Somers Reenactor a Participant in Old Sturbridge Village Event

Every year, visitors and military reenactors, including Eleanor Labine, an honorary Somers resident, converge on Old Sturbridge Village for the annual Redcoats & Rebels event – the largest such military reenactment in New England.

This year, the event will take place on Aug. 4 and Aug. 5, and the highlights of each day are the realistic mock battles and skirmishes fought between the Colonial and British troops and their allies. Visitors can also see cannon and musket demonstrations, marching and drilling, fife and drum music, and they can see what life was really like for the soldiers in camp. 

Labine has participated in the past and says that she has the fondest memories of visiting Old Sturbridge Village as a child, so now it’s a special thrill when she gets to ‘turn out’ as a Colonial reenactor and support the important historic preservation efforts. 

“Their big empty fields are a great place to hold mock-battles, and even though I know it’s all make-believe, I still get a shiver of fear when long columns of Redcoats come marching past on the many winding roads, bayonets glistening in the morning sun,” she said.

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Labine, who spent many summers in Somers with her grandparents, is currently in the works of restoring and purchasing the home from her father. She said that touring the many old houses at OSV has given her ideas for the further restoration of the 1795 home.

With her interest in colonial clothing, much of which she hand-sews herself, she also makes sure every time she is at OSV, she visits the water-powered carding mill, where wool fleeces are combed smooth in preparation for spinning.

“By contrast, we have so much more fabric, so much more readily available these days,” she said.  

While Labine cannot attend Redcoats & Rebels this year, she is already making plans to attend next summer with her Redcoat unit, the 35th Regiment of Foot.

“I feel really bad about it, because it’s always a lot of fun, and I always try to make events that benefit historic sites,” she said. “I guess I feel modernism is consuming the natural world around us at an alarming rate, so it’s important to preserve the past, if only to remind ourselves of how far we’ve come, and to appreciate the ‘necessities’ that once would have been considered amazing luxuries.”

Labine said that her interest in genealogy led to her into reenacting as yet another way of preserving the history all around us and passing it on to the next generation. 

“I have a many times great-grandmother who was buried in the old Somers West Cemetery in 1729,” she said. “Her carpenter son helped build the first fort in what is now Vermont, and he later died of injuries incurred on a winter scout against Native American war parties. So while I sometimes find it difficult to reenact and go for an entire weekend without electricity or running water, especially when it’s really hot or really cold, doing so gives me a lot of gratitude for what our soldiers suffered, then and now, year in, year out.”

Since Old Sturbridge Village offers a free return visit within 10 days, visitors can attend both days of the event for the price of one. Redcoats & Rebels admission also includes free parking and extended evening hours on Aug. 5, when the Village stays open until 8 p.m. for the popular “Twilight Encampment,” a chance for visitors to mingle with and talk to the soldiers around their campfires. 

The Continental victory in the Revolutionary War was due in large part to the help of the Colonial allies. Two units participating in Redcoats & Rebels this year portray French troops who helped the Americans win: Regiment Bourbonnais and Regiment de Sainte Onge. Both can be identified by their distinctive white uniforms.

“With hundreds of people in authentic uniforms and costumes bustling about among our historic homes and buildings, the Village really comes alive during this weekend,” Jim O’Brien, coordinator of special events at Old Sturbridge Village, said in a statement. “And with 200 acres, no street lights and no traffic noise or other modern distractions, the Village is the perfect setting for a large reenactment like this.”

Old Sturbridge Village celebrates New England life in the 1830s and is one of the largest living history museums in the country. The museum is open daily 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. seven days a week. OSV offers free parking and a free return visit within 10 days. Admission: $24; seniors $22; children 3-17, $8; children 2 and under, free. Woo Card subscribers get $5 off adult daytime admission; college Woo cardholders receive $12 off adult daytime admission. For times and details of all OSV activities visit www.osv.org or call 1-800-SEE-1830.

Redcoats & Rebels at Old Sturbridge Village

Connecticut                                                 Commander from     Loyalty

Ninth Regiment of Foot

Coventry

British

Nathan Hale Fife and Drum

Coventry

Colonial

Lebanon Towne Milita

Dayville

Colonial

Sixth Connecticut Regiment

Hamden

Colonial

Great Quinnehtukqut Company of Artificers and Traders

Meriden

Colonial

Butler’s Rangers

Monroe

British

Peter’s Corps

Stafford Springs

British

Fifth Connecticut Regiment

Tolland

Colonial