Highlights Archives
Old World Wisconsin, Villa Louis Tell War Stories
War has touched the lives of many generations of Wisconsin citizens throughout the state's history, and on Saturday and Sunday, July 14-15, two Wisconsin historic sites will reenact wartime scenarios drawn from two historic conflicts more than a century apart. While Old World Wisconsin will, for the first time, conduct a World War I Reenactment Weekend, Villa Louis will look even further back — to the only battle of the War of 1812 fought on Wisconsin soil during its War of 1812 in Wisconsin Weekend.
At Old World Wisconsin visitors can experience life in a World War I Army camp, including meal preparations, equipment inspections, medical examinations and weapons instruction. The public is invited to come see real dress and field equipment used by World War I soldiers and to view rare silent film footage. And, in recognition to veterans, they will be admitted free with proof of service.
Before your visit, learn more about the unusual tension created in Wisconsin by the outbreak of the war as nations with which many immigrants identified squared off against one another in battle, and learn more about the Society's collections documenting World War I history.
 American forces raise the flag at Fort Shelby in Prairie du Chien Villa Louis will tell a much older and much different story — a little-known tale about a brief skirmish between American and British-Canadian forces known as the Battle of Prairie du Chien. Even though the Treaty of Paris of 1783 had ceded lands that would become Wisconsin to the new United States, the British wished to maintain their very lucrative fur trade with Indians in the region. American forces had recently built Fort Shelby in Prairie du Chien, establishing a tenuous hold on the strategic Mississippi River outpost, but it was not to last. On July 17, 1814, the hastily assembled expeditionary force under British command arrived, demanding that the Americans surrender. The Americans refused, and the opposing force laid seige to the fort and its gunboat for the next two days. The British-Canadian forces defeated the vastly outnumbered Americans and occupied Prairie du Chien until the spring of 1815 — five months after the war ended.
At Villa Louis visitors will see more than 125 War of 1812 living history reenactors as they set up American and British-Canadian encampments where they will demonstrate infantry and artillery drills, rum rations, musket shooting, gun cleaning, camp cookery and other details of early 19th-century camp life. Visitors are encouraged to explore the camps and learn how the War of 1812 pitted fur traders, Indians and voyageurs against British and American political interests in the only international war ever fought in the Midwest — on the very ground where the battle actually took place.
At 2:30 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, major events of the two-and-a-half-day battle will be condensed into a narrated battle reenactment highlighted by cannon fire and pyrotechnic special effects. Exhibits and presentations take place throughout the two days, with drill tactics demonstrated at 10:30 Saturday morning and a musket reliability contest at 10:30 Sunday morning.
After taking in the encampments and battle reenactments, treat yourself to a guided tour of the meticulously restored rooms of the Villa Louis mansion — and discover how an 1814 battlefield had flowered into an elegant Victorian country estate less than a century later.
To learn more about Wisconsin and the War of 1812, visit Turning Points in Wisconsin History.
:: Posted July 9, 2007
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