Organization Hosts Annual Battle of Germantown Festival

The Battle of Germantown took place throughout the avenue named after it. One of the historic sites of this battle was the Cliveden, a mansion located at 6401 Germantown Avenue and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a historic house museum from April through December.

Annually, the organization throws a festival in remembrance of the battle. The streets are barricaded between 6400 and 6500 Germantown Avenue, and volunteers, armed with blank case-firing muskets, dress up in full costume and try to recreate the events that took place during the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolution. The wrappers holding the blank projectiles were scattered throughout the landscape, and the firing of the muskets echoed throughout the neighborhood.

Across the street from the Cliveden is the Upsala, another historic mansion that was the encamped by the Continental Army. Tents and booths were set up to the east of the mansion, where vendors offered brochures, quilts, souvenirs, child games and other forms of entertainment.

The moral victory aspect of the conflict was the central theme of the reenactment, and with the jubilant atmosphere, one could probably assume that the battle resulted in victory rather than the defeat that took place for General Washington and his troops.

By Raymond Andrews and Katie Annesley, Team 12, Germantown.