Agawam Historical Association President David Cecci and 25th Continental Regiment Captain and President Rob Keenan sat down with interim Executive Editor Chris Maza and Staff Writer Tyler Garnet to discuss the upcoming call to arms reenactment at the Thomas Smith House on April 19.
Reminder Publishing photo by Debbie Gardner
AGAWAM — On April 19 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Agawam Historical Society will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the call to arms responding to the battles of Lexington and Concord.
The day’s event, taking place at the Thomas Smith House at 251 North West St. in Feeding Hills, will include children’s activities, demonstrations for blacksmithing, tinsmithing, open fire cooking, textile arts and musket drills. Attendees will also have the opportunity to drill with the 25th Continental Regiment.
Ahead of the event, David Cecci, president of the Agawam Historical Association and Rob Keenan, the captain and president of the 25th Continental Regiment sat down with hosts Chris Maza and Tyler Garnet on the April 11 episode of Reminder Publishing’s podcast, So That Reminds Me, to preview the events slated for April 19.
For the podcast, Keenan came dressed head to toe ready for reenactment in what he called a “simple farmer’s outfit from 1775.” His outfit also included a canteen, a cartridge box, a haversack with his personal belongings, a blanket and a Brown Bess musket. Keenan explained that the American army was never fully uniformed during the revolution.
“There were no real uniforms for Americans, there were some groups, John Hancock’s core of cadets down in Boston had their own snazzy little uniforms, Benedict Arnold’s group out of New Haven, the Governor’s Footguard, they had uniforms, but a lot of groups did not have actual uniforms,” he said.
Keenan explained that the call to arms ahead of the battles of Lexington and Concord, as well as the American Revolution, came over a “longstanding set of circumstances and grievances across the Atlantic Ocean.”
He explained that those circumstances led to the establishment of militias and their training. “What used to be a social event, came in earnest,” he said.
Cecci said that the Thomas Smith House was initially built in the 1750s and is still in its initial condition because of the preservation efforts by the Agawam Historical Society.
“It really is a time capsule,” he said. “We felt that it was a great opportunity to have the 25th Continental out to the house. They’ve been out before; they do a wonderful job portraying that time period and we are happy to actually do it on April 19.”
Along with the 25th Continental Regiment, the event will also include the Green Valley Homestead reenactment group, who will be doing the tinsmithing and cooking demonstrations.
Keenan explained that the activities will begin right at 10 a.m. In addition to the demonstrations, Keenan said Green Valley Homestead will also be bringing barnyard animals. He said that attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in the reenactments throughout the day.
“My goal is to start enlisting spectators as members of the militia, they’ll have to sign their name or make their mark in a ledger book. And we’ll provide them with wooden muskets and start teaching them some basic drills before our alarm company has to start marching off to Boston,” he said.
As part of the reenactments, Keenan said they are going to recreate what it was like for the express riders to bring news of the call to arms at 10:30 a.m.
Keenan added that normally the regiment does marching drills with children but will have the opportunity to get adults involved on April 19.
“This is also a chance to get the adults involved … immerse the folks in what’s actually happening, giving them a feel for what it was like. It’s gonna be a tense moment in some respects because militia drill used to be you would march around the town green for a couple hours and then you would have a picnic,” he said.
Keenan also talked about the importance of having this kind of event in Western Massachusetts.
“This is for us here in Western Massachusetts, we wouldn’t have been on the front line on the morning of April 19, we would have been hearing about it throughout the day and possibly into the next day before the able bodied men say ‘OK, enough’s enough, the taxes are crazy, the punishment’s crazy, let’s go show them a thing or two,’” he said.
In addition to the Thomas Smith House and call to arms reenactment, Cecci said the Agawam Historical Association also operate the Agawam Historical and Firehouse Museum, and has an upcoming flea market on May 3, a new book coming out and the reopening of the museum for the first time in five years on Memorial Day. He added that the association is always looking for more members. For more information, head to agawamhistory.org.
While the 25th Continental Regiment does not have a website, Keenan encouraged attendees to talk to members of the regiment at the event about what they do to learn more.
For more historical tidbits, a look into the life of being a reenactor and information about the event, check out the full episode at thereminder.com/our-podcast/ or search So That Reminds Me on your favorite podcasting platform.
