The Newport Barracks site has a layered history set to be laid out in an upcoming documentary.
The site was important to Native Americans before becoming a war camp during the War of 1812 and an outpost during the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. Historians say it also served as a key location in westward expansion. Notable historical figures, such as Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Samuel Walker, and Robert E. Lee, visited the barracks during their military careers.
The conversation about the documentary began last December when NKU and archaeologists dug at the barracks site. Director, executive producer, and writer Haley Snowden said the documentary will start in the late 1700s with its role before the War of 1812. As the documentary works through the other wars that are significant to the site, it will discuss the impact as a whole on the Cincinnati and Newport areas.
“I think these guys have sort of the magic bullet of really telling a story,” said Brian Hackett, NKU Associate Professor of History. “I’m excited about their work because we, as historians, tend to talk in books. And the fact is, history is only important when it’s shared with people. The key to public history is all about the audience. How do you make important historical discoveries relevant to current and modern people?”
Hackett, one of the historians interviewed throughout the documentary, said General James Taylor, the founder of Newport [1795], saw the opportunity when Fort Washington in Cincinnati closed to bring that over to Newport.
“That made a big difference and there was a lot of impact,” Hackett said. “It brought people, it brought jobs, it brought commerce. There’s a lot of stuff that we’re actually just kind of speculating and discovering right now.”
One thing executive producer, researcher, and writer Michael Coker said they tried to do in the documentary was capture the experience of the soldiers. He said it was a tough time for the men there, who were often away from home for the first time.
“They’re young men, and they dealt with illnesses, they dealt with alcoholism, they dealt with stress,” he said. “One of my colleagues here has talked about documentation about suicide rates among the enlisted and found a high number at the barracks, or at least, presumed to be suicide. So, we talk about the human experience within the fort.”
Hackett said the men at the barracks were dealt a whiskey ration. In 1897, a distillery was built on the Licking River, which Hackett said is the earliest distillery in Kentucky. Over time, five distilleries were constructed on the Licking River, and next to them would be pig yards for disposal of the mash created during the distilling process.
In doing research with Hackett, Coker said they discovered that the Newport Barracks had a pig as its mascot.
“It was a female pig and what I understand is that the men of the barracks were watching this female pig fight off another pig, and they were rooting for her, and she won,” he said. “And so, they started feeding her, and she became sort of the mascot. Well, when the men marched off to the Battle of Thames up in Canada [during the War of 1812], she followed them. She even swam across the Ohio River, went to Canada, and then all the way back.”
The pig was eventually adopted by the governor of Kentucky and lived out the rest of its life.
Coker said one thing that surprised him was the troops that marched back from the Battle of Thames had prisoners of war with them.
“So, it becomes a big prisoner of war site in Cincinnati’s backyard, and the prisoners there, a lot of them would be basically farmed out to work in the city or work in the area, work on buildings,” he said.
Coker said they believe that aside from prisoners of war, the site held enslaved individuals and British soldiers.
The documentary will feature reenactments to interpret the militia going to the Battle of Thames and maybe a camp scene. The crew is working on acquiring a pig for the scenes.
Coker said the documentary will be divided into roughly five acts. The film will discuss the site before European colonization, including its importance to Native Americans.
“There have been some significant Native American artifacts [and settlements] found near the Newport Barracks site, and we try to showcase that history as well,” Coker said.
The artifacts that Coker mentioned were discovered during the archeological dig that took place last December, which came from an NKU Master of Public History program taught by Hackett. He said the dig relates to the documentary because it gave them insight on the grounds they didn’t previously have.
Hackett said that NKU professor and Education Director for Heritage Village Museum & Educational Center Historic Southwest Ohio, Inc. Steve Preston has been in contact with representatives of Native American tribes who will have input into the interpretation.
Hackett said the barracks are also being added to the Lewis and Clark Historic Trail. He said that when Lewis and Clark came through on their famous expedition, they first went to Fort Washington and then to Newport, where they stayed with General James Taylor.
“The question had always been, ‘Did they go to the Newport barracks?’” Hackett said. “Because we can’t find any written documentation. However, James Taylor’s house was right there. So basically, I don’t think they couldn’t have visited it if they went to James Taylor’s house because James Taylor’s house was literally either inside or next to the fort.”
Hackett also emphasized the idea that the Newport Barracks was the starting point of what America was to become.
“This place becomes the start of the West,” he said. “Everything that comes after is because of what happened here.”
Snowden said it is important to know the history of where you are living. She took that idea and wanted to research more about the site being a start of westward expansion. She asked Hackett if there was something she could read or watch, but he said no. There was nothing.
“I said, ‘Would I be correct in saying that this would probably be the first form of media that actually talks about this theory?’” And he was like, yes, so this will be something kind of new, and I think people would have a lot of interest in it. We’re hoping that educational facilities can maybe use it to help with teaching.”
Snowden has some ideas for the film to help keep audiences engaged, such as using old and new images and comparing the same spot today to what it looked like in the past.
“People could be able to explore it and be able to recognize it,” she said. “The visuals have been, I wouldn’t say, necessarily a struggle, but it’s been something that we’ve really focused on making sure that we have something interesting that will keep everyone’s attention, like the reenactments.”
Toward the end of the documentary, Snowden said they wanted to discuss what people are doing with the site now and what they hope to see done in the future.
Hackett said another NKU class led by Preston is working up a straw man of ideas that they can present to Newport on what to do with the site. The idea is for the city to then provide them with feedback or tweak ideas.
The film will most likely be able to be viewed online on platforms like YouTube. Additionally, the team said they hope to premier it somewhere in Newport and at NKU. Snowden said they plan to have the documentary out mid to late spring 2025.