The fight for Dorchester Heights is history, but it’s not over.

The South Boston site where American revolutionaries drove British forces from Boston on March 17, 1776, has become a battlefield all over again because of a spat between City Hall and the organizers of the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade over the procession route.

Spoiler alert: The city and the Allied War Veterans of South Boston, which organizes the parade, have waged this battle before. This time, however, the two sides are on opposite ends of the fight.

“It’s called Boston upside down,’’ said longtime publicist George Regan last week.

As press secretary to Boston Mayor Kevin White, Regan became a veteran of the on-again-off-again dispute over the St. Patrick’s Day Parade route in the 1970s.

This year, the veterans group that organizes the parade is angry that the city shortened the procession, excluding Dorchester Heights and other spots.

But at least two other times — in 1962 and 1978 — the same organization pushed plans that omitted Dorchester Heights from the parade route, according to court records and past newspaper coverage.

For an event that has been dogged in recent decades over whether gays and lesbians could participate, this year’s quarrel harks back to an earlier form of St. Patrick’s Day Parade squabbling.

“It’s like a Fellini movie,’’ Regan said. “I don’t think any other parade in the history of this city has been in more courtrooms.’’

Unlike St. Patrick’s Day parades outside the city, the celebration in Boston is tied to Evacuation Day and the Revolutionary War battle that exiled the British. Ceremonies at the site mark the victory every March 17.

But in 1962, the Allied War Veterans Council of South Boston voted to leave Dorchester Heights off the parade route, according to Boston Globe news articles from the time. The hillside trek was too tough on children and elderly veterans who marched, supporters of the shortened parade said then.

Uproar over the decision sounded all the way to Washington, where House Speaker John W. McCormack received a telegram blasting the plan and asking him to withdraw federal troops from the parade to try and force organizers to reverse course, the Globe reported on Feb. 16, 1962.

But on parade day, marchers went up Dorchester Street and took a right onto East Fourth Street, bypassing Dorchester Heights, the Globe reported. The story in the newspaper’s March 18, 1962 edition did not mention the omission.

Sixteen years later, the Allied War Veterans Council of South Boston again sought to steer the parade clear of Dorchester Heights and took the city to court, records show.

On March 28, 1978, the group filed a complaint in Suffolk Superior Court, demanding that the city issue a parade permit for a route that excluded the historic site. The parade had been delayed that year because of massive snow accumulation from a blizzard two months earlier.

The permit issued by the Traffic and Parking Department, the complaint said, required the march go by Dorchester Heights.

In an affidavit filed in court, Joseph C. Lee, then the group’s commander, wrote that organizers wanted to bypass the area because of episodes from previous years “in which various objects were thrown at marchers from Dorchester Heights.’’

“Irreparable damage to plaintiffs will result if injunctive relief is not granted . . . to permit plaintiffs to conduct a parade along the route upon which they applied,’’ Lee wrote.

The city disagreed.

In a letter to parade chief marshal John Karinska dated March 22, 1978, an official wrote that the permit would be granted for a route passing Dorchester Heights.

White “has informed me that after talking to many community leaders and receiving many letters and calls, his [judgment] is that the parade should travel along its traditional and historic route,’’ the letter said.

Judge James L. Valley ruled against the group on March 31, 1978. His decision is marked with a red stamp which reads, “Application for Preliminary Injunction Denied.’’

When the parade was held on April 2, 1978, the veterans’ concerns proved to be prescient. A teenage girl was struck in the head by a rock thrown from Dorchester Heights, the Globe reported at the time.

Tim Duross, who is organizing this year’s parade for the veterans group, said he did not know whether Valley’s decision could force the parade to pass Dorchester Heights.

The organization is urging the public to contact Mayor Martin J. Walsh and demand that the traditional route be restored.

“I can’t imagine any veteran not wanting to go by Dorchester Heights,’’ Duross said.

The shortened route, which begins at Broadway Station, follows West Broadway to East Broadway, and ends at Farragut Road, was used last year because record snowfall clogged neighborhood streets.

City officials have said the path is better for public safety. The parade is scheduled for March 20.

A Walsh spokeswoman suggested Valley’s order is not the definitive word on the route.

“This was not an appellate decision and has no precedential value,’’ Bonnie McGilpin wrote in an e-mail.

Former mayor Raymond Flynn, who lives in South Boston, said he backed the traditional route in 1978 and still supports it.

Dorchester Heights, he said, is a “source of great pride for South Boston, for the city, and for the country.’’

This year, however, it might stand alone on parade day.

Jeremiah Manion of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi.