WILLIAMSBURG — Make ready to witness centuries of military history — all in one weekend — March 15 and 16 at Jamestown Settlement.
According to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, for four decades, military powers across time have descended on Jamestown Settlement to present an unequaled and unique chronological display of military history. Hundreds of reenactors from 39 military units will muster on museum grounds depicting armed forces from 500 B.C.E. to modern-day soldiers with the Virginia Army National Guard.
At Military Through the Ages, visitors will have the opportunity to become entrenched in the past and present day in military encampments and get hands-on with re-enactors, experiencing how military uniforms, weapons and tactics evolved through the centuries, the foundation added.
Timeline from 500 B.C.E. to the Present Day
According to the foundation, the reenactment units at this year’s event originate from eight states, portraying soldiers and military encounters across the globe from Greek times, the medieval period, Hundred Years’ War, War of the Roses, American Revolution, War of 1812, Napoleonic Wars and American Civil War.
Re-enactors depicting World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, and Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada will take visitors through the 20th century, and the Virginia Army National Guard 111th Field Artillery and Virginia Defense Force will represent present day, it added.
View the full list of reenactment units scheduled to participate in this year’s event at jyfmuseums.org/mta-units.
Artillery Firings, Military Music and Civilian Sutlers
The two-day event will feature special demonstrations of military equipment used in the air, on land and at sea, accompanied by a variety of military musical performances from the Revolutionary War, World Wars I and II to the present day.
Three musical groups are scheduled to perform throughout the weekend event: Field Musick Virginia featuring the sounds of Fifes and Drums of the USRC/USN Virginia (1798), the 12-piece brass AEF Headquarters Band representing the one formed at the American Expeditionary Forces Headquarters in Chaumont, France in 1918 at the request of General John Joseph Pershing; and “The Governor’s Own” 29th Infantry Division Band from the Virginia Army National Guard comprised of enlisted soldiers and a chief warrant officer.
Sutlers will set up shop to sell supplies, from reproduction and historically inspired jewelry to colonial-era reproduction pewter and blacksmithing, 18th-century reproduction leather work and gunsmithing of the past, in the present, the foundation said.
Mobile Vet Center
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will display its Mobile Vet Center near the museum’s main entrance during the event to provide readjustment counseling, information and resources to veterans.
Military History at Jamestown Settlement
Arms, armor and military equipment of 17th-century Virginia can be seen year-round inside Jamestown Settlement’s extensive galleries and outdoors, where visitors can immerse themselves in life of early Virginia in outdoor re-creations of a 1610-14 English fort, Paspahegh Town and three re-created ships that brought English colonists to Virginia in 1607.
Event Information
Jamestown Settlement is located on State Route 31 near the Colonial Parkway in James City County. For information, call 757-253-4838 or visit jyfmuseums.org/military-through-the-ages.
Admission to Jamestown Settlement, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily year-round, is $20 for adults and $10 for ages 6-12. Children ages 5 and under are free. A value-priced combination ticket with the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown is $34 for adults and $17 for ages 6-12. Parking is free.
For more information, visit jyfmuseums.org.
