Lost in The Grants: Ethan Allen Day - Ethan Allen Homestead

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Ethan Allen Day - Ethan Allen Homestead

This past weekend, the girls and I attended our first “official” event of the 2019 season with Warner's Regiment. A few years ago, the State of Vermont declared June 23^rd to be “Ethan Allen Day.” For those not familiar with Allen, he's a bit of a folk hero in Vermont for fighting back against New Yorkers who were trying to claim New Hampshire land grants, and also for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in the days after the start of the American Revolution. His last home was in today's Burlington, Vermont, and the land has been turned into a small museum and education center.

The girls, harassing the museum exhibits.

Since I was headed to the event as one parent with four girls, we opted to drive up the morning of the event, rather than the night before. We did take our tent, so the girls would have a place to relax out of public view, as well as a base of operations for things like diaper changes.

3/4 of the crew, taking a break.

For this event, the focus was to be on Distaff and civilian activities, with the military playing a smaller part. As such, there were other groups there demonstrating spinning, wood carving, flax preparation and other things. The men, women and children of Warner's also demonstrated sewing, knitting, games, and more. Overall, it was a very casual and relaxed atmosphere.

Relaxing in the shade.

About mid-day, the soldiers from the Regiment demonstrated some close order and open order drill. There is a popular myth that all Revolutionary War battles were men lined up in long lines taking turns shooting at each other in open fields, but the War in the northern theater was a bit different. We demonstrated how men would have gone about moving through woods and broken terrain.

Your humble author, defending The Grants.

Later in the afteroon, a couple of the men taught some basic drill movements to members of the public, who were given wooden practice muskets to learn with. While this was happening, a group of our Distaff members learned basic black powder and musket safety and handling. This was led by a couple of our female members who usually portray soldiers, but for this event chose to take part as Distaff.

Engaging with the public.

By afternoon, my children had hit their energy limits, so I gathered them all up and headed back home. The next morning, they were all still tired, so I returned to the Homestead alone to take part in Sunday's activities, and to retrieve our tent and equipment.

Distaff weapons training.

Sunday started with a short religious service by our Regimental Chaplain. I'm not much of a church-goer, but I really enjoy hearing a sermon while sitting out on the grass, under the shade of a tree, with birds and a breeze as a backdrop.