JOHNSTOWN — There are two sides to every story, the old adage goes, and Gavin Watt will provide the Loyalists’ side Saturday during a special 250th anniversary dinner at the Holiday Inn.

Watt, of King City, Ontario, is coming into town Friday and will be the keynote speaker at Saturday’s dinner sponsored by the Johnstown Historical Society. It’s one of many events scheduled as part of the city’s landmark birthday this year.

Watt, a re-enactor and founder of the Royal Yorkers, is no stranger to Johnstown.

“He’s been here many times,” City Historian and Historical Society officer Noel Levee said.

“He founded the re-enactors’ group, the Royal Yorkers. He and his boys have ravaged Johnstown many times,” Levee added with a laugh.

The Royal Yorkers, short for the Kings’ Royal Regiment of New York, was Sir John Johnson’s regiment. The city’s named for Sir John, the son of Sir William Johnson.

The Royal Yorkers and other Loyalist bands, such as Butler’s Rangers, wreaked considerable havoc in the Mohawk Valley during their raids and are generally reviled by American historians.

“Sir John and Walter Butler are seen as vicious criminals in the U.S. But they’re heros in Canada,” he said.

Watt, who is also an author, pointed to the different legacies of the father and son.

“In American history [Sir John] is a much-maligned figure. Sir William is not. He died before the Revolution. So, the fact is that he was a hard-core Tory and would have sided with the crown had he been alive, which is conveniently ignored,” Watt said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

Watt pointed out that English-speaking Canada was formed by the significant number of Loyalists and their families who fled north of the border when war broke out.

He characterized the Revolution as American’s first civil war and pointed to different legacies of the opposition in the Revolution and the Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy.

Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Union soldiers, he noted.

“Yet in American history they’re recognized as men of honor and men who were competent in their jobs militarily,” he said, in contrast to Butler and Sir John.

“I want Americans to see them as competent individuals and competent military leaders. They just had a different idea of what was right and what was wrong. They stayed with the established government,” Watt said.

“It really doesn’t seem to have much standing in American history,” he said of their attributes. Their reputation “just isn’t deserved,” he added.

Watt said while Sir William was an excellent trader, land-grabber and diplomat, his military skills left something to be desired.

His famous victory at Lake George during the French and Indian War, which earned him his baronetcy, was attributable more to mistakes made by the French general than Sir William’s battlefield expertise, Watt said.

“He lucked into that win,” he said. “Sir John was the other way. He was competent militarily and the raids that he led in the Mohawk Valley were extremely successful.”

Sir John also had serious roles in the Canadian provincial government, Watt said.

Watt, 71, graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Toronto and worked in sales and marketing in the packaging industry for years. Growing up, he said, he always had a “burning interest” in military history, which translated well into his hobbies and side work as a researcher, author and re-enactor.

He said he’s looking forward to telling his side of the story Saturday night.

“They’re going to get a different perspective,” he said with a chuckle.