“Fire, Smoke and Muskets,” an event to commemorate the 240th anniversary of the Battle of the Hook, will be held Saturday and Sunday in and around the Gloucester court circle.

The free event, sponsored by the Gloucester History Museum, will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

The 1781 battle, the largest cavalry action of the Revolutionary War, took place in lower Gloucester County. The Duc du Lazun’s Legion and Lt. Col. John Mercer’s Select Battalion of Militia defeated Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s British Legion and a detachment of Royal Welch Fusiliers, ended the Crown’s foraging operations on the north side of the York River and cut off a possible avenue of escape.

Museums Coordinator Robert Kelly said George Washington realized that for the British in Yorktown, their only escape was to the north, through Gloucester.

Kelly said Washington sent the French Legion to engage the British to ensure they would have no escape. On Oct. 19, 1781, a little more than two week...