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SUNBURY – The story of the killing of a colonial soldier at Sunbury’s Bloody Spring dates to August 1756. Members of the Augusta Battalion will reenact the episode in which Indian warriors shot, killed and scalped James Pattin, a member of the Fort Augusta garrison who had been guarding a small herd of cows near the spring.
The public is invited to attend the free event, which will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Through special arrangements with the city of Sunbury and the Shikellamy School District, the reenactment will take place on the site where the shooting took place: along Memorial Drive in Sunbury, across from the tennis courts.
The reenactment will be sponsored by the Northumberland County Historical Society and the Augusta Battalion, whose members portray colonial soldiers belonging to the 3rd Battalion of the Pennsylvania Provincial Regiment. These troops marched up the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg and began building Fort Augusta at present-day Sunbury in July 1756.
The Aug. 29 ambush happened on an otherwise peaceful afternoon while the fort was under construction 260 years ago.
“A historical marker has long stood at the spring. People who attend the reenactment will be able to see for themselves what happened on that fateful day during the French and Indian War,” John L. Moore, a historical society member who will serve as narrator, said in a press release.
Fiddler Beverley Conrad will play 18th century music during the half-hour prior to the reenactment.
Memorial Drive will be closed to traffic during the reenactment. Spectators will be able to park in the lot of the Sunbury City Ice Rink.
Spectators are urged to bring lawn chairs.
Following the reenactment, the historical society will have an open house at its headquarters at 1150 N. Front St.