Category: Reenacting

Monmouth Overview

On By kittycalashIn Events, Reenacting13 Comments
Cricket!

Yes, I’m tired, but what a great weekend. Even Cricket seems to have been happy. (Yes, I know pugs don’t smile and I know brachycephalic dogs have a hard time breathing, and Cricket was hot, but he did also seem pretty happy to be out in a field under a tree.) The worst of it was getting there: what should have been a 4-5 hour trip took 7 and a quarter hours, thank you New Jersey Turnpike shore traffic. Even people who left New England at 10 had 6-hour journeys, so leaving earlier would not have helped. Also, we would not have been ready as there were very last-minute gear and food assemblies required. This lengthy journey did allow us the chance to play an extended game of “what the hell is that smell?” The unfortunate winner turned out to be Mr S, who guessed cat pee, but that’s a story for another post, or perhaps for Jackson Galaxy.

Mr S on “Chair” made from stacked firewood. It works.

After erecting tents in the gloaming, including one we’d not been able to check out at home due to heavy work schedules and slight matter of incessant rain, we crashed in our clothes on straw beds and made it to Saturday. Saturday brought coffee, thank goodness, and thanks to Tew’s Company’s willingness to share their fire. (Fire good.) I finally found the camp kitchens on the map, but never walked out to them—happy trails militia folks, but the earthen kitchens were too far from our part of the Continental camp to be really practical. So we made like light infantry and perched on firewood under a tree, ate cold rations and scammed off the hat regiment.

Coming off the field, Sunday

There were plenty of sutlers, but I did not buy 5 yards of the cross barred white and blue at Burnley & Trowbridge to replicate the oyster seller gown because really, first I have to make the black heart cherry gown. I did buy a new hat and ribbon, and pair of more appropriate shears, and most satisfying of all, shoes. I have Burnley and Trowbridge shoes, and while the width is fine and narrow, the length is not and arch support is absent. By the end of a day, my feet and I are miserable, which reduces my stamina and increases my hip pain. (I have arthritis, and had my right hip replaced 2-and-a-half years ago; I’m not that old, but my femoral heads have high mileage.) On the recommendation of several friends, and despite the rubber heels, I tried Flying Canoe shoes. Though a trifle wide, the length was right and I was sold. They vastly improved my outlook and stamina, so were worth the heel cap compromise, with many thanks to my mother for an early birthday present she doesn’t yet know she bought me.

Starting to pack

So, topics for this week in some form and combination:

  • 18th century sno-cones
  • A sense of belonging
  • Future menu plans
  • The public and the spectacle
  • Monmouth Battlefield State Park Visitor Center Design
  • Shopping & Visiting
  • Bed sacks
  • There will be laundry

In the meantime, pictures are on Flickr. Lesson for today: Do not turn your back after giving a man your camera.

Monmouth Menus

On By kittycalashIn Events, Food, Living History, Reenacting6 Comments

Food: It is always on my mind, even cataloging. When the tan and brown and black colors of a sampler make me think of Tiramisu,  I know it’s time to wrap up work for the day. But food is particularly on my mind this week, as I plan and calculate for Monmouth, hoping to use the lessons I’ve learned in the past instead of just being anxious. I know it’s not a test, but it feels like one, somehow.

The Young Mr has aged suddenly, in Don Draper’s kitchen.

Continental rations were supposed to be a pound of beef and a pound of flour a day for man, half that for a woman employed by the army and a quarter of that for a child. The Young Mr (who isn’t really a child and is sort of a soldier) would get more if he was really a drummer… but in any case, we’re looking at 2 + ½ + ¼ or 2 ¾ pounds of beef and the equivalent of flour at a minimum to feed two soldiers, a woman, and a child per day (at a minimum, I expect to feed the adjutant as well as ourselves).

I float out ideas like fire cake or pudding to take account of the flour, but Mr S reels me in and suggests that we should stick to what we know until we can test other ideas on the landlord’s fire pit. We shall substitute bread, therefore, and I probably will not make a nuisance of myself at the bakery or the grocery and ask them to weigh the loaves, as I have my own kitchen scale and can obsess about this in the comfort of our home.

Too fancy! From the Complete Housewife.
Too fancy! From the Complete Housewife.

My plan is about the same as every camp dining plan: that’s suitable, given the repetitive nature of Army rations (and the repetitive complaints of the soldiers, echoed in every war).

Friday
Pasties. They keep and travel well.

Saturday Morning
Bread, cheese, strawberries, eggs
Ideally, I’ll find a farm stand where I can buy local strawberries, but we will only get into a discussion of what exactly would have been in season on New Jersey in June 1778, which leads to a discussion of global heating.

Saturday Lunch
Bread, cheese, ham, cookies from home

Saturday Dinner
Beef stew and bread, strawberries, cookies from home

Sunday Morning
Bread, cheese, fruit, eggs

Sunday Lunch
Bread cheese, ham, and anything that’s left

This is essentially the same plan that I had for OSV last year, with the biggest sticking points being: will I remember the eggs? Will I manage coffee? I’m not very good at anything until I have coffee, or some kind of caffeine, which could be a challenge this time around. There’s an ice truck scheduled to go through the camps, but what I want to know is, when’s the coffee truck coming?

New Model Army Stove

On By kittycalashIn Events, Food, Living History, Reenacting7 Comments
From the BAR FB page.
From the BAR FB page.

Cooking and eating will be different at Monmouth, because there will be camp kitchens.

This means two things that give me stomachaches: trying something new in public and sharing with strangers. How to alleviate this discomfort? Research, of course, because we don’t think our landlord wants to have an 18th century camp kitchen in our yard, even as an attraction or energy saving option. (Nor have we figured out how to ask him about the hanging-chicken-cooking experiment we want to try using the metal fire pit he lights for snuggling with his many girlfriends.) For more on camp kitchens, you can read John U. Rees’s article here, or check out the work done on the common British soldier in America by the 18th century Material Culture Center.

"D" are the kitchens.
The circles are the kitchens.

With a camp kitchen, we can leave our three sticks at home. Kitchens are also far more authentic for a large camp (see the plan from von Steuben at right). I’ve also read that it’s quicker than cooking over an open fire, which is a plus.

A large heap of earth cannot be good in a downpour.
A large heap of earth cannot be good in a downpour.

The main downside that I can see to a camp kitchen is rain: from the photo and this drawing, you can imagine for yourself the results of a downpour. At least it’s going to be drier there by the end of the week…

HSF # 11: Squares, Rectangles and Triangles

On By kittycalashIn Clothing, Historical Sew Fortnightly, Reenacting1 Comment
Hunting frock from the side. Just two sizes of one curve

I drifted away from the HSF. While, at some point, I had plans for HSF #11: Squares, Rectangles and Triangles, and they were even written down somewhere, something like table clearing and recycling happened…but, hey wait a minute, if you will allow me one curve done twice, I give you the Hunting Frock! (also, the checked bag).

Since there was a search for “best rifle frock for rev war reenacting,” I think this probably bears going into.

Presented, for your consideration, The Facts.

The Challenge:  HSF #11: Squares, Rectangles and Triangles

Without fringes or hem

Fabric: 100% “Osnaburg” linen, acquired from Henry M. Cooke IV of Historical Costume Services. I think he orders from the Ulster Linen Co. We are talking bolts here, people.

Pattern: Cut by Mr. Cooke, who used a yardstick, chalk, and an extant shirt (for the cape curve). I have watched him cut two now, and it’s pretty cool.

Year: 1778-1781 <choke> I forgot to ask.

Notions: Does thread count? That’s all this takes.

resolver

How historically accurate is it? Based on Mr. Cooke’s research into the hunting shirts worn by Massachusetts troops, and revised to reflect recent research by Neal Hurst, this frock pattern reflects the most current, accurate representation of the hunting frocks (sometimes called shirts) worn by Continental troops during the American Revolutionary War. The garment is entirely hand-sewn using, as much as possible, the correct (thankfully basic) stitches. Flat-felled seams, all that good stuff. Any place it is incorrect is purely my own genius.

Triangles and trapezoids!

Hours to complete: Remember those soul-crushing hours? Yes, these were among them. Actually, no, it’s not too bad. Perhaps twenty-four? You can power down on one of these, but even once you have the initial fringing done and the fringes attached, you will have more thread-pulling ahead of you.

First worn: Monday, May 27, 2013, for the Memorial Day Parade in Warren, Rhode Island.

Total cost: $45, for the linen and the cutting. Your mileage may vary, as the Young Mr and Mr S are in the regiment for which Mr. Cooke is the adjutant.

Hunting Shirt/Frock Schematic
Hunting Shirt/Frock Schematic, no scale whatsoever

To the person looking for the “best rifle frock for rev war reenacting,” I have to say, it depends. If you are with a Rhode Island regiment, for example, the linen you choose could be brighter, to reflect the fact that the state called for “whitened towcloth” for hunting frocks for Rhode Island troops. I have found some I think might be likely at Burnley and Trowbridge, but I have not checked it with the RI captain. You need to know if your regiment or group favors hunting shirts (pull over) or hunting frocks (open down the front), and then you need to figure out what kind of linen they were wearing in the period.

But, like a shirt of the period, these garments are very simple: triangles for the gussets (or squares), rectangles, and just the curved cape. The pattern (schematic) at right is adapted from what I have seen Mr. Cooke cut, which is quite similar to the Brigade of the American Revolution pattern I had for the Rhode Island frock I made (also entirely by hand). Since these were so close to shirts, they would have been very easy to construct, and since they’re large, measurements could be generalized. The BAR pattern does not use the under-arm gussets, and the sleeves are not tapered; there is more fringe on the standard Rhode Island frock than on the Massachusetts frock, but there seem to have been variations at the time.

You may also wish to consider whether or not there is a difference between hunting frocks and rifle frocks (I do not know, please don’t ask, I wasn’t told this would be on the test).

For more, here is Neal Hurst, on Fringe on the American Hunting Frock. You can read it before or after you pull threads out of those two inch strips until only 6 to 8 remain in the center. Happy fringing!