Servant

Back to Dobbs, where the ratio of women, children, and dogs to Provincial soldiers is just right for an 18th-century frontier fort. Sandbyland. Lovely Carolina weather: 80 degrees during the day, 30 at night. The site director kindly allowed his drunkenness to be a valet for two days, a chance to up the common soldier game and stay busy. The Letenant's dual role made him hard to locate at times, but his possessions were always handy.

Friday was school day at the site. Showing 500 children how a musket works has it's moments. When asked about the practicality of the mid-18th century uniform, one young girl quipped "it was probably the swag of the day." Still time in the evening for work. Shoes need cleaning and black ball. Hot water from the laundress is helpful. The officer's coat is thoroughly brushed, tape restitched, and a pocket flap repaired. A vain fellow, our officer cannot grow long hair, so his wig needs redressing.

All this happens after hours, which begs the question if you interpret history and no one is there to see it, what's the point? The skills are still useful. The laundresses experimented with indigo in their rinse water to get just the right shade of blue for white linen. The public has a role to play, but are they required? It's a challenge to mesh the duties of the soldier with those of the servant: dressing both of us before formation, and preparing a noon day meal right after drill. Always keep the port glass full.

 Meanwhile, Red Shoes laundry boils dozens of shirts and stockings in the blazing sun. After drying, stockings are darned and repaired. Not everyone has this level of obsession. Others get bored easily. The officer's clean shirts have no marks: time to paint initials on them. The scrounged tablecloth needs mending. Here is hobby as work. Dressing the part and learning facts is only half the battle.

With enough fatigue it's possible to stuff a huge rag down a dry musket barrel while cleaning. Rookie mistake #5 means a stuck rammer and barrel removal with primitive tools. Thanks to Todd and his viselike grip the breech plug came out. Blacksmiths are 18th-century superheros. The servant role requires further exploration, but next time we'll start an early 19th century summer suit.      

Details

He reeks of tobacco more that usual. Watchman Langford sits on his cold bed, undressing. He smoked his week's allowance in a single night. The glob of what looks like egg on his shoe must be Samuel Gray's brains. At least he has stopped shaking: a mixture of exhaustion, fear, and rage. As he enters his tiny room at dawn he barely notices the new red cloth hanging from his neighbor's window. Smallpox quarantine. Time for some rest. Not sleep, there has been no sleep for days. He hates his job and he is beginning to hate his adoptive home of Boston.

We are in strange territory. It's fun to dress in old timey clothes and shoot muskets, but it gets boring. It feels strangely inadequate to play the part of an actual person in 1770 Boston and not know about his life and motivations.  We are trapped between costuming and some sort of experimental theater. At the same time, the fossil view of history is equally strange. Some tiny percentage of dinosaurs actually died in the right place at the right time to get fossilized. Discovery Channel does cool shows, but there are tons of critters we may never know about. So many missing details.

Replicating what survives in museums and basing clothing on one or two period images is better than just making things up, but there is so much more out there. Most reenactors spend weekends pretending to be at war, socializing on Saturday night, with repeat performances on Sunday (often slower due to hangover.) If there is interaction with the public, it takes the form of a lecture on historic facts or basic musket function. Humans are comforted by ritual, and the public has come to expect this routine. They may or may not learn anything.

While faux battles are exciting, the dogs, chickens, laundry, drunks, women, and children seen in period illustrations are missing. It's the fossil view. Living history needs more (God help me) Hollywood. There has to be a way to add mundane things back.

These folks are well on their way. While the site raises money to rebuilt the mid-18th century fort that once stood here, life on the Carolina frontier continues. Rumors of Cherokee attack bring refugees from surrounding farms. Laundry gets washed, beer is brewed. Have a look inside the cabin the Provincials built to survive the winter until the fort is finished.

Four months after he was hired, Langford watched the regulars march into Boston with fife and drum, colors flying. His life became much more complicated. No more walking his beat alone. His partner, Constable Burdick never hesitated or showed fear. When soldiers disobeyed him or caused trouble, Burdick simply beat them. As an Anglican, Langford loves his king, but his representatives treat everyone in the town like dirt. Night watchmen have little authority, even less with men in uniform.

The winter of 1770 terrified Langford. He was used to scuffling with groups of teens some nights, chasing the howling urchins with their three-legged dog, but never catching them. He watched a pretty street vendor steal fence posts for firewood, but chose not to stop stop her. Now there were mobs marching with effigies, bond fires, children shot, houses being torn down, and he felt helpless. Foreign sailors from god-knows-where brawled and swore.  His threats of jail fell on deaf ears. Burdick started carrying a sword. Home and safe, Langford curled in a ball and closed his eyes. The grim face of Private Killroy illuminated by the pan flash of his musket would not leave him.

Why can be as important as what you wear.    

Born Again Hard

So this happened.

The folks who took the real time battlefield tour in Princeton, NJ this year got a surprise.  A Pennsylvania Associator company appeared right where they were in 1776. We maneuvered and fired as if fighting ghosts of the 17th Regiment of Foot. We marched all night to get there.

The scheme started with some young chaps determined to recreate Charles Wilson Peale's Company for one weekend. Seldom do we get to test our gear and clothes to the limit. It all started at the Old Barracks in Trenton on Friday. Thirty-odd souls assembled in uniforms specific to the Philadelphia militia of the period. We drilled, rations were issued and cooking was by mess. We were entreated to sign on for another six weeks to save the cause.

Thomas Paine's The American Crisis read aloud by bondfire is inspiring. Sleep was hard to come by as his Excellency General Washington ordered us to march around the enemy at midnight. The plan was to fall on the rear guard in Princeton. The roads are still there, replaced by pavement and the distance is thirteen miles. A cold moon lit the way.

Those who marched were changed by the experience. A few impressions remain: the drummer with an ice sheet forming under his canteen; blistered hands leaking under the weight of a shifting musket; the hissing of leather shoes; the best pea soup ever; sparkling frost on gaitors at dawn. It's why we do this.      

Ken Doll

When I started the silly, silly hobby of living history 15 years ago, I was hugely intimidated. It is expensive. Sewing was not something I had ever even considered. Time to learn new things. In the beginning, patience is crucial. Way too easy to go to Jo-Ann's Fabrics and buy whatever. It's a good way to learn how to sew, but a waste of money. Thank the FSM for mentors and the internet. Even though I remember life before computers, I'm not sure how anyone shared knowledge.

I remember thinking "I'll just make the one outfit." Eventually, the clothes rod in the guestroom closet collapses under the load of historic garments and scares the hell out of the cats. The key is finding the most common clothing for your place, period and gender. Forget what you think looks cool or what others are doing. If you are recreating a 21st-century American male tourist you would need jeans and a t-shirt, not a fez and a bow tie (fezes ARE cool.)

Access to paintings, letters, journals, and periodicals from most time periods is stupidly easy to come by. Research enough and you start to see patterns. Ignore those who cannot prove their assertions without evidence. Take constructive criticism gladly. Share what you find. Eventually, you can mix and match your outfits and need only make a couple things a year. Good luck stopping once you get started.

Courtesy of Wilson Friedman Historically Speaking