In
2006, Arrival Video productions was planning a documentary on the
History of Hatboro. In November of 2006 Arrival Video's Scott Randolph
and Trey Crease met with The Millbrook Society's Dave Shannon and
Ed Price to discuss the outline for the documentary.
Part of the History of Hatboro is the Battle of Crooked Billet,
when it came time to talk about the battle, Scott said he thought
there could be enough to do a separate DVD just on the skirmish.
About
a week later Scott visited a Hope Lodge event to recruit re-enactors
for the Battle of Crooked Billet. He was invited by John Naulty
of the 1st NJ Volunteers (a British re-enactment group) to join
them at Fort Mifflin the following week.
Scott was escorted around Fort Mifflin by Mitch Baker of the 11th
PA Continental Line. When the regiments heard he wanted to do a
film about Crooked Billet they started saying "Have you talked
to Denis Cooke?", "You need to talk to Denis." Fortunately,
Denis was there with his reenactment group the 5th PA Regiment.

Denis and Scott walked to Denis' car where he showed Scott a very
large volume of information that he has collected about the battle.
Denis had been studying the battle for about ten years. Scott looked
at Denis and said "I thought we could do another DVD on the
battle, I now KNOW we can do another DVD."
After
Fort Mifflin the project snowballed, Dominick DiIorio, also of the
5th PA Regiment, became a producer and coordinator for all of the
re-enactors. This was a huge undertaking to bring together over
100 military and civilian re-enactors.
Many
Historic societies and sites were eager to assist, from The Newtown
Historic Association to Washington Crossing State Park, and many
many more.
The main battle sequences were shot in Warminster Community Park
near where the real battle ended. That day re-enactors came from
all over to participate including Walton, New York and Cincinnati,
Ohio.
Many
individuals and groups volunteered and donated their time, services
and goods to make this production. Without their support this documentary
would have never been made.
The project took 3 1/2 years to complete, it was shot in HD (High
Definition) and the directors cut runs for 72 minutes.
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