Events/Exhibits
French & Indian Grenadier Company of the 2nd Battalion 1st Regiment of Foot occupation and drilling at the Barracks
Saturday, March 1st and Sunday, March 2nd 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Old Barracks, Front and Barrack Streets, Trenton
Admission: $8/adult, $6/senior, $6/child. Call for information (609)396-1776.
The Old Barracks in Trenton will be 250 years old this year. In anticipation of our semi-quincentennial anniversary we'd like to bring you a taste of what the Barracks might have been like back when it was first built in 1758, to house British regulars during the winters of the French and Indian War.
The re-created grenadier company of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment of Foot will occupy the Barracks for the weekend of March 1st and 2nd, 2008. Two companies of that same regiment actually DID occupy the Barracks here in Trenton during the winter of 1759-60, while four of its companies occupied the barracks at Perth Amboy and another 4 occupied the barracks at New Brunswick.
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Visit with the soldiers in the Barrack rooms, with an officer in the Officer's House. Watch the drills and Guard mountings, enter the medical examining rooms while to soldiers are on sick call, join with some local civilians of the 1750's interact with the soldiers and officers about business or perhaps some make complaints about the behavior of their recruiting parties.
Each winter from 1758 through about 1766, two to three companies of British regulars were quartered in the Barracks in Trenton. The troops would march down from scenes of fighting on the frontier such as Fort Ticonderoga in far Northern New York, and enter the barracks in New Jersey sometime in late November. They'd usually march off again to campaign far away about early to mid-April, whenever the muddy roads dried. While here, they were re-supplied, new recruits were trained, their clothing and weapons were replaced or mended, they were drilled - and occasionally, as young men far from home are wont to do, they displeased some of the inhabitants!
