Fort Frederick
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Posted on 05/21/2006 5:35:05 PM PDT by Pharmboy
BIG POOL -- Eric Roethlisberger sat in the green outside Captain Wort's Sutler Shop. The sky above him was blue, the air was cool -- quite pleasant for a man whose feet were locked in the wooden stocks used to punish men and women who have broken the law.
The former high school government teacher hadn't committed a crime. The "punishment" was all in the name of history and fun as Mr. Roethlisberger and his 4-year-old son, Ben, became part of the living history Market Fair at Fort Frederick State Park, a stone fort built in the 18th century during the French and Indian War.
The Roethlisbergers attend French and Indian War living history events and rendezvous around the region. "I like the historical part -- the guns and armament of the 18th century," said Mr. Roethlisberger, of Newport, Va.
He portrays a land speculator from Ohio, dressed in pants, a shirt and a vest made of linen and wool. He made the outfit he was wearing, noting he learned to hand-sew linen and wool at a workshop in Williamsburg, Va.
His son was nattily clad, too, and wore a black patch over one eye. "He goes by Capt. Jack Sparrow," said his father, referring to the character portrayed by Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean." Ben mischievously lifted and dropped the board that kept his father's feet in bondage.
Market Fair is an annual event at the fort, organized by the Friends of Fort Frederick State Park Inc.
"They are people who live around here," said Lt. Angie Hummer, manager of the Fort Frederick complex, which also includes the Western Maryland Rail Trail and Woodmont Lodge in Hancock. Camping is also available at Fort Frederick.
"The fair represents the period from about 1730 to 1790," said Ms. Hummer. That was when the fort, built in 1756, was in its heyday. Sutlers set up tents and sell their wares of 18th-century replicas of firearms, millinery, forge work, household goods and other trappings of the day. There's also living history interpreters, demonstrations and live entertainment during the fair.
"Interpreters are seasonal staff," said Ms. Hummer. They work at the fort from Memorial Day through Labor Day and talk about the fort's history from the perspective of the character they portray. The fort is a bit unusual in that it was built of stone. "All forts at that time period were made of wood," said Ms. Hummer.
The fort was built, under orders from Maryland Gov. Horatio Sharpe, to protect English settlers in the frontier area from French and Indian raiding parties and to serve as a base for supplies for attacking the French. Alas, the fort saw little battle action.
"It took over a year to build it," said Ms. Hummer. "The war was kind of over and it saw no actual French and Indian War skirmishes. After it was finished, the civilians used it as protection from Indians.
"During the Revolutionary War, it was used for soldiers and prisoners (Hessian and British soldiers). During the Civil War they used it to house (Union) soldiers," said Ms. Hummer. There was minor action at the fort, just a "little skirmish on Christmas Day in 1861." Union officers thought Confederate troops would cross the Potomac River at Fort Frederick. A hole large enough to fire a cannon through was punched through the fort's wall overlooking the river, but the crossing never occurred.
Nathan Williams, a freed black man, came to own the fort and surrounding acreage in the 1790s. The 1st Maryland Infantry garrisoned the fort in 1861 and officers occupied the farm house. After that war, the owner, a descendent of Williams, dismantled a large portion of the fort's northwest wall to construct a barn. Animal pens, grapevines, fruit trees and a vegetable garden were tended inside the fort's remaining walls.
By the late 1890s, a movement was under way for the state to preserve the fort. "In 1922, the state purchased it and part of the (Civilian Conservation Corps) rebuilt it," said Ms. Hummer. It was the second state park to be named. Patapsco State Park was the first.
Earlier this year, Fort Frederick acquired more than $2 million from the state to reconstruct the Governor's House inside the fort. The ground-breaking for this project will take place at the fort's 250th anniversary weekend, May 26-28.
"Basically, it was a building like the two barracks were, but nicer because it was for the officers," said Ms. Hummer. Construction is expected begin sometime next year.
A soldier's life
Inside the fort is an open grassy lawn between two facing barracks, reconstructed by the CCC. The first floors are furnished to give visitors a glimpse of what a French and Indian soldier or militia man's life would have been like at the fort. During encampments, such as Market Fair, re-enactors and living history interpreters sleep in the barracks on short, wide bunks that would have slept two men back in the day. As one interpreter explained, "they were shorter than people are today." However, instead of the wood platforms of these bunks, the beds would have had rope foundations and straw mattresses.
A second-floor exhibit tells about the history of the fort and what life was like for the people -- military and civilian -- who lived here, on the edge of civilization.
"This would have been impenetrable," said Frank Walizer of Laurel, representing a soldier with the Maryland Forces, "paid for by the governor."
"There would have been no trees, because it was a wood-using society. You could see the Potomac. The idea was to have this fort as a supply point. Gov. Sharpe came here, too," said Mr. Walizer, dressed in the long red coat and tricorn hat of a Maryland Forces' soldier.
Gary Harding, of Hagerstown, portrayed a man of the Maryland Militia. His garb included a long brown vest over a linen shirt and a brimmed hat. A haversack was slung over one shoulder. It would have held the necessaries of the day, such as a trail mix of berries and nuts, fruit or bread and cheese for nourishment when the day's marching orders would take a soldier out of the fort and away from the daily cooked meals. Each company was authorized to hire four women to serve as cooks, laundresses and housekeepers. The women were often the wives of soldiers.
"All of my ancestors, on both sides, were (in Maryland) before 1800," said Mr. Harding, an avid genealogist. While doing research, he discovered the fort was looking for costumed interpreters and decided to have a go at it.
"The fire (in the fireplace) went year-round, everyday," said Mr. Harding of life in the fort for the military forces. "The government had agents that purchased provisions," including barrels of pork, beef and mutton for stew, and corn and wheat to make crackers.
Pewter was too expensive and forks were "for rich folks," according to Mr. Harding, so most of the men ate from a wooden bowl with a wooden spoon. "An officer might have a tin cup," he said.
Mr. Harding led groups of schoolchildren on tours of the barracks. He pulled out a tinderbox to show a group from Trinity School of Frederick how to start the spark of a fire with a piece of steel and flint, "if I was careless and let the fire go out," he told them.
While the Trinity School kids carried clipboards in search of answers to questions they were assigned, a few young boys, dressed as settlers and Indians, raced around the green re-enacting mock skirmishes.
Outside the fort, kids from the Frederick Torch homeschooling group surrounded re-enactor Joseph Evans. He explained how his "Brown Bess" works, a 1762 model flintlock.
"(The war) has been classified as the first world war. To the British, it was called the Seven Years War," said Mr. Evans, who is a staff sergeant in the U.S. Marines. As a re-enactor, he visits schools and talks about the French and Indian War.
Back among the sutler tents, author and musician Christian Wig was kicked back playing fiddle tunes of the period. He wrote a historical novel on Christopher Gist, the first colonial explorer of the Ohio Territory in 1750 and is credited with saving George Washington's life.
"The governor of Virginia wanted to send someone to the French and tell them to get off British territory. George Washington was sent and Gist was his guide. He saved his life two times," said Mr. Wig, who was dressed in buckskin and sported a full beard. The book is called "Annosanah," the name given to Gist by the Wyandot Indians in Central Ohio. According to the author, the name was given to Gist after he preached an impromptu sermon to the Indians. "I've decided it means 'speaker of true words,'" said Mr. Wig.
He played "Devil in the Woodpile" on his fiddle, then pulled out his gourd banjo with a thumb string, made with goat skin and gut strings. Mr. Wig, a jewelry maker by trade, has recorded two CDs featuring music of the period.
250th anniversary
Fort Frederick is said to be the only remaining original Colonial British-built French and Indian War stone fort in the country. The park service and the Friends of Fort Frederick will celebrate the fort's 250th anniversary on May 26-28 with living history encampments, programs, period music, artillery demonstrations, fireworks and a special anniversary cancellation stamp. A complete schedule can be viewed at www.marylandmemories.org/fortfrederick/index.html.
In addition, the visitor store has a variety of items with the anniversary logo, including coffee mugs, shot glasses, stainless steel travel mugs, embroidered and silk-screened apparel and plates. The Friends group is selling two "My Home Town" wooden replicas of the fort and the barracks.
The fort was named in honor of Maryland's Lord Proprietor Frederick Calvert, Sixth Lord Baltimore.
Anniversary weekend hours are Friday, 6-9 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free for this event.
For more information, call 301-842-2155.
Fort Frederick
Pinging the SHORT LIST...Freepmail me to get ON or OFF either or both the Short List or the Long List (short list gets pinged to stories about local events).
That's way more than the fortified buildings most frontier villages had where everybody would go when attacked.
Yep--big advantage to stone: it does not burn.
Thanks for the ping.
Nice to see that school kids are taking trips to the fort. I still remember my 6th grade trip to Valley Forge.
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