BALTIMORE COUNTY — Militiamen will gather at Fort Howard this weekend to reenact one of the most pivotal battles in American history during the annual Defenders Day event.
The free event on Saturday and Sunday recreates the Battle of North Point, a major milestone in defending Baltimore from the British during the War of 1812.
"We're gonna have the British force and the American forces opposing each other, you're gonna see live musket fire, live rifle fire," Gordon Leary said.
Leary serves as first sergeant with Asquith's Sharpshooters, one of the reenactment groups participating in the event.
"We have a cannon or two that will be here as well, so we'll hear some loud reenactments, and it'll give you an experience of what maybe the battle might have been like back in 1814," Leary said.
The Battle of North Point was the pivotal land battle that preceded the bombardment at Fort McHenry. The reason British forces bombarded Fort McHenry was because the land battle was so intense they needed naval support to get past the fort's defenses and support land troops attempting to conquer Baltimore.
The U.S. victory in defending Baltimore helped shape the remainder of the war and the country's future.
"If the U.S. would have lost that particular war, we wouldn't be the country where we are today. We'd probably be a British colony again and this battle here in North Point, we were losing the war up to that point and the battle in North Point in Baltimore really helped cement the fact that we were forced to be reckoned with and they didn't want to basically mess with the United States at that point," Leary said.
Defenders Day runs from 10 a.m. to closing both Saturday and Sunday at Fort Howard. The event is organized by volunteers and free for all attendees.
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