BEDFORD — American patriots rose from their beds Saturday morning and donned their finest wigs, tricorn hats, waistcoats, bonnets, and cloaks, stepping back in time more than 240 years to remember a generation of rebels who threw off the tyranny of rule without consent of the governed.
On the lawn of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, surrounded by the stirring martial melodies of fifes and drums, they gathered in the chill sun of a cold April morning, costumed as Continential soldiers, ragtag militiamen, and British Army regulars.
Together they marched down the town’s Great Road, playing familiar anthems and those nearly lost to history, and gathered at Willson Park — itself tricorn in design — to celebrate the heroism and impudence of their patriot forebears.
Then, after brief speeches on civic pride and American values, hundreds of costumed participants and onlookers in modern dress cheered and cried, “For liberty!’’ and “Huzzah!’’ as they watched Jim Griffiths shinny up a 25-foot wooden pole and top it with a red knit cap reading “Liberty.’’
Griffiths — who is 63 but has the vitality of someone decades younger — explained later that members of Colonial militias would signal their plan to hold a secret meeting by placing a red cap atop a pole.
“The British kind of knew what was going on. They didn’t like it . . . and they would climb up and they would take the cap down,’’ he said.
As Griffiths dismounted the pole Saturday morning, redcoated reenactors quickly seized him by the elbows and escorted him away, to boos from the crowd.
“Go home!’’ several patriots yelled at them.
“You may have won this battle, sir, but the Colonists will win the war!’’ Griffiths exclaimed.
Saturday’s pole-capping ceremony was the 54th hosted by the Bedford Minuteman Company, which began the tradition in 1965, on the 200th anniversary of the most famous such incident in American history: the raising of a red flag on the Liberty Tree that then stood at Washington and Essex streets in downtown Boston.
The minutemen hold the ceremony two Saturdays before Patriots Day each year, opening the season of Revolutionary War reenactment events around the region, according to Jeannette Pothier, 75, of Bedford, who is sergeant quartermaster for the company.
It’s a point of pride for the town, she said, because “no other pole capping ever occurs anywhere else in the country.’’
For Griffiths, the event is a chance to demonstrate his impressive strength, as he pulls himself up the pole using only a knotted rope, with no harness or net to catch him, should he fall. He explained that he is an honorary Minuteman, recruited last year for the vertigious climb.
“I was pressed into service . . . at the very last minute because the climber realized he couldn’t do it,’’ said Griffiths, a fitness instructor who led a weightlifting class Saturday morning before participating in the ceremony.
Richard Manley, past captain of the Bedford Minutemen and host of Saturday’s event, said the event holds special meaning for him as an Air Force veteran and the descendant of men who fought in Lexington.
“It means a lot . . . to be able to get up there and recognize even the current military that are still out there defending us. It’s an honor just to do that,’’ said Manley, 68, of Bedford, who is married to Pothier.
There were roughly 300 to 350 reenactors marching Saturday, Manley said, though in some years — when the weather was warmer — there have been close to 500. Some, including the Bedford Minutemen, wore uniforms that were nearly perfectly matched, while other militias wore motley combinations of green, blue, burgundy, and white.
Eileen Rodgers, 67, of Worcester, said members of her group, the Sudbury Ancient Fyfe & Drum Companie, “can wear whatever we want — within the guidelines of what would have been worn.’’
“In Sudbury, we represent the farmers who answered the call to come to the North Bridge’’ in Concord, and “because we are representing farmers, there is no uniform,’’ explained Rodgers, who said she joined the group in 1995.
Alphie Constable, 3, of Concord, watched the parade from the edge of the Great Road on Saturday, but one day he may be marching in a period costume, said his parents, Peter Constable, 43, and Melita Constable, 39, who held little Alice Rose Constable, 7 months.
“Alphie really loves the fife and drums,’’ explained his mother. But he’ll have to wait until he’s a little older before he’s eligible to join a children’s troop, she added later. “We’ll see if he’s still so into it in a few years.’’
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox.
