250th Anniversary of the Forgotten War

The French-Indian war is the forgotten war. A time when Canada pretty much covered everything from Michilimacinac to St. Louis, larger than life characters like Cadillac (a fat grasping pig who alienated everybody!) and Pontiac (a war chief with a taste for the sauce) were carving out empires in the woods, and the First American Ranger's were created. A British Regiment of course! (I love the stories of the first commander, a charismatic leader called Colonel Rogers. His rules became the way the British fought in the Americas for the next 150 years! Example...Rule #1....Don't Forget Nothing! Hey, he was a soldier, not a grammar teacher! ) Picture is an AP Photo by Jim McKnight.

Remarkable characters like Washington, Arnold, and others learned to fight during that period of history....most of which, all though well known, is pretty much glossed over, or forgotten, and much of what is "Known fer sure" is actually myth. As much as I love history, I find that the French Indian Wars were very complex, and suffer from a great deal of bowlderiztion and politically motivated historical re-writing.


http://travel.canoe.ca/Travel/USA/NortheasternUSA/2006/05/12/1577075-ap.html

(quoted from the above web site...) "A series of events featuring 18th-century military encampments and battle re-enactments are scheduled at various state, national and local historic sites from western New York to the eastern Adirondacks through 2010.
And this spring and summer, events will take place at French and Indian War-era forts and other locations in Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Tennessee in addition to upstate New York. " "The visibility of anniversaries raises the public's awareness and brings people to the site," said Robert Emerson, executive director of Old Fort Niagara, a state historic site located where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario. "Once they get to the site, we can teach them history."
"During last year's Grand Encampment of the French and Indian War, an annual three-day event at Old Fort Niagara, a near-record 9,500 visitors passed through the gates", Emerson said."

That was the event I was too busy taking my buildings down to get to! I won't be too busy this year though!

" Another national historic site in upstate New York is Fort Johnson, where, in 1749, William Johnson and 250 Indians set out to fight the Battle of Lake George. A commemoration of the battle was held at Lake George last year; it was the first in a series of signature events marking the war's anniversary. Other major events will take place in Oswego this summer (Aug. 11-13), Lake George (2007), Fort Ticonderoga (2008), Old Fort Niagara (2009) and Ogdensburg (2010). "

I'm looking forward to the Ogdensburg event...its only, what, 45 minutes from my house! I presume it will be a re-enactment of the "Battle of the Windmill". Now THAT was a fiasco!

Yeah, I can take that...a summer booting all around Ontario and New York State going to weekend buckskinner events!