For the first time in three years, there will be a full two-day reenactment on Aug. 6 and 7 of the Battle of Bushy Run.
“Everyone’s very excited to be back,” said Liz Staab, facilitator for the Bushy Run Battlefield Museum & Visitor Center at the battlefield site along Route 993, east of Harrison City in Penn Township.
Admission will be free, but a donation is being requested, Staab said.
The August 1763 battle involved British soldiers and colonial rangers fighting against a group of Native Americans that ambushed them as they were en route to break the Native American siege of Fort Pitt.
The reenactment will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. The first day’s battle occurred on what is called Edge Hill, where a monument was erected for its 250th anniversary. After the first day’s clash, the British and colonial rangers retreated to a hilltop from where the existing stone monument to the “flour fort” — stacks of bags of flour to provide some protection — was laid down.
There also will be reenactments of a parlay and a court martial, Staab said.
About 200 participants are expected, including reenactors portraying British soldiers and officers, colonial rangers, various Native American tribes and settlers in encampments selling replica 18th century wares.
This will be the first full reenactment overseen by Staab, who was hired by the nonprofit Bushy Run Battlefield Heritage Society. Staab has been on the job at Bushy Run since early May, succeeding Shawn MacIntyre, who is now operations manager for the Braddock’s Battlefield History Center operated by Fort Ligonier.
The event, which typically attracts a few hundred visitors, was canceled in 2020 because of the covid pandemic. Last year, a smaller version of the reenactment was held, Staab said.
Visitors to the 225-acre battlefield will see something different this year because the state has allowed large swaths of the open fields in the park to go unmowed. The state historical commission is allowing those sections to grow back as part of a stormwater management plan, said Howard Pollman, a commission spokesman.
