Think we live in troubled times? Political disunity? Join Fort Ticonderoga on December 15, 2018 for the signature living history event “RIOT! Yankees vs. Buckskins.” Throughout the day, visitors will participate in engaging presentations, weapons demonstrations, historic trades, and living history vignettes. Watch the disunity between officers unfold during an intense riot that plagued the American army in 1776.
A special pop-up exhibit on display December 15 ONLY will present one of the garrison’s original orderly books. “These official documents which buried the details of the altercation and the riot between Pennsylvanians and Massachusetts soldiers has been known only circumstantially through two diaries and memoirs,” said Beth L. Hill, Fort Ticonderoga President and CEO. “The recent re-discovery of first-hand accounts, disregarded for over a century, help shed a new light on this surprising event. These sources will be used to recreate the procedures of Christmas day and explore the complex history of America’s remarkable struggle for Independence.”
Fort Ticonderoga Museum Curator Matthew Keagle recently discovered NEW evidence about this moment of American disunity. Sitting under noses of generations of historians is an event that shatters popular notions of the Revolutionary War. On Christmas day 1776, an altercation unfolded at Ticonderoga that resulted in American blood being shed by other Americans.
“Late on Christmas Day 1776, Pennsylvania soldiers attacked the camp of a Massachusetts Regiment and assaulted the regiment’s almost 60-year-old colonel, ransacked their quarters, and fired at the Massachusetts men,” said Curator Matthew Keagle. “The violent assault was the explosion of grievances over issues of class, race, and military professionalism that divided soldiers from the “south” with those from New England, and were exacerbated by alcohol and boredom in garrison at Ticonderoga. While engaged in the same cause, the Independence of the United States, deep divisions existed between the ranks of the Revolutionary army. Fortunately, in this circumstance, the participants were able to resolve their differences for the benefit of the cause. This was not the first, nor would it be the last altercation across state lines, but it reflects how remarkable the achievement of Independence was, in the face of profound diversity between Americans.”