroquois allies, with predictable results given that sort of uneven matchup - total defeat for the Redcoats.
Mitch Lee of Big Moose Lake, New York, a reenactor with the First New York Regiment, explained that the battle at Newtown was part of the Clinton-Sullivan campaign to wipe out Native Americans throughout the north.
“For three years wherever they went Sullivan’s men burned Indian villages to the ground,” Lee said. “The colonists were terrified of the Iroquois. They didn’t want to live in constant fear of being attacked by ‘savages.’”
Michael Grenier of Rochester, national commander of the British Brigade, explained how it was possible for the militias to conquer the Redcoats at Newtown in under an hour.
“(General John) Butler (commander of the British forces) knew they were outnumbered and they only way they had a chance was to stage an ambush,” Grenier said. “So they set one up. Rebel scouts found out about it, though, and went back and told General Sullivan where they were. So when the actual battle arrived Sullivan sent a little squad out to fight where they knew the British line was, while the rest of the troops came around the sides and flanked them. Then all they had to do was push the Redcoats out, and it was pretty much over.”
In addition to superior numbers, the Revolutionaries also had another advantage: cannons. The British had no such firepower.

With the battle being over in about half an hour there was still plenty for visitors to do throughout the day yesterday. In the morning were an 18th century fashion show and Indian village demonstrations. Prior to the reenactment a mock military drill for children was held, allowing the young ones to experience what it might have been like to prepare to do battle with a musket.
Following the reenactment visitors were able to tour the soldiers’ camps and take in demonstrations of other period crafts.
Pat Malachowsky, playing the wife of a militiaman, sat outside a tent and invited passersby to see where a Revolutionary soldier might have slept. A space anyone today might consider barely big enough for one person generally held six men “stacked like a cord of firewood,” she said.
Malachowsky also provided a little glimpse into the role of women in the war.
“There were two kinds of women who went on these campaigns,” she said. “There were the soldiers’ wives, who did the cooking and such, and there were some, ah, less reputable women who met the single men’s needs.”
Though not quite as colorful, some of the other displays turned out to be equally eye-catching, including blacksmith Bob Clark, who was forging wrought iron instruments using an 18th century anvil and hammer. Tourists could also see furriers cutting pelts, Native Americans making bone jewelry, and women in period dress cooking potato soup (which anyone could sample for $1) in a kettle over an open flame.
Dominic Diioria of the Fifth Pennsylvania Regiment summed up the spirit of the day the best.
“We’re a bunch of historic romantics trying to keep alive the memory of our forefathers who gave us our freedom,” he said.
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Amanda Baird may be contacted at amandabaird@morning-times.com.