World Turn'd Upside Down

February 3, 2012

Civil War Boy's Jacket Pattern from Godey's Lady's Book

When I went to Antietam, the museum there had a tiny Zouave jacket worn by a musician during the battle. It has fabric covered decorative buttons on the red patterns and was sewn with white thread.The coat was small, it was almost sad to think about the boy wearing it.

I found a very similar jacket pattern in Godey's and wanted to offer the pattern to my readers with children.

I was going to wait to post this until I had it drafted to correct shape and proportions but school has been extremely busy again and it doesn't seem like I'll have a chance to do it for a while. So far I have the back proportioned out correctly but am working on making the front armholes a comfortable curve. My drafting skills are terrible so I am sure someone else could have this drawn out quickly.

January 30, 2012

A Letter of Introduction: Dispatches from Company 'Q'

I have the pleasure of introducing my readers to a new blog by a seasoned blogger and writer, Jeff B. of the 2nd Delaware Volunteer Infantry. He's currently writing a Civil War based blog that focuses on the military side of reenacting and history.

For those of you who do not know Jeff, he is a Northern cousin of my Southern Civil War persona. In his real life he is a photographer, artist and writer. He has always had an interest in history.

He just started reenacting last year and is still learning but is anxious to share his knowledge with newer recruits. He has been doing a lot of good research and I expect to see some great contributions in the future.

His blog was half intended to be a companion blog to mine, covering the areas of reenacting that I don't cover as often, but I have no doubt that it will stand on its own. it's nice to think of them as "sibling sites."

Dispatches from Company 'Q.'

*****A word of caution to my younger and lady readers: My cousin Jeffery has been spending much of his time around soldiers and has picked up quite a few ungentlemanly habits, such as foul language. Please skip his blog if it offends you.

Please check out his blog and don't forget to snag his blog buttons:

January 26, 2012

Marching to the Beat of a Different Drummer

"Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made. Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." - Henry David Thoreau

I am a big Thoreau fan, even if he is considered one of the biggest lazy bums in American history. Thoreau, generally remembered as the recluse who lived in a shack in the woods, who everyone studied back in 10^th grade English class, is rarely remembered for anything else.

Thoreau did move to a cabin in the woods for 2 years of his life; he built his own house, grew his own food and perfected the art of cheap entertainment. He wrote that his goal in moving to Walden Pond was to live an experiment in simplicity and introspection but, it was also a place to give him time to write a book and escape local gossip. At the time, he could not hold a steady job and had little luck in relationships and was mourning the death of his brother.

Despite popular myth, he was not a hermit. He had frequent visitors to the cabin such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Alcott family and even invited people to stay with him. Many people mistakenly think that he was being hypocritical by having guests and accepting food from others. However, his goal was not self-sufficiency in its entirety but an attempt to demonstrate how far societal norms deviated from the necessaries of life. He showed that a man can live working one day a week and enjoying the remaining six, which was his goal. While not having a tremendous impact during his lifetime, his works went on to inspire many influential people, like Mahatma Gandhi, specifically, Civil Disobedience.

Every once in a while I will pick up Walden. Many of his thoughts ring true, even if they are the ramblings of a societal reject. Perhaps living a “solitary life” really did give him the wisdom he sought. I was particularly enthralled with the quote above recently. I have a few friends who recently feel that they are behind the societal norms in their lives. Some are behind in school, some are behind at work and some are behind at love. I myself thought that it was awful when people would ask me the inevitable question, “So, when are you getting married?” only to realize that it’s a different kind of awful when people stop asking as if you've "peaked." :D

I feel that this generation, and succeeding ones, has an increasingly difficult time with society’s timeline for we see everyone’s timelines plastered on the internet (thanks social networking.) We see practically everyone we’ve ever met, graduating, getting married, having children, succeeding in all parts of life and feel discontent with ours.

We also live in a world where few things are what they seem. We compare ourselves to the mirages we see. We don’t see what goes into making a beautiful actress. We look at her and feel inadequate. We don’t see the make-up or airbrushing. We hear a singer and don’t hear the digital enhancement. We just wonder why we’re off. There are many naturally beautiful women and amazing musicians but we spend a lot of time filtering fact from fiction.

It is the same on a personal level for us. Facebook, blogs and websites erect an imperfect cloak upon the lives of others, leaving only glimpses of perfect lives through the holes. It is hard peeling truth from the lie which we are shown.

We should follow our “own drummer” despite naysayers and gossips or what we think everyone else is doing. The world has taken to measuring success and happiness by money because it is an easy universal standard. But money is a poor indication of happiness. Everyone has their own goals, dreams and standards of success. The “good life” of one man in a prison sentence for another, so why do we place these men on the same measuring tape?

This post is dedicated to my friends who should enjoy life as each journey is different and they are not comparable. Make choices that are right for you.

January 21, 2012

Riddles for Colonial Children

From the "Seven Bridges of Königsberg" problem to modern day Sudoku, problems, riddles, conundrums, and puzzles have been entertaining people for centuries.

In 1778, the successors of John Newbery's bookshop offered the public "Food for the Mind: or, A New Riddle Book," assuring its readers that this book would be up to the standards of John Newbery's publications. John Newbery had been the leading publisher of children's books. Books specifically for children were relatively rare at the time.

The riddles in this book are intended to be read by one person to another person or group as the images give away the answer. Imagine, children playing with their siblings. :D The riddles aren't amazingly clever and some lines are added just to fit the rhyme schemes.

If the author thought the picture was unclear, the answer was written as in this example, "eyelids."

Unfortunately, the author didn't identify this one with words. This one is a complete puzzle to me. Maybe it will be really obvious to someone else. I have a couple of theories of what it might be, but don't want to tarnish fresh eyes.

These riddles seem like they would be fun for colonial children to read to each other in the schoolyard. I remember having my friends and I playing puzzle games at recess in elementary school. This is one of those times when you realize that human nature changes very little from generation to generation even if the situations seem completely different.

January 17, 2012

Trip to Antietam

This past trip, I finally got to visit Antietam. It was my first time going and although it was very windy, we still got to see everything we planned to. I was very excited to finally get to see this battlefield, as it was a battle that my Civil War ancestor fought in. He was in the 124th Pennsylvania which fought there only six weeks after enlisting.

We took with us an excerpt of a journal from a Sergeant in the 124th, Charles Broomhall. He was in a different company from my ancestor but their experiences were probably similar. The boys in company D are familiar local names. In fact, I work at the house of company D's 1st Lieutenant.

The journal, while probably based on a real journal, reads more like memoirs and may have been in the process of being prepared for publication.

For September 17th 1862, he wrote:

" At the commencement of the battle at day dawn, our boys had been listening to the stray shots on the edge of the 1st named woods called the East Woods, the rebels had come through the corn and deployed pickets on the edge of the East Woods. Our pickets were deployed in the edge of this woods, consequently, at daylight the two picket lines found themselves face to face and that caused the suddenness of the onset. Our brigade was about æ of a mile to the right and rear, and our regiment was brought up to near the clear sod field first spoken of while shot and shell went fluttering over our heads like partridges for sound. We were soon formed in line of battle at right angles to the turnpike and also at right angles to the lines which were doing the fighting, about 700 yards distant. A good number of wounded were now passing to the rear and this was the first sight of battle we had seen and the blood also, and it shook the nerves of some of the boys. The shells crashing through the trees and fluttering overhead as well as the musketry in advance of the left, all contributed to mark the time, and place, fixed in one's memory forever. We now advanced to the edge of the cleared field adjoining the cornfield. There we halted for a few minutes, our right resting on or a little across the pike and in a small grove. Here old Gen. Mansfield rode up to Gen Crawford who was within a few feet of me, and told him to hold this woods as we were hard pressed on the center. Fine old man that was the last I ever saw of him, as he was shot a few moments after, but we advanced with fixed bayonets across this open field on the cornfield, with a great hurrah, and as our regiment was a large one compared with those of a year old, the rebels got out of that corn in a hurry across the fire into a field near J. Miller's barn and into the woods a little further to the South, but they had been roughly handled before we got to this part of the field we now advanced into this cornfield and were halted. Our company was among the rebel wounded. We got the order to lie down. I was so close to the rebel wounded, one in particular, that I had to separate myself from the company. One man was moaning and asking for water. Ben Green gave him some, had to pour it down him. I hadn't a drop in my canteen. The poor fellow said he was from South Carolina and had been forced into the war. He died while we laid there."

Taken from in the Sunken Road

His journal is very interesting and descriptive, especially his details about the physical landscape. Not having seen the field before, I would never have believed it was so hilly. Broomhall elaborates " We marched over a most circuitous, rough, hilly road," which was an understatement. It was chilling reading his account. The battlefield is small but well worth the visit. It seems insane that any fighting could have taken place there at all.

A larger excerpt of his diary about the battle of Antietam can be read at History Lost and Found. It was transcribed by Carolyn Ivanoff.