FORT PLAIN — When Revolutionary War Col. Abraham Wemple arrived at Fort Plain on Aug. 2, 1780, he saw heavy smoke between the fort and another four miles away.

A new exhibit at the Fort Plain Museum honors the Mohawk Valley's contribution to the Revolutionary War.
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He ordered the two regiments under his command to assemble and attack a group of Native Americans and loyalists who were burning homes and churches and driving off cattle.

In a journal entry he wrote later in the day, Wemple described the horror he witnessed.

“We found the fort full of sorrowful women and children for their husbands and friends who were missing. ... Such a scene as we beheld since we left the [Mohawk] river, passing dead bodies of men and children most cruelly murdered, is not possible to describe,” Wemple wrote.

It’s been 228 years since the tiny fort in western Montgomery County, and the community that surrounded it, was attacked.

But aside from some farming on the land, little has changed on the hill off today’s Route 5S that provides a commanding view of the Mohawk River and an ideal spot to set up a refuge colonist farmers could run to during the tumultuous period.

Next weekend, caretakers at the Fort Plain Museum plan to re-create the scenery and environment on the hill that served as a guardian of the Mohawk Valley and a launching point for several battles.

Fort Plain’s importance during the war is evinced by the July 31, 1783, visit of Gen. George Washington, who historians say sought to witness for himself the destruction in the Mohawk Valley — a visit the museum will re-create on Saturday and Sunday.

Stepping back into history

The museum’s board of directors secured the services of Dean Malissa, the widely known George Washington re-enactor who is the only person allowed to portray the founding father at his home in Mount Vernon.

“We want to offer the public a unique opportunity to learn more about our history and where it happened,” said Richard Brown, chairman of the Fort Plain Museum Board of Trustees.

Malissa as Washington will be accompanied by the Second Continental Light Dragoons, the first calvary unit Washington created, which conducted the first official cavalry charge near the Old Stone Fort in Schoharie.

Calvary maneuvers and tactics, programs on Washington’s history and battle re-creations are all part of plans for what museum leaders describe as their biggest production of the annual celebration called “Holding Down the Fort.”

It was women and children who held down the fort on that day in 1780, said Norm Bollen, vice chairman of the museum board.

Bollen said that as the story passed down through history goes, the bulk of militia members and soldiers left Fort Plain upon hearing that Fort Stanwix, near Rome, was cut off — they were to “pull everybody out to escort supplies to Fort Stanwix,” Bollen said.

As was standard in the day, Bollen said there were only 14 soldiers left to guard Fort Plain, which filled with Colonial women, children and the infirm seeking protection at the time marauding loyalists started burning down around 100 buildings,

In the absence of a large contingent of soldiers, the women and children themselves took up the role, Bollen said.

“All the women put on the men’s uniforms. If nothing else, this gave the enemy enough of a pause,” Bollen said.

Wemple and two regiments showed up in time to find the settlements on fire.

“Near the river burnt their church, Abeel’s house and its neighborhood and upwards, where they got sight of us and retreated,” Wemple wrote in his journal.

In all, more than 50 men, women and children were captured that day and forced to carry the items loyalists were stealing from homes before they burned them down, Bollen said.

After the August raids, military leaders established Fort Plain as a base for Middle Mohawk Valley, according to the museum.

Colonel Marinus Willett was appointed commander of the Mohawk Valley American troops in 1781 and made Fort Plain his headquarters.

FORTIFIED NEIGHBORHOOD

At the height of British loyalist incursions in the Mohawk Valley, Fort Plain stood at the epicenter of a network of fortified homes and other forts.

After years of research, the Fort Plain Museum has devised a series of displays to give guests a sense of just how many other forts and fortified homes surrounded the area.

On the top of the hill, Bollen established several signs, each with a compass point showing the locations of 21 different fortified homes in addition to details on where major battles, such as the Cherry Valley Massacre and the battle of Cobleskill, took place.

The establishments near Fort Plain to the northwest included Fort Windecker, Fort Willett, Fort Walrath, Fort Dieffendorf, Fort Timmerman and Fort House. To the north were Fort Nellis, Fort Klock and Fort Hess, according to the displays.

About 100 re-enactors are scheduled to attend the event in period uniforms. They’ll stand in line as Washington inspects the ranks, said Rich Casler, a member of the First Tryon Militia, which re-enacts the work of the Mohawk Valley militia.

Despite some farming that took place on the hill in more recent years, there are several features of the landscape that haven’t changed in 225 years, including several trenches dug to the rear of where the fort is believed to have stood.

“There’s a series of rolling redoubts in the back of the fort. If you stand behind them, you can very visibly see them,” Casler said.

“They tend to get a little bigger as you get closer to the fort; it’s a series of lines they had to protect the fort. They’re just basically earth works or earth redoubts that did protect the back of the fort,” Casler said.

The front of the fort required little protection, Casler said, because it stood on the edge of the massive hill that leads to today’s Route 5S and then the Mohawk River.

Casler, who traces his roots back to family members who bled on the same grounds, said it’s difficult to describe the feeling he gets when he stands on the hill picturing what it was like more than two centuries ago.

“Some of my relatives served in the Revolutionary War and some of them were actually stationed in Fort Plain, so for me, it’s a legacy of sorts,” Casler said.

“It’s almost as if I’m paying tribute to my relatives. You’re standing on the same ground that they did back then, paying tribute to them. For me, it’s just a feeling I really almost can’t describe; you’re stepping back into time doing what they did 225 years ago,” Casler said.

weekend of events

The weekend’s activities will start off with a 6 p.m. reception Friday, Aug. 1, at the historic Isaac Paris House adjacent to 105 Mohawk St. in the village of Fort Plain.

Colonial attire or modern dress is acceptable.

The historic home, rarely opened to the public, was built in 1786. It houses a variety of antiques and will be the subject of tours led by the Fort Plain Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the Revolution.

Tickets for the Friday night cocktail reception are $10 for those in Colonial dress and $12 for those wearing modern clothing in advance. At the door, tickets will be $12 and $15.

On Saturday, a four-course dinner of Colonial foods will be served at the Van Alstyne Homestead at 40 Moyer St. in Canajoharie. Limited seating is available, and a cash bar cocktail hour, to benefit the Van Alstyne Society, will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are $35 for those in Colonial dress or $40 for those in modern clothing in advance and $40 and $45 at the door. Proceeds benefit the Fort Plain Museum, which operates on funds donated by the public.

Tickets can be purchased at Melissa’s in Canajoharie, from the NBT Bank Fort Plain branch or at the Fort Plain Museum.

The Fort Plain Museum is located at 389 Canal St., Route 5S, three miles west of Thruway Exit 29 at Canajoharie.

More information about historic Fort Plain and the weekend’s activities can be found at www.fortplainmuseum.com.