An anonymous commenter left me a gem of a website link (thanks, Anonymous!). It's called Burning of the Valleys Military Association. It's a terrific resource for history buffs and genealogy buffs. This is from their home page:

The Burning of the Valleys Military Association (BVMA) is composed of units which reenact, mostly, the Revolutionary War in the Mohawk, Schoharie and Upper Hudson Valleys. The war in the valleys was really a 'civil' war conducted mostly by former neighbors and estranged relatives. In the three year period from 1778 to 1781 a little over two thirds of the valleys were burned to the ground and a little under one third of the civilian population carried away or killed, thus the period was referred to as 'The Destructives'.

I knew that the Mohawk Valley really suffered during the Revolution, but I had no idea exactly how much. Those statistics really bring it home, don't they?

The reenactments that are held in at the various battlefields also help us realize how great the struggle was. We love reenactments; we haven't been to nearly enough. My kids would love to be in them. They even have some of the old style costumes, lol. Of course, people are a lot larger than the folks from those days (we would consider the clothing more like petite clothing compared to today's larger sizes). We've seen some original clothing in museums, and do marvel how tiny the people were back then.

I missed the reenactments at Fort Stanwix and Lake George. :( I'm really bogged down with this big renovation project right now. I would so love to get out and about! I've been invited to a few places in Madison County, and we want to see some areas of the Adirondacks... maybe this fall or spring, I just don't know. Time will tell.