KINGSTON – Those pesky Redcoats are at it again, setting fire to Kingston.
British troops loyal to His Royal Majesty, King George III, invaded Kingston Saturday morning, landing at Ponckhockie by ship and then marching on foot up Delaware Avenue to Broadway, later torching the Uptown Stockade.
Redcoats open fire
Gallo spared the gallows
The hostilities were committed in retaliation for American revolutionaries forming an independent state government with capitol in Kingston, drafting a constitution, and holding legislative meetings there, all directly violating the Divine Right of Kings.
Nobody was injured or displaced by the incident, because it was merely a re-enactment, hosted by the City of Kingston, to commemorate a real British military invasion which took place during the American Revolution 238 years ago, on October 13, 1777. The event re-occurs every two years, involving thousands of spectators and platoons of costumed volunteers.
Members of the Queens 16th Light Dragoons, representing the Redcoats, and the First Ulster County Militia, representing the American Continental Army, take umbrage at the word “costume.” For these ultra-serious history buffs, the clothing they wear is called a uniform.
“This is all about historical tourism, and it’s a partnership with groups like Friends of Historic Kingston, The Senate House, the re-enactors of the Dragoons, and County Clerk Nina Postupack with the Pearson House,” explained Mayor Shayne Gallo. “Our goal is to connect the Pearson House with the Visitor Center going forward, and I’m going to recommend to the next administration that they get very serious to promote this, and to have regular re-enactments, and connecting to colleges and the high school,” the mayor said, noting a lack of educational involvement.
Rather than being tried and hung for treason, Mayor Gallo was spared the hangman’s noose this year, and instead awarded a medal for the city’s participation.
“This is an alternative of being humiliated and publicly executed,” Gallo observed. “Two years ago, if you recall, when I was about to be publicly executed, people were screaming ‘hang him,’ and then one person indicated, ‘throw him in the sinkhole.’ Now they can’t say that this year, because the project will be complete, and we are already working down there, so it’s all good.”
Burning of Kingston event began during the administration of Shayne’s late brother TR Gallo during the 1990s, was repeated once during the Sottile administration, and flopped last time in 2013 due to lack of promotion. The Dragoons pulled out of the event but were persuaded by Shayne Gallo’s administration to give it another chance.
