Fairhaven Village Militia

Fairhaven Village Militia Bernard. The group was organized in 1968 and incorporated in 1972. The Fourth Old Dartmouth Militia was active through the years of the U.S. During that time Mr.

The Fairhaven Village Militia is a group of historical reenactors including men, women and children who portray 18th Century life at Fort Phoenix in Fairhaven, MA, and in the surrounding area. Our History
About thirty years before the establishment of the Fairhaven Village Militia, an earlier group, the Fourth Old Dartmouth Militia had been started by Fairhaven Fire Chief and historian Donald R.

Bicentennial in the mid-1970s. Bernard staged some large scale reenactments of Nathaniel Pope's naval battle and the Raid of Bedford Harbor. Mr. Bernard also established a British reenacting group and a Civil War group. Following Mr. Bernard's death in 1993, historical activity at Fort Phoenix ceased for several years. In the spring of 1999 the Fairhaven Office of Tourism organized a group of volunteers to serve as historical guides at Fort Phoenix. The original group consisted of Steve Bano, Charles Cromwell, Diane Duprey, Natalie Hemingway, Sandy Main, Christopher Richard and Lori Richard. Bano dressed in Civil War era clothing when at the fort. Ms. Duprey remained in modern dress. The rest outfitted themselves in colonial era costume. Very shortly afterward, Francis Mathieu joined the group of guides. Members of the group were stationed at Fort Phoenix at regularly scheduled times in June, July and August. In August of 2000, Mr. Cromwell was granted permission by the Board of Selectmen to demonstrate firing his flintlock musket once per afternoon while on duty at Fort Phoenix. Frank Mathieu later received permission. Eventually musket firing was allowed whenever anyone was on duty at the fort without restriction. Musket firing demonstrations by Frank Mathieu were added to the Office of Tourism walking tours guided on Friday mornings by Chris Richard. In 2003 Chuck Cromwell, Frank Mathieu, Chris Richard and Ellsworth Sylvaria were licensed by the Fire Marshall's Office of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for cannon and mortar firing. Wayne Oliveira had previously held a license and had, with Earl Faunce, supervised the firing of the fort's cannons on the Fourth of July in earlier years. Also in 2003, the volunteer group organized as a independent organization, with the election of the original officers voted on March 28. The officers were Charles Cromwell, commander; Ellsworth Sylvaria Jr., treasurer; Christopher J. Richard, clerk; Francis Mathieu, Sergeant at Arms. Wayne Oliveira was appointed to oversee the firing of the fort's artillery. That September, at the suggestion of Ellie Sylvaria, the first overnight encampment was held at Fort Phoenix on September 6 and 7. On the Saturday evening, a "night firing" of the fort's cannons was demonstrated. This has been repeated each year since. In 2010 a spring encampment was added to the schedule. In the fall of 2007, Ellsworth Sylvaria assumed command of the militia and Amy Sylvia became the treasurer. Chuck Cromwell was voted an honorary life member for his years of dedicated service and leadership.

On this day in 1776, George Washington’s army was routed at the Battle of Long Island.By August 1 the British had landed...
08/28/2026

On this day in 1776, George Washington’s army was routed at the Battle of Long Island.

By August 1 the British had landed 32,000 troops on Staten Island, protected by 73 warships. Unsure of where the British would strike, Washington divided his army, placing about 10,000 men on Manhattan (where he expected the attack would come) and about another 10,000 on Long Island (in present day Brooklyn).

On August 22 the British began landing a large force on Long Island, where the American defenders commanded by General John Sullivan were deployed along Brooklyn Heights and the Heights of Guan. Although Washington had placed strong defenses at the other passes leading to the heights, in a major tactical blunder he left the little-used Jamaica Pass protected by only 5 militiamen. After Loyalists informed British General Henry Clinton that the pass was essentially undefended, on the night of August 26 he led a force of 10,000 men to the pass, guided by local Loyalists. The 5 pickets mistook Clinton’s men for Patriots and they were nabbed before they could issue any warning.

In the predawn hours of August 27 the British launched a diversionary attack against the American lines, holding them in place while Clinton’s force swooped down on them from the rear. Sullivan’s men fought bravely, but their situation was hopeless and they were soon forced to retreat. The American army was saved complete destruction by a heroic rearguard stand by General Lord Stirling (William Alexander) and the “Maryland 400,” the subject of the next Dose, and most of Sullivan’s men managed to escape, although Sullivan himself was captured.

The Battle of Long Island, the first major battle since the issuance of the Declaration of Independence, was a stinging and costly American defeat. But the blow was softened two days later, when, while seemingly hopelessly trapped, Washington managed to evacuate the 9,000 survivors to Manhattan.

The Battle of Long Island occurred 250 years ago today.

The painting by Alonzo Chappel shows American troops frantically escaping across Gowanus Creek, while in the distance the Maryland 400 attack the British.

A Daily Dose….

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S FIRST ELECTION WAS A LANDSLIDE....AGAINST HIM.Before George Washington became the unanimous choice f...
08/27/2026

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S FIRST ELECTION WAS A LANDSLIDE....AGAINST HIM.

Before George Washington became the unanimous choice for president, he suffered the kind of political defeat that could have ended his career before it began. In 1755, at just 23 years old, Washington ran for a seat in Virginia’s House of Burgesses representing Frederick County. He already had military experience and a growing reputation. But when the votes were counted, Washington received only 40 votes. The two winning candidates received 271 and 270. It wasn’t merely a loss. It was a public humiliation and “public” is meant literally. In colonial Virginia, voters announced their choices aloud while candidates and neighbors listened. Washington could know exactly who supported him, who rejected him and just how badly he had misjudged his popularity. Even more fascinating, he kept a copy of that poll sheet for the rest of his life.

But Washington didn’t disappear after the defeat. He studied what had happened and tried again. His military reputation had grown, but he also understood something he had missed the first time: elections were built on personal relationships. When Washington ran again in 1758, friends campaigned on his behalf while he was away serving with the Virginia Regiment. His campaign also supplied voters with large quantities of beer, wine, cider, brandy and rum punch. A common feature of Virginia elections at the time. This time, the result was dramatically different: Washington finished first with 307 votes. The young officer who had once attracted only 40 supporters had learned how to turn respect into political support.

Washington would serve in the House of Burgesses for years, quietly learning how laws were written, grievances were presented and political alliances were formed. He rarely delivered grand speeches, but the experience helped transform a provincial soldier into a statesman. Decades later, every presidential elector would vote for him. Not once, but twice. That is the real payoff of Washington’s first election. The man remembered as America’s unanimous choice began his political career by being overwhelmingly rejected. He did not treat failure as a final verdict. He treated it as information.

If George Washington had walked away after receiving only 40 votes, how different might American history have been?



The American Revolution Podcast

🇺🇸 The earliest born person ever photographed alive was a Revolutionary War veteran.His name was John Adams. He was a sh...
08/26/2026

🇺🇸 The earliest born person ever photographed alive was a Revolutionary War veteran.

His name was John Adams. He was a shoemaker from New England and a distant relative of Founding Father and future President John Adams.

Born on February 1, 1745, he served as a lieutenant in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.

He was photographed on his 100th birthday in 1845. He died in 1849 at age 104.

To put his timeline into perspective, John Adams was born 11 years before Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and when George Washington was only 12 years old.

There are others who may claim to be older, but Adams is the earliest with a verified birth date.

American Revolution Podcast

On this day in 1789, Mary Ball Washington died at her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She was 80 years old.In March 17...
08/26/2026

On this day in 1789, Mary Ball Washington died at her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She was 80 years old.

In March 1731, at about age 23, Mary married 37-year-old widower Augustine Washington. Eleven months later, their son George was born. The couple would go on to have five more children together before Augustine’s death in 1743.

In 1746, 15-year-old George had decided to join the British navy and was being encouraged to do so by his half-brother Lawrence and by Lord Fairfax. But having learned about the caste system in the British navy and of the fact that approximately one-third of British cabin boys died at sea, Mary interceded to prevent the enlistment, urging her son to pursue surveying instead. That action alone dramatically altered George’s life and therefore altered the history of the world.

Although George and his mother had a sometimes-contentious relationship, he was only nine years old when his father died and Mary was undoubtedly a primary influence shaping George’s character. Biographer Craig Shirley contends that the qualities we associate with George Washington that were important to the formation of the republic—courage, integrity, honesty, and faith—must have come from his mother. She was therefore, he concludes, one of the most important women in the history of the American republic.

The portrait of Mary Ball Washington is from about 1786 and is attributed to Robert Edge Pine.

A Daily Dose….

Josiah Franklin was a chandler in Boston. He had 18 children, eight by his first wife and ten by his second. His son Jos...
08/23/2026

Josiah Franklin was a chandler in Boston. He had 18 children, eight by his first wife and ten by his second. His son Josiah, Jr. became a sailor and was tragically lost at sea in 1715.

Benjamin Franklin, who was nine years old when his half-brother Josiah disappeared, intended to go to sea himself, but his father flatly forbade it, having never recovered from the loss of his son. His hope was that Benjamin would go into the ministry, but the family couldn’t afford the cost of the education. So instead, at age 12 young Benjamin was apprenticed to his brother James as a printer. And the rest is history.

Josiah Franklin, Jr., whose death at sea closed a career option to Benjamin Franklin (and diverted him to another), was born on August 23, 1685, three hundred forty-one years ago today.

The image is from a mural by Charles Mills at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology titled Benjamin Franklin, the Printer.

A Daily Dose…

His army was beaten.His men were demoralized.Then the enemy general's dog was found on the battlefield.What Washington d...
08/19/2026

His army was beaten.

His men were demoralized.

Then the enemy general's dog was found on the battlefield.

What Washington did next showed why he was exceptional.

October 1777: The Battle of Germantown.

Washington led 11,000 men against the British in a daring surprise attack at dawn. Fog so thick his own soldiers shot at each other.

It ended in defeat. Philadelphia stayed in British hands. Americans suffered double the casualties.

It was one of the lowest moments of the entire revolution.

In the chaos, a small fox terrier got separated from his owner and wandered into the American lines. A soldier checked his collar.

The dog belonged to General William Howe, the British commander who had just humiliated Washington.

His men wanted to keep the dog, a small act of revenge after a devastating defeat. Washington refused.

He had the dog fed, cleaned and brushed. Then he called for his aide-de-camp, 22 year old Alexander Hamilton, to write a letter.

Under a flag of truce, a messenger crossed enemy lines with the dog and a note that read:

"General Washington's compliments to General Howe. He does himself the pleasure to return him a dog, which accidentally fell into his hands, and by the inscription on the Collar appears to belong to General Howe."

Washington had just lost the battle. Lost the city of Philadelphia. Lost twice as many men as the British.

And one of his first acts afterward was to brush a terrier and write a polite note to the man who had humiliated him.

Washington lived by a higher code than most men. He embodied American greatness. There is no other like George Washington.

American Revolution Podcast

This is one of the last Revolutionary War veterans in New York, photographed in 1862 in the final year of his life. He i...
08/16/2026

This is one of the last Revolutionary War veterans in New York, photographed in 1862 in the final year of his life. He is sitting in front of a fort he built himself.

Nicholas Veeder enlisted in 1777 at sixteen, in the Albany County militia. He came home, built boats, and lived a long quiet life. But as the men of the Revolution died off one by one, Veeder did something about it.

He built a small stone fort behind his house and filled it with muskets, weapons, and relics of the war he'd collected for decades. He turned the loft into a museum. People came from all over to take his tours, where he'd hold up the guns and tell the stories himself. He led parades carrying a Liberty flag.

He died in 1862, a few months after his 100th birthday.

American Revolution Podcast

In November 1778, the British warship HMS Somerset ran aground and wrecked off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts duri...
08/14/2026

In November 1778, the British warship HMS Somerset ran aground and wrecked off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts during a storm, stranding its crew along the exposed shoreline in the middle of the Revolutionary War. ⚓🌊

Most of the roughly 480 crew members survived the wreck itself but were promptly captured by local colonial militia, marking an unusual moment where a shipwreck effectively handed over prisoners without a single shot fired.

Portions of the wreck have resurfaced from the sand multiple times over the centuries, most notably after storms shift the shoreline, drawing crowds each time the skeletal remains reappear briefly before being buried again. 🕯️

We think it is remarkable that a Revolutionary War wreck still occasionally resurfaces more than two centuries later. Would you want to see something like that in person if it reappeared near you?



New England Uncovered

Peter Francisco.He is known as the Hercules of the Revolution and Washington’s One Man Army.Mighty in stature and valor,...
08/11/2026

Peter Francisco.

He is known as the Hercules of the Revolution and Washington’s One Man Army.

Mighty in stature and valor, his accomplishments include:

Hauling a cannon by himself so the British wouldn’t get it.

Escaping capture from a group of roughly 20 soldiers, killing some and stealing their horses.

Fighting in 6 major battles of the Revolutionary War and playing pivotal roles in many.

George Washington said this about him:

“Without him we would have lost two crucial battles, perhaps the War, and with it our freedom.”

If you want to learn more, please check out my 10 minute podcast on this legend:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-francisco-george-washingtons-one-man-army/id6783818089?i=1000775919195

He signed the Declaration of Independence. Then he ordered his own house shelled by cannonballs.Thomas Nelson Jr. was on...
08/08/2026

He signed the Declaration of Independence. Then he ordered his own house shelled by cannonballs.

Thomas Nelson Jr. was one of the richest men in Virginia and its governor during the Revolution. In October 1781, the British army occupied his hometown of Yorktown, and General Cornwallis took the finest house in it for his headquarters. Nelson's own.

When American artillery opened up on the town, the gunners wouldn't touch it. It was their commander's home, and they refused to aim at it.

But, according to family tradition, Nelson took a cannon himself. He aimed it at his own front door and offered five guineas to the first man who could hit the house.

Days later, Cornwallis surrendered, and the Revolution was as good as won.

The house still stands in Yorktown today. You can see the evidence of the cannon bombardment. In the 20th century, a cannonball was even lodged in the brick to mark the impact scar.

American Revolution Podcast

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