“Redcoats and Rebels” Returns to Sturbridge, 1-2 August

This weekend, 1-2 August, Old Sturbridge Village hosts what’s become the largest military reenactment in New England, its annual “Redcoats and Rebels” event.

Though the village normally portrays the 1830s, on this weekend its fields become a pair of military camps during the War for Independence. Nearly a thousand reenactors portray troops from America, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Spain, as well as civilians accompanying them.

Daytime events on the schedule include:

• Tours of the Crown and American camps
• Drilling and inspection of the troops
• Mock battles and skirmishes
• “School of the Soldier” training demonstrations
• Musket drilling with kids
• Cannon demonstrations, not with kids
• Martial music
• 18th-century Fashions in the Press featuring military and civilian clothing
• Camp laundry
• Scouting technique demonstrations 
• Battlefield hospital, with smallpox inoculations and treatment of the wounded
• Soldiers’ daily life, including delivery of uniforms, pay calls, and prisoner exchanges
• 18th-century baseball
• “Service for the Troops”
• 18th-century dances
• Interactive miniature war gaming

On Saturday evening, the village will stay open three extra hours until 8:00 P.M. so visitors can walk through the camps at twilight. These hours will also include a reading of the letters of John and Abigail Adams at 6:00 and an artillery barrage, presumably not at 6:00.

Old Sturbridge recommends visitors buy tickets online ahead of time because this is one of the site’s most popular events.