When is an "accurate representation" not, I wonder:
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-3/12/00  Plattsburgh, NY  _Press-Republican_-

WINTER BATTLE, ENCORES TOGETHER

By LOHR McKINSTRY
 Staff Writer

TICONDEROGA — Nearly 300 18th-century reenactors
dressed as Rogers' Rangers and French troops charged at
each other on the golf course at Ticonderoga Country Club
Saturday with muskets blasting.

They were re-creating the 1758 Battle on Snowshoes, in which
the British-loyal Rogers' Rangers were ambushed and
decimated by French soldiers during the French and Indian
War.

The battle actually took place 242 years ago on the same
ground, about two miles south of Ticonderoga.

The re-creation of the event Saturday afternoon drew more than
100 spectators and was narrated by Town Historian Daniel
Blanchette and history enthusiast Keith Dolbeck.

"They're coming this way," Blanchette said over the public
address system as the battle raged back and forth on the links.
"There'll be a massacre."

"The French have fired a devastating barrage," Dolbeck said.

Rangers fell all over the links and the sound of musket fire
drowned out orders shouted by officers in the two reenactment
armies.

Warren Stevens of Shelton, Conn., portrayed Capt. Robert
Rogers, leader of the rangers, while Newcomb author Robert
Bearor was the French Commander Langy.

"We were looking at the same cliffs they looked at 240 years
ago," Bearor said after the battle.

"It was an interesting feeling. It felt real."

He led a column of about 50 French and Native American
reenactors who marched the four miles from Carillon, now Fort
Ticonderoga, to join the others at the battlefield.

"I'm amazed at the number of reenactors who turned out,"
Bearor said.

"We had people here from California, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan, Illinois. The motels and restaurants were full
all weekend.

"We're thankful to the town of Ticonderoga for the tremendous
response and help. We couldn't have asked for better help."

The reenactment was filmed by an independent crew for The
History Channel and will be shown later this year.

The event has been held before as a small private reenactment
near Rogers' Rock south of Ticonderoga.

"It was done as war games in the woods," Bearor said.

"I don't think we'll do it on this scale again until 2008. That's the
250th anniversary of the Battle on Snowshoes."

In the original battle, Rogers' Rangers were on patrol in the area
when their ice-creeper marks were discovered on Lake George
by Indians loyal to the French.

An ambush was set for the rangers along a bend on Trout
Brook, the stream that runs behind what is now the Country
Club.

When the ranger force of 180 men saw a small French patrol
they chased it around a bend in the creek and found 300 French
soldiers waiting.

In the devastating battle that followed, about 150 rangers were
killed or captured and the rest fled south toward Hague,
eventually working their way back to their home base at Fort
Edward, 50 miles south.

"This was an accurate representation of what happened back
then," said Bearor, the author of the book, "The Battle on
Snowshoes."

"Almost everything happened as it occurred in March of 1758."

The major differences were that the battle was fought on three
feet of snow then and only about an inch on Saturday, and Trout
Brook was frozen, allowing the French to use it as an attack
route.

Blanchette said it was one of the best reenactments he has ever
seen.

"It was excellent," he said. "Was this fantastic or what?"

        Lohr McKinstry can be reached by e-mail:
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