HUDSON – The sound of gunfire echoed outside of the American Heritage Museum.
People gathered this past weekend for a re-enactment of the Battle of Bunker Hill.
“It’s living history events like this, the Battle of Bunker Hill, that will really draw people into the history of Boston 247 years ago,” said Director of Marketing Hunter Chaney.
As Chaney described it, one of the primary programs that the American Heritage Museum and Collings Foundation operates is the management of living history events.
While the museum regularly has living history events, this marks their first reenactment from the Revolutionary War.
“In all cases, what we really strive to do with these events is not only bring people a better sense of appreciation and understanding of that particular history that’s being represented, but we want to excite people,” Chaney said. “We want to engage them to the point of wanting to learn more.”
Fought back in 1775, Chaney noted that Boston was in siege. The Colonialists had this surprise fortification on Breed’s Hill. Chaney said the British saw it and were “quite shocked of this happening in the middle of the night.”
“This battle ensued that was really a very important battle on both the British and Colonial side,” Chaney said. “The British really had won that battle to great cost. Thousands of British soldiers had died in the skirmish, and it really set the precedent for future battles for our fight for independence.”
The museum laid out an area to represent the battle chronologically.
Featuring about 300 reenactors split between the Colonialists and British, it included the bombardment of the fortification on Breed’s Hill, the landing of troops on the Charlestown peninsula, company flank attacks on the Boston shore and multiple assaults up Breed’s Hill.
“The re-enactment itself will be quite visually stunning,” Chaney said.
Additionally, the event featured encampments and a presentation from the park rangers at the Bunker Hill Monument and Museum and the Dr. Joseph Warren Foundation, who was the first American killed during the battle.
Other events on the horizon
The museum hosts living history events on a monthly basis.
In August, there will be a tank demonstration weekend on Aug. 13-14. In September, there will be a World War I aviation presentation on Sept. 17 and 18. In October, there will be the Battle for the Airfield World War II reenactment on Oct. 8 and 9.
For more information, visit https://www.americanheritagemuseum.org/
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