Encampment

Love or war? Take your pick this weekend as re-enactors exchange rings during a Civil War-era wedding in Bristol Borough and exchange gunfire during a Revolutionary War skirmish in Washington Crossing. Colonial soldiers will take on the British on Saturday, starting in open fields and then moving to a wooded area near the Delaware River and into the historic village at Washington Crossing Historic Park. The re-enactors will set up camp at the park Saturday and Sunday. Demonstrating that life goes on during wartime, a Civil War soldier will marry his betrothed in a ceremony written in the 1860s.

A middle-age woman was fatally burned Sunday morning in what authorities said was a suspicious fire at a homeless encampment in woods behind a Bristol Township shopping center in Bucks County. Firefighters called to the site about 10:30 a.m. found the encampment fully engulfed in flames, police said. The woman, whose identity was not released, was nearby, "screaming and on fire," a Bristol Township police statement said. She was taken to Lower Bucks County Hospital. Buck County fire officials said the blaze happened under "suspicious circumstances," but would not elaborate.

Months after dozens of Camden's homeless were dramatically transported from their tent city and promised housing for a year, some have moved into a new encampment blocks from where they began. Their presence in another outdoor settlement in Camden reflects the mixed results of a pastor's innovative, highly publicized effort to provide a better life for 54 street people, whom he escorted by motor coach to a Mount Laurel hotel in May. It also shows the complications involved in solving the homeless problem in New Jersey's poorest city.

For most Americans today, the encampment at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78 is more a state of mind - the will to endure - than a geographic location. Yet, even as Washington's army marched out of the encampment in the spring of 1778, the site and what it symbolized began to fade from the new nation's memory. The emphasis of the republic was building and expanding - on the future, not the past. "During the early 19th century, Americans tended to be indifferent to their history . . . also surprisingly indifferent to the physical remains of history," writes Lorett Treese in her book, Valley Forge: Making and Remaking A National Symbol.

High atop a hill in Valley Forge National Historical Park, underneath well-manicured grasses crossed by meandering tourists and wildlife, an archaeological team has hit the jackpot: Continental Army trash. After weeks of digging for what George Washington's troops left behind, they have found artifacts such as musket balls and uniform buttons, as well as some skeletal remains undisturbed for more than 200 years. "It is absolutely amazing out here. We've found so much that really brings home what life for Washington and his army must have been like then," said Eleanor Herbert of Gwynedd, a volunteer in the park-sponsored dig. "We've found buttons from soldiers' uniforms, cuff links, bones.

The Valley Forge National Historic Park centennial celebration included an encampment re-enactment and dedication of a 10-foot granite monument, entitled "Patriots of African Descent. " The monument honors a regiment of 400 black soldiers who participated in the encampment of 1777-78.

An 18th-century military encampment took place on the grounds of Historic Graeme Park in Horsham. Volunteer soldiers from the Northamptontowne Militia showed visitors what camp life was like when Gen. Anthony Wayne's brigade camped there prior to the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777. Visitors at Sunday's encampment saw soldiers drilling and cleaning weapons, as well as re- creations of military engagements. Women who accompanied the soldiers weaved on small, portable looms and cooked over open fires.

Boy Scouts from across the country gathered at the 79th Annual Valley Forge Council Pilgrimage and Encampment last weekend. Scouts arrived Friday to pitch their tents on the lowlands north of the Schuylkill in Valley Forge Park. At this year's encampment and the pilgrimage Saturday through the park, which drew 1,750 scouts in all, the scouts learned about battle tactics and the roles of black Americans in the Revolutionary War.

Philadelphia's City Hall tower has reopened to tours following its closure on Sept. 22 because a crack was discoverd in the structure. The tours resumed last week, but the announcement apparently was lost in the stir surrounding the ouster of the Occupy Phialdelphia encampment from City Hall's Dilworth Plaza. The tower and its obervation deck were closed to tours on Sept. 22 after a crack was discovered on its north side. The crack may have been caused by the earthquake that rocked the East Coast a month earlier.

SHIP OUT to World War I today as the USS Olympia hosts a re-enacted encampment with men in authentic uniforms. The Olympia is docked at Delaware Avenue and Spruce Street. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and $1.50 for children under 12.

SAN FRANCISCO - Police arrested dozens of people during a raid of an Occupy San Francisco encampment outside the Federal Reserve building early Sunday. San Francisco Police Officer Albie Esparza said that around 4 a.m., officers arrested about 55 people for illegal lodging. Esparza said that before police moved in on the encampment, demonstrators had been warned hourly for 24 hours that they were subject to arrest. The arrests Sunday came after at least 85 people were arrested Wednesday when police cleared a separate Occupy encampment in nearby Justin Herman Plaza.

Philadelphia's City Hall tower has reopened to tours following its closure on Sept. 22 because a crack was discoverd in the structure. The tours resumed last week, but the announcement apparently was lost in the stir surrounding the ouster of the Occupy Phialdelphia encampment from City Hall's Dilworth Plaza. The tower and its obervation deck were closed to tours on Sept. 22 after a crack was discovered on its north side. The crack may have been caused by the earthquake that rocked the East Coast a month earlier.

EIGHT WEEKS AGO tonight, more than 1,000 Philadelphians packed a church on North Broad Street with this crazy idealistic notion that an open-ended campout at City Hall could mark the beginning of the end for rampant income inequality and corporate greed. They were schoolteachers and the hopelessly unemployed, Quakers and anarchists - all agreeing with 69-year-old Carol Finkle, who told a reporter: "This is the first time in my adult life I feel there's some hope. " Last night, on an unseasonably balmy evening that recalled those first hopeful nights of an American Autumn at 15th and Market, hundreds from Occupy Philly rallied one more time - this time ringed by police officers and a police wagon that signaled the imminent end of their fall encampment.

Members of Occupy Philadelphia met late into Saturday night to propose ways to react to the anticipated arrests of those refusing to leave Dilworth Plaza after Mayor Nutter's 5 p.m. Sunday deadline. Earlier in the day, small groups had broken off to discuss how to respond to the mayor's decision to bring in police if the encampment continued past the deadline. "There will be a rally outside the Roundhouse [the police administration building] if there are mass arrests," said Stephen Metzger, one of those organizing the discussion - and using a bullhorn to make himself heard over the shouts of a man who repeatedly interrupted speakers, demanding that people listen to him. Among other proposals was encouraging a large contingent of homeless people who also have been staying in Dilworth Plaza to move to Logan Square before 5 p.m. Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman, said the department was prepared to make arrests if necessary.

Members of Occupy Philadelphia met late into Saturday night proposing ways to react to the anticipated arrests of those refusing to leave Dilworth Plaza after Mayor Nutter's 5 p.m. Sunday deadline. Earlier in the day, small groups had broken off to discuss how to respond to the mayor's decision to bring in police if the encampment continued past the deadline. "There will be a rally outside the Roundhouse [the police adminstration building] if there are mass arrests," said Stephen Metzger, one of the people organizing the discussion.

Frank Kummer The city expects that approval for Occupy Philadelphia's permit to move across the street from Dilworth Plaza could come early next week - but with strings attached. "What we made clear is that the conditions that have come to exist around Dilworth Plaza will not be allowed to continue at any future location," said Mark McDonald, Mayor Nutter's spokesman. About 300 tents have been crammed into the plaza, which is on the west side of City Hall. McDonald did not specify what limits the city would seek on Occupy's new encampment.

OAKLAND, Calif. - Police decked in riot gear and armed with tear gas cleared out Oakland's anti-Wall Street encampment early Monday, the latest crackdown amid complaints around the country of health and safety hazards at protest camps. The raid at the Occupy Oakland camp, one of the largest and most active sites in the movement, came a day after police in Portland, Ore., arrested more than 50 people while shutting down its camp after complaints of drug use and sanitation issues. Police in Burlington, Vt., also evicted protesters after a man fatally shot himself last week inside a tent.

OAKLAND, Calif. - Citing a strain on crime-fighting resources, police officers pleaded with Occupy Oakland protesters Friday to leave their encampment at the City Hall plaza where a man was shot and killed the night before. The shooting took place the same day a 35-year-old military veteran apparently shot himself to death in a tent at a Burlington, Vt., Occupy encampment. And in Salt Lake City, police said a man found dead inside his tent at an encampment of protesters likely died from a combination of drugs and carbon monoxide poisoning.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Wall Street protesters around the country who are vowing to stand their ground against the police and politicians are also digging in against a different kind of adversary: cold weather. With the temperature dropping, they are stockpiling donated coats, blankets, and scarves, trying to secure cots and military-grade tents, and getting survival tips from the homeless people who have joined their encampments. "Everyone's been calling it our Valley Forge moment," said Michael McCarthy, a former Navy medic in Providence.