Exclusive | The Battle of Brooklyn is back! Rev War re-enactors swarm NYC streets for 250th anniversary: My musket is the joy of my life
Once more into the breeches.New Yorkers need not be alarmed by the sight of squadrons of Redcoats pouring out of the subway at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza on Saturday morning — this isn’t the second coming of the Revolutionary War, and the British aren’t back.
No, these period costume-flaunting fighters are merely here to party — like it’s 1776.The occasion? The 250th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn — known as the largest skirmish by troop deployment during our nascent nation’s struggle for independence.These raring-to-go re-enactors aren’t professionals, either — they’re doctors, accountants, and other working stiffs “who happen to have an ardent love of history,” said Kim Maier, an organizer of the event, which will kick off in Prospect Park at 10 a.m.
and continue until the British win (the fight, not the war), around 12.For the first large-scale reenactment of the battle since 2001, roughly 400 soldiers will assemble on Long Meadow, joined by thousands of spectators.The action will then proceed down Third Street, through Park Slope, to the Old Stone House — where the real conflict culminated on Aug.
27, 1776, explained Maier, executive director of that historic site just off of busy Fourth Avenue.The first military conflict after the Declaration of Independence, the Battle of Brooklyn saw 20,000 British troops and Hessian Mercenaries rout roughly 10,000 continental soldiers led by George Washington — who ultimately led his army across the East River, avoiding total destruction.“This is literally the Empire strikes back,” home team re-enactor Justin Costantino told the Post of the legendary skirmish.“They send the entire British army to invade and conquer the city of New York, capture and kill George Washington and put this silly little notion of the United States of America at last to rest.”He added, “It’s also the closest the country ever came to not existing.”Costantino is an adjutant of the Long Islan...