(Well, after we get done with this bit of infighting:)
Tuesday, December 24, 2002
BY TOM HESTER
Star-Ledger Staff
There has not been this much trouble about crossing the Delaware River since ... well, since George Washington and his ragamuffin army did it on Christmas night back in 1776.
Amid a bone-numbing sleet storm, Washington used large flat-bottomed boats to move his men, 18 cannons, ammunition wagons and more than 50 horses across a river that was at flood stage and choked with ice floes. The army then marched nine miles in the snow to surprise and defeat the Hessians in the Battle of Trenton.
Back then, there was no question who was in charge -- and it's doubtful Gen. Washington would have put up with any bickering over who got to cross with him in the lead boat.
But now, as volunteers prepare for the 50th annual reenactment of the Christmas Day crossing tomorrow, some of them are fuming about a turf battle with Pennsylvania park officials over who controls the event and who rides in which boat.
The Washington Crossing Reenactors Society, the organization that has run the event since the 1960s, is feuding with Michael Bertheaud, who was named administrator of Washington Crossing State Park on the Pennsylvania side two years ago. Bertheaud decided to take back control of the crossing, which begins in his park and relies on state-owned replicas of the 18-foot-long flatboats to carry the reenactors.
Pennsylvania park officials say Bertheaud is not permitted to comment on the dispute, but John Robinson, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, said the administrator wants to give other reenactors a chance to play greater roles in the crossing. "The first shall be last and the last shall be first this year," Robinson said.
Park officials also chose a member of another reenactment unit, James Gibson of Fallsington, Pa., to play Washington after he beat out two competitors at an audition Oct. 19. Gibson, who has been a reenactor for 10 years, will ride in the lead boat tomorrow and greet the public as Washington.
Bertheaud's changes upset members of the Washington Crossing Reenactors Society, many of whom have been participating for years. One member, Joseph F. Majdan, complained that "a man who's supposed to be part of an area where liberty was reborn is trying to snuff out the very principles and ideals that Washington crossed for."
The squabble went to court in Bucks County, Pa., last month as the society sought to regain control of the crossing. The judge ruled in Bertheaud's favor.
During the Nov. 25 hearing, Claudia Tesoro, a Pennsylvania senior deputy attorney general, said: "Even people within the (reenactors) organization ... have expressed dissatisfaction that the same people always get to ride in (Washington's) Boat No. 1, and that the same people always participate in this."
The society has called a Christmas cease-fire, and the show will go on. The thousands of people who make a tradition of viewing the reenactment from the Washington Crossing state parks in Hopewell Township and across the river in Pennsylvania will see the crossing occur between 1 and 2 p.m. About 150 reenactors from New Jersey and Pennsylvania are expected to participate. Three or four flatboats will be used.
"The society never said it would not participate," said Majdan. "The reenactors are a volunteer band of brothers who have been involved in this historical event for many, many years." Some of the society members are in their 70s.
The two sides are expected to meet again after the New Year at the urging of Brent D. Glass, executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
But as Richard Patterson, director of the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton, points out, park officials hold the upper hand: "They own the boats."
Patterson is quick to defend Bertheaud. "This is a tempest in a teapot," he said. "This is a small group in the Reenactors Society made up of guys who have crossed for years and years. They lost focus of the bigger picture and started to regard it as their event and their say-so. Boat positions became an issue."
"Eighty percent of the reenactors are fine with this," Patterson added, "and know Bertheaud is the ultimate person to present a safe and credible event for the public."