YOUNGSTOWN – Snow crunched underfoot as Adrian Rittner, resplendent in the red wool uniform of a British military officer, entered the outer reaches of wooded Fort Niagara State Park around 5:15 this morning. True darkness enveloped him as the lights of modern day Youngstown faded behind him and the moon hid behind hazy cloud cover.

“It really puts you in the state of mind of what it was like 200 years ago,” said the Niagara Falls, Ont., resident.

He was one of about 125 re-enactors portraying British soldiers who took part in a predawn 5-mile march this morning from Lewiston to Old Fort Niagara to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the British siege of the fort during the War of 1812 at this precise time on this exact date....