Living History Day
Lighthouse Point, Ogdensburg
May 18, 2013
Living History Day is the culmination of a year-long project between Heuvelton Central School, Madrid-Waddington Central School and Ogdensburg City Schools. Seventh graders from Massena/Waddington and Ogdensburg were involved, as well as fourth and seventh students from Heuvelton. Students studied the French and Indian War throughout the year and completed projects with a focus on the role Fort de la Présentation played in this conflict.
In warm spring weather, 18th-century re-enactors and heritage interpreters demonstrate open-hearth cooking, life in the navy and army, colonial clothing, colonial lighting, timsmithing, and other traditional activities. Throughout the day, more than 300 students will see, touch and tast some of what was everyday life for their ancestors. They experience the life and color of America’s history that happened in their own backyard.
Deadline Extended
Deadline Extended
The Fort La Présentation Association offers a varied fare from a wide geography for those interested in the War of 1812. From the Midwest to the Atlantic Coast, militia, regulars, religion and women, Native allies, the navy and privateers barely define the seminars offered by our eight American and Canadian speakers.
For information contact us at 1-315-394-1749 or email fort1749@yahoo.com.
All activities at the Freight House Restaurant, 20 Market Street, Ogdensburg.
Friday Meet and Greet 7:00 pm. Participants can sign-in and collect their registration package that evening.
SCHEDULE SATURDAY 27 APRIL
7:30am –8:45am REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST 8:45am-9:00am WELCOMING REMARKS: Fred Hanss, MC; Debbie Stack, WCNY; & Barbara O’Keefe, President, Fort La Présentation Association 9:00am -9:45am Chauncey’s Impact on Western Operations, Sandy Antal
The American assaults on Forts York and George in the spring of 1813 significantly altered the strategic situation in the Lake Ontario region. Less known is their crucial impact on British operations on the Detroit River frontier. Sandy Antal will demonstrate these actions not only demolished Governor Prevost’s planned offensive in that quarter, but left the British severely handicapped at the culminating engagements at Put-in Bay and on the Thames. These American victories left the Western District of Upper Canada occupied territory until mid-1815.
9:45am -10:30am Ohio and the War of 1812 in the West, James T. Brenner
Mission creep, the war of words, the Surge, Boots on the Ground, civil-military relations, contractor support to the military, and stability operations are all distinctly contemporary terms, but their meanings are as applicable to 1813 as they are to 2013. To understand the War of 1812 in Ohio suggests that 200 years is long enough to show how many aspects of military history have remained constant. Tactics, weapons, allies, and national policies have changed the conduct of war, but the human factor has changed little. And it’s the personal insights gleaned from the vices, the virtues, the pettiness, the professionalism, and the leadership of the participants that provide the timeless and enduring narrative of the war in the west.
10:30am-10:45am BREAK 10:45am-11:30am The Battle of Stoney Creek
One spring morning in 1813 the largest American amphibious force to date – 6,000 troops and 140 vessels – stormed ashore near the mouth of the Niagara River, quickly routed the British garrison and captured Fort George. The textbook operation, the second consecutive American victory, promised events in 1813 would redress the military calamities of 1812. The badly mauled British army, reeled westward, short of provisions and ammunition, its leadership uncertain where, or how, the retreat would end. American forces were poised to deliver the body blow the War Hawks had dreamed of when they predicted a four-week war to subdue the upper province. Ten days later, near the hamlet of Stoney Creek, the promise of triumph was smashed in a terrifying night action; a single bayonet charge carried the American artillery and decapitated the invading army. Stoney Creek, one of the most decisive reversals of fortune in the war, in no small measure determined the fate of what would become Ontario.
11:30am-12:15pm The War of 1812 and the Rise of the U.S. Navy: Developing the Book, David Taylor
12:15pm-1:15pm
BUFFET LUNCH 1:15pm-2:00pm Privateers, Prizes and Profits from the Port of New York, 1812-1814, Dr. Faye Kert
The state of New York did not initially support the American declaration of war in June 1812. Eleven of the 14 New Yorkers in the House of Representatives voted against the motion. However, the merchants and ship owners of the port of New York realized there was money to be made. With profit their goal, privately owned and armed vessels known as privateers patriotically served the war effort. Armed with a letter of marque, privateers brought their prizes to an allied port to be adjudicated as "good and lawful prize" before they could sell the ships and cargoes. The profits were divided among the owners, officers and crew according to a pre-arranged agreement. From June 1812 to March 1815, more than 100 private armed vessels sailed out of New York. Privateers, such as the Prince de Neufchatel, Saratoga, Scourge and Snap Dragon earned a tidy fortune. The success and failure of New York’s privateers during the War of 1812 ranged from valiant combat to ignominious capture and from international incident to spectacular explosion.
2:00pm -2:45pm Women in the War of 1812, Susan Spencer
What was it like to be a woman during the War of 1812? What would life have been like? This presentation examines some of the many roles and experiences of women during that war, placing them in the greater context of life for females during the Regency period, and considering the effects of the massive social and political upheavals of the period upon them. From officers' wives to laundresses, from high society to the underbelly of society — these women's stories and experiences are vastly different, and all deserve to be told.
2:45pm-3:00pm BREAK 3:00pm-3:45pm Religion and the War of 1812, Dr. Ray Hobbs
Upper Canada before the war was a society resembling an ancient dynastic monarchy – agriculture, trade, political power, bureaucracy and military in the hands of a landowning élite. Religion played an important role in daily life, at all levels. Assumptions of religious (and political) loyalty did not always match reality. The Province was a patchwork of religious affiliations – Methodist, Mennonite, Tunkers, Society of Friends, Presbyterian and Anglican geographically sandwiched between large Roman Catholic populations. Laws and customs designed to support the Anglican "establishment" had little effect in a territory where the great majorities were Dissenters or Roman Catholic. Tension existed, and as war approached the wish to control the religious loyalties of the majority population was vocal. Within this mixture the majority of Anglican and non-Anglican inhabitants took up arms to defend their homes and families. What first appeared as potentially disruptive
3:45pm-4:30pm John Norton and the Grand River Iroquois/Haudenosaunee Experience in 1812, Dr. Carl Benn
The First Nations in British North America experienced the conditions and challenges War of 1812 differently from those within the United States . Carl Benn will explore these particularities and complexities in relation to the war as they affected one of the larger and more diverse indigenous communities in Upper Canada, that of the Iroquois/Haudenosaunee who lived north of Lake Erie along the Grand River. Part of the presentation will focus on John Norton or Teyoninhokarawen, an important Mohawk leader who authored one of the best memoirs of the war by any of the conflict’s combatants and whose writings offer modern readers a particularly insightful assessment of the indigenous world from the period.
2:00pm -2:45pm Women in the War of 1812, Susan Spencer
What was it like to be a woman during the War of 1812? What would life have been like? This presentation examines some of the many roles and experiences of women during that war, placing them in the greater context of life for females during the Regency period, and considering the effects of the massive social and political upheavals of the period upon them. From officers' wives to laundresses, from high society to the underbelly of society — these women's stories and experiences are vastly different, and all deserve to be told.
2:00pm-2:45pm
Women in the War of 1812, Susan Spencer
What was it like to be a woman during the War of 1812? What would life have been like? This presentation examines some of the many roles and experiences of women during that war, placing them in the greater context of life for females during the Regency period, and considering the effects of the massive social and political upheavals of the period upon them. From officers' wives to laundresses, from high society to the underbelly of society — these women's stories and experiences are vastly different, and all deserve to be told.
2:45pm-3:00pm BREAK 3:00pm-3:45pm Religion and the War of 1812, Dr. Ray Hobbs
3:45pm-4:30pm John Norton and the Grand River Iroquois/Haudenosaunee Experience in 1812, Dr. Carl Benn
The First Nations in British North America experienced the conditions and challenges War of 1812 differently from those within the United States . Carl Benn will explore these particularities and complexities in relation to the war as they affected one of the larger and more diverse indigenous communities in Upper Canada, that of the Iroquois/Haudenosaunee who lived north of Lake Erie along the Grand River. Part of the presentation will focus on John Norton or Teyoninhokarawen, an important Mohawk leader who authored one of the best memoirs of the war by any of the conflict’s combatants and whose writings offer modern readers a particularly insightful assessment of the indigenous world from the period.
2:00pm -2:45pm Women in the War of 1812, Susan Spencer
What was it like to be a woman during the War of 1812? What would life have been like? This presentation examines some of the many roles and experiences of women during that war, placing them in the greater context of life for females during the Regency period, and considering the effects of the massive social and political upheavals of the period upon them. From officers' wives to laundresses, from high society to the underbelly of society — these women's stories and experiences are vastly different, and all deserve to be told.
2:45pm-3:00pm BREAK
3:00pm-3:45pm
Religion and the War of 1812, Dr. Ray Hobbs
Upper Canada before the war was a society resembling an ancient dynastic monarchy – agriculture, trade, political power, bureaucracy and military in the hands of a landowning élite. Religion played an important role in daily life, at all levels. Assumptions of religious (and political) loyalty did not always match reality. The Province was a patchwork of religious affiliations – Methodist, Mennonite, Tunkers, Society of Friends, Presbyterian and Anglican geographically sandwiched between large Roman Catholic populations. Laws and customs designed to support the Anglican "establishment" had little effect in a territory where the great majorities were Dissenters or Roman Catholic. Tension existed, and as war approached the wish to control the religious loyalties of the majority population was vocal. Within this mixture the majority of Anglican and non-Anglican inhabitants took up arms to defend their homes and families. What first appeared as potentially disruptive forces were praised for ability to act as unifying forces in trying times.