♪ Hey, everybody.

I'm Felicia Curry, and welcome to "WETA Arts," the place to discover what's going on in the creative and performing arts in and around D.C.

As the United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, historic sites like battlefield parks and preserved landmarks are marking events that helped shape our nation's founding.

No combat operations occurred in our immediate region.

The nearest was 120 miles south of D.C.

in Yorktown, Virginia, but once a year in nearby Mount Vernon, Virginia, George Washington's iconic estate offers visitors an immersive experience of sights, sounds, and stories of the Revolutionary War.

♪ Since the late war with France, we have had grievances with the mother country, grievances that have grown so great we can be silent no longer, grievances that have grown so great violence has exploded on our shores.

[Musket fire] [Men shouting] ♪ Curry: Mount Vernon, George Washington's former residence, is a sprawling estate on the banks of the Potomac... ♪ and this weekend, it becomes a battlefield.

Man: All right.

Yeah.

I'll be right back.

[Indistinct chatter] Can you hold this?

Yeah.

Man: I came from New Jersey, and it took me about 4 hours to get here.

I traveled from McCormick, South Carolina.

It took me 9 hours to get here.

Woman: Hi!

Man: Hello.

How are you?

Woman: Hi.

Welcome, welcome.

You have a minor in the car?

-Yes.

Yes.

-All right.

So he's going to sign that.

-All right.

-Thank you, thank you, and we'll see you.

You know where you're going?

-The Continental camp?

-Yes, sir.

All right.

So go ahead.

Guess what unit I'm in.

Woman: Oh... Woman two: Navy.

The Navy.

Well, yeah.

Technically, yeah.

They were part of the Navy.

This, I believe, will be the 10th year that I have been involved in helping to run the Revolutionary War reenactment event here at Mount Vernon.

It's very popular, especially with the British side.

I'm not sure I understand that, but I am a fan of George Washington, so maybe that has a little bit to do with it.

We are at the father of our country's estate.

♪ It is a lot of work.

It's a labor of love.

Man: Facing this way, guys.

There will probably be about 400 reenactors on site this weekend.

Thank you very much.

OK, thanks.

McGaughey: But this is one of my favorite places to go and organize and run an event.

♪ Curry: The reenactors occupy a 12-acre field divided into British and Continental camps.

[Indistinct chatter] We're gonna be up here.

Man: I brought my 15-year-old son Noah.

He was a drummer, and this time, he's gonna be a soldier, so it's his first time carrying the musket, so it's exciting for him.

I'll help you, and then I can put up mine.

Posey, voice-over: We love the 18th century history, and you get to fire the musket.

You get the camping aspect of it, the camaraderie.

I mean, it's like a second family.

Did you bring the cold stouts?

Oh, yeah.

We got some.

Because tavern night should be fun.

All right.

Yeah.

Posey, voice-over: Once all the vehicles and stuff are gone and all the modern stuff is hidden or put away, it transforms into the 18th century, and once you put that uniform on, you have a respect and appreciation of what they went through and how they lived.

Man: March.

[Drum plays] Man: We're trying to create a little spark that will remind the public they are in a long continuity of an extraordinary story, that they're part of a great experiment in self-governance started by George Washington, and they can still come here and experience it.

♪ Revolutionary War Weekend has become one of the busiest weekends of the year.

Man: My name is Doug Thomas.

I'm the official George Washington portrayer for Mount Vernon.

My dear friend, the Marquis de Lafayette, came over to pledge himself to the American cause.

I have had to do historical research for this, but I don't have a background in historical research.

My background is all in theater.

Enjoy Mount Vernon.

Good day.

Thomas, voice-over: First-person interpretation is you're interpreting the whole lifespan of a character, so even though I may be talking about that day in May of 1775... The truth is I never chopped down a cherry tree as a youth.

Thomas, voice-over: I may then get a question about the Bill of Rights or something like that that happens much later.

Woman: There we go, and I'll take it in official portraiture mode.

There we go.

Man: Thank you so much.

There's also such a thing as third-person interpretation.

That's where you go to the museum, and there's a docent.

You guys can go in here if you want.

It's a replica.

We made it to look like it once did.

Thomas: They also can answer questions about your tour or whatever.

Docent: You can sit on the furniture.

You can test the bed out.

Thomas: Reenacting centers mostly around an event.

Some of the soldiers out there, they are not a specific person from history.

They have taken histories from several different people and molded them into a fictional persona that is based on historical things.

Reenacting does something that first-person interpretation cannot.

You will never see several hundred first-person interpreters out on a field showing you what a battle looked like.

Shoulder your... firelocks.

[Drum beating] Curry: Joseph Stoltz taught military history at the United States Military Academy at West Point before moving to the D.C.

area to join the staff at Mount Vernon.

I stayed in the same time period, but since I was working at the time all week for George Washington, I decided on the weekends to moonlight for George III.

♪ Reenacting is the way to really understand soldiers that wrote the letters that I spend all week in the archives reading.

I am just a private in the 4th Company, Brigade of Guards of the British Army.

The Brigade of Guards was the ancestor unit to the same folks you see guarding places like Buckingham Palace today with the big fur hats on their heads.

So what I try and really focus on is disabusing people of the caricaturized notion of the British soldier as sort of an incompetent automaton, some sort of 18th-century version of the Empire from "Star Wars," where it's just these sort of despotically evil people, going around trying to persecute Americans every chance they get and just committing war crimes left and right.

This is the uniform of a private soldier of the 3rd Regiment of Guards, which is the Scots Guards.

They had a slight advantage, in that one of the senior officers and advisors to the regiment had fought in an earlier conflict of North America and provided some suggestions for ways to modify the sort of super fancy British uniform for North American wear, so we're actually wearing full gaitered trousers so that we're not catching our fancy socks in the woods.

As opposed to a lot of the soldiers that you'll see in the British Army that are wearing the tricorn 3-sided hat, the big advice was to just go ahead, let all that down so that you actually have more sun protection, more protection from the elements.

♪ Woman: So I've always loved kind of costumes and that kind of thing.

I saw that Mount Vernon was going to have this event, and I said, "Let's just go see what "this whole thing is about.

Let's go.

I think the boys will like it," and it was just magical.

Like, that seems like such a silly term, but watching my boys just light up, and I then started talking to some of the adults.

I said, "OK.

So tell me about what you're doing.

Like, how do you get into this?"

Posey: And I'll take one.

They are shareable.

Maddock, voice-over: I think I fell in love with the people almost first.

They were just always so welcoming.

It's a recipe from 1784.

Gingerbread, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves.

molasses.

Yeah.

There are none left for the visitors because we ate them all here.

I'm the president of the 1st Maryland Regiment.

There really was a 1st Maryland Regiment.

They were the old line that allowed Washington's army in 1776 to make a great escape.

The 1st Maryland basically saved the entire revolution.

I loved the ideas back then and got to kind of revisit that when I was in law school, these incredible Constitutional ideas and founding concepts.

Are you getting hungry or not yet?

My group in particular had not really had women in it, but there is a real push for excellence among camp followers, and I love seeing some of the lesser-told stories.

That does not negate the importance of the story of the soldier or the story of George Washington.

It adds to it.

There are other voices that are coming out and doing it with real professionalism and excellence.

♪ Man: I went back to graduate school for American History, and I got involved with the project to create and open the Museum of the American Revolution, where I work today.

I have a PhD in American history, but I think one of the most amazing things about American history, about public history, the practice of translating to the public, is that you don't need a certification to do it.

And it doesn't mean we should ignore scholarly standards or not hold ourselves to a rigorous pursuit of accuracy and truth and relevance, but it does mean that you can be a practicing public historian.

You can contribute to that really critical form of citizenship, practicing and thinking about and sharing our history.

Curry: There was no actual battle at Mount Vernon, but for these reenactors, the prep for tomorrow afternoon's skirmish is mighty real.

Tomorrow is the Battle of Fort Ox.

This is a Continental win.

It's gonna start out with a Rifle attachment being chased by our Lights.

The Rifles will sort of get chased up the middle of the field, and so you'll bring the second unit out.

Then we'll join up with the first.

At this point, you're gonna have your cannon in the open notches or the gate maybe at the end.

We're gonna stay off enough, wisely standing with British superiority in the field, thinking we can withstand it, and you're gonna bomb the hell out of us.

OK.

And then chasing us off to the field, coming back across to the middle, where we hightail it, and you all are gonna win at that point.

Jim will be going off when the Lights come out.

That will be the end.

Man: OK.

All right, guys.

West: Thanks, all.

See you on the field.

Do oxen stampede?

I don't think they do, do they?

Gnam: Today, we were just discussing the battle plan for tomorrow.

I think we're outnumbered by the British this weekend, which is a little unusual for the hobby, but very authentic for the war we're portraying.

We'll start drilling in the morning because, unlike the real soldiers 250 years ago, my soldiers were probably sitting at a computer today or yesterday and all week and the week before, so we'll be practicing safe handling of the muskets because these are real muskets so there'll be a lot for the public to see.

♪ Who'll be a soldier in the 1 NJV?

♪ Curry: As setup day winds down, the mission is clear.

Thousands of visitors are expected, and every participant will be ready to deliver.

Reenactors: ♪ ...in the 1 NJV?

♪ [Rooster crows] ♪ [Sizzling] ♪ [Yawns] Maddock: This morning, I got up, I woke up out of my tent 7:00.

Literally, the sun was just coming in.

Gorgeous light breeze.

It's a beautiful morning.

We've got schoolkids starting to show up, so this is almost like opening day of baseball.

It's the start of the party.

Man: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution.

Gnam: Take distance.

March!

To the right...face.

Gnam, voice-over: The first thing we had to do was put the army together.

We have officers, we have NCOs, noncommissioned officers, and then we have all these privates and recruits, so the morning was drill and sorting all of that out.

Man: Shoulder.

Gnam: Hup!

Gnam, voice-over: The things we were doing were things I knew we were gonna be doing during the battle-- marching, wheeling, and you probably heard me give the command to wheel because we have to keep the troops together.

They have to stay in that tight formation because that's how we win the battle.

Gnam: Insert.

Loane: If it starts as we plan it and it ends pretty much like we plan it, that's a victory.

[Indistinct chatter] Questions?

Boy: What was the youngest age that you could fight in the Revolutionary War?

You could join at 12 or 13.

Some of the officers were very young.

They carried what were called the colors, the ensigns, and they would be 13 or 14, long as they were large enough to carry the flag.

McGaughey: Everybody asks us why do we play British.

Well, somebody has to be the bad guy, right?

[Booing] McGaughey: Ha ha ha!

Girl: How long have you been doing this for?

How long-- how old are you guys?

Kids: 14.

Girl: 13.

Since before you guys.

Kids: Oh!

Girl: So, like, 20 years?

20 years.

Keep going.

I became involved in reenacting as a pre-teen.

I got involved through Fort Pitt Museum in Pittsburgh in the 1970s.

The history of Pittsburgh is the history of the French and Indian War.

♪ So having started out in a British unit Garrison Fort Pitt, it was an easy transition then to go once we jumped to American Revolutionary War period to stay British.

So the British Army at this time period fought in ranks of two.

They had fought a war here previously.

What was that war?

Do you know?

French and Indian War.

There was a young man that fought in that.

His name was... George Washington, right?

He wanted to join the British military.

We said, "No, thank you."

Maybe we would go back and rethink that one.

I don't know.

Ha ha ha!

McGaughey, voice-over: It's fun to meet the public at places like this and tell them stories that they may not otherwise know, so, you know, everybody knows red coats bad, blue coats good, but there's a lot more to the story than just that.

♪ On my upper body, I have what is called stays.

You can feel, you can touch.

We'll call them corsets in the next century.

I often love to talk to kids about, "well, why does my clothes not have buttons?"

Women during this time were having, on average, 8 to 10 babies, right, so my body is constantly changing, right, and that kind of gets, especially the girls, kind of like, "Hmm.

That's interesting."

Oh!

In our group, women can dress as soldiers and be a soldier.

That's not what I wanted.

I have 5 quills left, captain.

Maddock, voice-over: When I first started this hobby, I never envisioned that I would be on the field.

That being said, I went to an event a couple of years ago, and my friends suggested, "Why don't you come out on the field with us and just carry water?"

There are multiple accounts of different women going by the term Molly Pitcher.

Molly Pitcher is kind of an 18th-century version of Rosie the Riveter, and so I will carry water out onto the field.

It's good to have just a safety person out there making sure that they're OK, that they're hydrated, that they're not laying face-up in the sun.

[Whistle blows] What we would think of as sort of the modern hobby of reenacting really begins with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War... [Musket fire] [Indistinct chatter] and it gets an extra boost for the American Revolution with the Bicentennial in 1976.

Loane: The Bicentennial era was a lot different than this 250th anniversary era.

The country was a different place, the world was a different place, and everybody in America was excited about the Bicentennial.

McGaughey: I grew up during the Bicentennial.

I was a drummer.

As you might imagine, back in the Bicentennial, we were kind of like rock stars.

Everybody wanted the people in the funny uniforms with the fifes and drums portrayed in their local pageantry.

We were really in sort of the first wave of Revolutionary War reenactors.

We had to do a lot of research.

We were making our own uniforms.

We were going to historic sites, looking at original clothing.

There weren't a lot of suppliers for the things that we were using, whether it was clothing or cartridge boxes.

Luckily, there were reproduction muskets at the time, so we were able to purchase those.

Loane: The attention to detail and to authenticity is light years above what it was in 1976.

Here we go.

Man: 3.

[Camera shutter clicks] Thank you, guys.

Posey: I did Civil War reenacting since 1996, and then about 2016, I came as a spectator here to Mount Vernon, and then I really loved what I saw.

I loved learning about the Patriot history.

I didn't know a whole lot about it.

♪ Through this hobby and through the Sons of American Revolution, I found out I have a Patriot ancestor, Captain Belain Posey.

He was in the Maryland militia under General Smallwood.

He's my sixth great-grandfather.

That lit my passion for that and my son, as well.

Noah: For as long as I can remember, when I was, like, 5, my dad was involved.

My mom would take me to see his events.

That inspired me, and I asked him if I could come to one, and I did, then eventually he bought me just civilian attire, and I'd just tag along.

Then eventually, I was old enough to go on the field as a drummer, which was very fun.

My dad walked in my room, and he asked me if I want to be a soldier for Mount Vernon.

I said, "Absolutely."

Poise your firelock.

Actually, you have the wrong hands, son.

Switch hands.

There you go.

Posey: Take aim.

Fire!

[Click] I've gotten to know him a lot better, and especially, like, during the rides, we talk a lot, so it's like a father-son bonding time, which is nice.

Posey: How you feel?

Getting more confident about it, or... Noah: Yeah.

Posey: OK.

All right.

Gnam: Forward... march!

Loane: The main thing that all of us are interested in is safety.

All the officers watch their men, make sure their muskets are firing.

If anybody has a misfire, we want to be sure that they don't put another load on top of that and fire a double load and create problems.

[Drums playing] Even if the army could have fixed bayonets, they're big, long, steel, pointy things that can really hurt people, so we try to keep all that under control.

[Birds chirping] ♪ PA Announcer: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to George Washington's Mount Vernon.

The tactical demonstration will begin in just a few seconds on the 12-acre field.

We ask you to please stay behind the rope for safety's sake.

♪ Take aim!

Fire!

George Washington, voice-over: The British lines advance, and our countrymen greet them with a spirited fire.

Man: Fire!

♪ All feel the thunder of the artillery.

Man: Fire!

♪ Smoke obscures our sight.

You actually get an experience of what the smells would be, right, that smell of sweaty, wet leather, the smell of that wet wool on the uniform, that visceral smell of the gunpowder hanging in the air.

George Washington, voice-over: There's many a moment of desperation, victory, or death.

[Musket fire] ♪ Today, our brave boys have held the field with the British in retreat.

[Cheering and applause] 3 cheers for George Washington.

-Hip, hip.

-Huzzah!

-Hip, hip.

-Huzzah!

-Hip, hip!

-Huzzah!

Gnam: Dismissed!

♪ Stoltz: We like to win, right?

There's a little bit of, you know, honor at stake, that we like the idea of winning when we can, but, you know, we're at George Washington's Mount Vernon.

They're not really gonna let the Brits win too often.

We played our part and died for King and Country.

♪ Look, look.

Look.

We'll trade.

There we go.

Now give me that hat.

Boy: I didn't really see the Americans because I was, like, way over there.

Yep.

You were the good guys marching forward, right?

The British?

No, the Americans were the good guys.

Well, it depends on your perspective.

Woman: Some of our students who are very involved and very excited about history, like, had little tears in their eyes... Yeah.

and it makes me emotional.

It makes me excited.

We tell the kids that history is a story, and being a part of this, being able to be here on this weekend, it makes them a part of the story, and that's fun.

That's powerful for them.

You guys can go in here if you want, George Washington's tent.

A team of craftspeople, including me, sewed the tent, made the furniture, created all the ropes so that we could have this life-size replica.

You guys can walk straight through if you want.

It goes--there's a door on the other side.

Putnam, voice-over: I get to meet every sort of person.

I mean, age, race, background, country they're from, political orientation, and I get to figure out how to make the revolution relevant and interesting to them.

I like to tell people that I'm not really in the business of teaching people about the American Revolution.

I'm teaching people to care about the American Revolution... Inside of the tent, see how dry it is?

because if you aren't interested in these events, it doesn't matter what order the battles happened in or who the people were.

Now, this is a really heavy gun.

You want to feel the weight?

There may be one kid in that group that you inspire to go on and do some great thing in their life because they heard something George Washington said or they got excited about people here who were doing crafts.

That's something that some child may get excited to work with their hands, so that's, I think, vital.

Man: This is called a frizzen cover, and it's another safety device.

Stoltz: I think the way we commemorate the past in that particular moment often says more about who we are in the present, than necessarily at times what happened in the past.

Forward!

[Drum playing] I'm very happy to be participating at this time and age at the 250th anniversary, where the hobby is opening up and getting a lot more interest in so many more different peoples, myself included.

Obviously, when I tell my dad I'm doing this kind of thing, he's like, "What are you doing?

Why are you doing this?"

But it's really important to learn our country's history from the ground up and experience it for myself, as well.

Stoltz: For many years, living history, for various reasons, many of which are bad, has been so identified as a white hobby, and the thing is, you look at something like the Continental Army.

By the end of the war, about 20% of the Continental Army were people of color.

I would love to see the hobby get to the point where more people feel they could be included in the hobby and help tell their story.

Curry: At this particular American Revolutionary War Weekend, Mount Vernon also commemorates the 250th anniversary of George Washington leaving Mount Vernon for Philadelphia, where the Second Continental Congress would appoint him commander in chief of the Continental Army.

This tree right over to my left here is the Independence Tulip Poplar tree, planted by George Washington to celebrate American independence in 1785.

It's been a witness to history, and so sometimes if we try hard enough, we might be able to bring back a sense of that 18th-century world and George Washington's leadership.

I'd like everybody to give a cheer for General George Washington.

[Cheering and applause] Reenactor: Present!

Thomas, as Washington: My friends, I apologize.

I must take my leave of you.

To be here at my farm, amongst all of you, under my own vine and fig is what I most greatly desire.

Mount Vernon means so much to me, but my duty to my country means more.

I am reminded of the words of Patrick Henry.

He said, "The distinctions between Virginians, "Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, "and New Englanders are no more.

"I am not a Virginian, but an American!"

I will go to Philadelphia for you, for myself, and for our country.

I would ask that you take these first few steps with me along this patriots' path.

Hip, hip!

Reenactors: Huzzah!

-Hip, hip!

-Huzzah!

-Hip, hip!

-Huzzah!

[Cheering and applause] [Drums and fifes playing] McGaughey: So here's, I think, the impressive thing.

Probably standing in front of you is about 150 years' worth of reenacting experience.

-Oh!

Yeah.

-I'm not kidding.

Loane: Yeah.

McGaughey: Yeah.

Gnam: Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's 50 years for me, and I think it's about the same-- Loane: 53 for me.

McGaughey: 51 for me, 52.

Yeah.

We've been doing this a long time.

Obviously, it's a passion besides a goofy hobby.

It is a passion.

We're gonna start a therapy group after this weekend.

Yeah.

Ha ha ha!

Yep.

How old are you?

-7.

-Ah!

Gnam: You can tell we enjoy it.

The magic number.

Would you like to do this?

It demonstrates the power of living history, how it can turn a public's attention to a site, how it can educate people.

Living history is a great resource.

Take care.

Halt.

Makes you appreciate where you came from.

They risked everything, risked their farms, their businesses.

They could have been killed over it, or if they were caught, charged with treason.

♪ Maddock: The idea of tyranny is something that we very deeply feel, right?

The idea of protesting.

Oh, my goodness!

We just had the 250th of the Boston Tea Party.

We are protesters at heart!

That's who we are, and that's not a bad thing.

Posey: It's good seeing you.

I guess we'll see you at Bunker Hill.

Yeah, it was good.

It was fun.

-All right.

-All right.

Take it easy.

-Safe travels.

-All right.

Maddock, voice-over: I have a wonderful instructor in law school, and he used to say "The Constitution is a muscle," and I would say the same thing for all of these ideas.

It's the idea of freedom, the idea of tyranny, the idea of power, the idea of government.

It's a muscle.

We have to push and pull and think about these ideas, because if we do not work with these ideas, it's the same as any other muscle.

It will lose its strength.

Putnam: You don't have to be the great-great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson to have the Declaration apply to you, so I think if we live in a country where our expectation is not about language or race or ethnicity, it's about values, you have to look for opportunities to find what unites us as a country, which is often our complicated, difficult, divisive history, and then figure out ways to make those stories accessible and available to our fellow citizens.

♪ Revolutionary War Weekend takes place in May, but George Washington's Mount Vernon is open year-round, including holidays.

In November and December, experience the estate by candlelight.

Visit mountvernon.org for details.

Thank you for watching "WETA Arts."

Be well, be creative, and enjoy the art all around you.

I'm Felicia Curry.

Woman: The cannons are cool.

They're just too loud.

They really hurt.

That's why I have to wear the hearing protection, whatever.

Maddock: Do you wish you could be even on the field with a drum?

-No.

-Ha ha ha!

Thomas: William Ball was George Washington's great-grandfather.

He is my great-great-great- great-great-great-great- great-great-great-grandfather, so George Washington and I are cousins.

I mean, it's kind of cool that I'm a part of the family, and I think it does help to inform what I do, whether consciously or unconsciously.

♪ Announcer: For more about the artists and institutions featured in this episode, go to weta.org/arts.