While large armies of Continental soldiers and British troops were slugging it out in the East, there was a less recorded but just as desperate a fight for this country's freedom in the Ohio Valley that was fueled not so much by a zeal for liberty and independence, but of mere survival.

The history books will tell us of famous battles along the Brandywine, clashes around Boston and New York, Washington's crossing of the Delaware and capture of Trenton, the ignoble British defeat at Yorktown.

	Photo courtesy of Paul Carson Re-enactors stage an attack on Fort Henry, W.Va. The fort, built in 1774 in what is now Downtown Wheeling, was attacked by Indians at least twice. Historians and re-enactors rebuild Fort Henry each Labor Day weekend for Fort Henry Days, a two-day gathering in Wheeling's Oglebay Park. Click photo for larger image.

But you have to dig hard to learn how the Revolutionary War was waged in what was then still a frontier wilderness in lands to the west cut by the upper Ohio River.

At stake in the region, which included what is now Washington and Greene counties, was control of territory that had not yet been wrested from its original keepers, American Indians. Early settlers were in constant, often brutal, conflict with Indians. It was an arena that spawned stories of hardship and heroism, and such figures as Indian fighter Lou Wetzel, the renegade Girty brothers, and the heroine of Fort Henry, Betty Zane, who at one time lived in Catfish Camp, present-day Washington.

Life on the frontier

Settler life revolved around forts and blockhouses where men, women, children and livestock could be rushed for protection at the first sign of Indian raids. Among these fortified settlements was Fort Henry, built in 1774 along the Ohio River in what is now downtown Wheeling, W.Va. Originally under British control as Fort Fincastle, it was renamed on the eve of the Revolutionary War in honor of Patrick Henry, that fiery patriot and governor of Virginia who gave us "Give me liberty, or give me death."

Supplied and encouraged by the British, Indians laid siege to Fort Henry at least twice, the first in 1777 and the last in 1782, which many researchers say was actually the final battle of the Revolutionary War. The fort faded into ruin and then obscurity, and even it's precise location in Wheeling, somewhere between 10th and 11th streets, is a matter of debate.

A group of historians and re-enactors, however, is not letting the old fort and its legacy slip into historic oblivion. In fact, they literally rebuild the fort every year for Fort Henry Days, a two-day gathering in Wheeling's Oglebay Park over the Labor Day weekend that is part festival, part sutler's market, and part battle re-enactment.

"It's a living history demonstration," said Alan Fitzpatrick, one of the founders of the event. "It brings re-enactors who dedicate far more energy than you can imagine on how [early settlers] lived, cooked their meals, handled their weapons."

Siege of 1777

This year's Fort Henry Days on Saturday and next Sunday will relive the Siege of 1777, when the fort's defenders fought off Wyandotte, Shawnee and Delaware warriors 229 years ago. While unlikely to be repeated this weekend, it was during this conflict that Maj. Sam McCulloch, cut off from the fort, made his legendary horseback leap to freedom off Wheeling Hill to escape a band of Indians. A monument on Route 40 marks the site of McCulloch's Leap.

	Photo courtesy of Andrew Knez, Jr. From left: Re-enactors Hodge Ashbrook and Rich Baker, both of Claysville. Click photo for larger image.

Organizers say the event annually draws 200 to 300 re-enactors to Oglebay, including many from Washington County and some from as far away as upstate New York, Chicago, Maryland and Kentucky. Encampments of settlers, Indians and military units surround a parade ground and a market row featuring tent and open-air displays of goods ranging from period clothing to tomahawks. Strolling through the encampments, you might find a "blanket trader" or two with handmade 18th-century wares spread on the ground.

Crafts and demonstrations are part of the two-day event, as well as an auction at noon Saturday to benefit Fort Henry Living History Inc., the recently incorporated nonprofit that sponsors Fort Henry Days.

Admission is free, which makes putting a precise figure on the number of visitors to Fort Henry Days difficult. "We get about 3,000 for the weekend that come through the camps. Most will stay to watch the re-enactment," said Sue Weigand, the event's coordinator and director.

Managed chaos

The battle re-enactments at 3 p.m. each day are the main attraction.

On a football field-size area in the Camp Russell section of the park, volunteers build a smaller replica of the fort as well as outbuildings, settler cabins and harvested crops and haystacks, which are burned during the Indian attacks.

Mark Black, of North Franklin, involved with the project since 1999, is a "battle coordinator." His job is a combination of stage director and safety watchdog.

The idea is to keep the action as near as possible to what happened Sept. 1-2, 1777, without endangering the re-enactors or the hundreds of spectators on an amphitheater-like hillside overlooking the battleground.

"It's like managed chaos. But I guess that's the way war really is," he said.

Because it's all-volunteer and nothing is rehearsed, "You can get two totally different battles. Saturday could be a complete disaster. Sunday, everything works out."

For Henry Days came about in 1979, largely because of people such as Mr. Fitzpatrick, a carpet salesman in nearby Bridgeport, Ohio, who has a deep passion for local history.

Researching his family genealogy, he came across the Fort Henry saga, and was intrigued.

"It's such a great, great American grass-roots story," he said. "Men and women held out in a ramshackle fort, holding attackers at bay against all odds. When the battle was over, they lived to tell about it."

He added: "The names of streets are named after these people. The fort's long gone. The enemy is long gone. But that story has survived."

For more information about Fort Henry Days, visit www.foremat.com/fhd.