OGDENSBURG, New York (WWNY) – A flashback to the Battle of Ogdensburg in the War of 1812.
On the grounds- The British and the Americans.
Each year, Lighthouse Point serves as a battlefield for this reenactment.
It was here the British, with Canadian help, pushed the Americans out of Ogdensburg.
“Reading books is nothing like actually reliving it and seeing how it is actually done,” said Kirke Perry, an American rifleman in the reenactment.
Perry is a blacksmith for the St. Lawrence Power Equipment Museum.
He says he couldn’t help but be part of the action this year.
“You don’t really get a true idea of what’s going on until you see what they went through, unless you actually relive it,” said Perry.
During the battle, historians say Americans were heavily outnumbered but stood their ground until they were forced out of their position.
From across the St. Lawrence River, a Canadian woman has been coming down for nearly a decade to play her part.
“It just makes that much of an impact, to be out here with the public, talking to them, they can hear it, the can see it, they can smell it,” said Jacquie Durham, playing Captain of the Redcoats Militia.
Durham doesn’t play a female role in the battle, but she says many women during the War of 1812, did go to war.
“They hid in the bodies of other people, in personas of other people in order to be in the Army, because that’s where they needed to be for their country,” said Durham.
Keeping history alive in what was and still is our own backyard.
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