150th Chancellorsville Reenactment

Wow! What an event. We just returned from the Chancellorsville reenactment in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The weather was cool and hoods and shawls were the fashion of the weekend. Chancellorsville is well known for being the place where Stonewall Jackson was shot by friendly fire and subsequently died, causing a lot of problems for the Confederates.

At the end of April in 1863, Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker crossed the Rappahannock River in eastern Virginia, placing his troops in a great position to attack Confederate Maj. Gen. Robert E. Lee's exposed flank.

Gen. Jackson quickly moved 30,000 Confederates over the river in a circular sweep, placing his troops on Hooker's right flank, a daring achievement.  The Confederates caught the Union off guard while they were eating breakfast. It was said to be General Lee's best command.

The battles were large and although I only got to witness Saturday's battle, the battle on Sunday sounded like the most fun I have ever heard from a battle reenactment. Throughout the whole battle, there was constant fire from battalions as well as a line of cannon. The rebel yells were constant and could be heard all the way in our camp.  

There were many specialty impressions at this event, including the more obvious Lee and Jackson and some not so often seen such as Thadeus Lowe with his observation balloon.

There was a small museum that put the town into its historical context during the war. The museum had a lot of interesting pieces from thousands of years ago to the people who founded the area in the 1600s and the town's Civil War history. 



It was also home to one of the most hysterical displays I've ever seen. :) The museum is haunted and I was lucky enough not to just catch a photo of one ghost but of a lot of ghosts.

Sign "Ghosts, lot, Circa 1864: Acc# 1864. 

That's a hysterically great way to fill an empty display case.

We went to see the battlefields on Saturday night but only had time to see a couple of things here and there. It was about a 5 hour drive for us, so we knew we wouldn't be back there any time soon. Andy commented that he did not realize that some of the battlefields there were so built up. I knew they were in trouble but didn't realize that the Sunken Road at Fredericksburg stood looking at a neighborhood. The CWT is trying to purchase land at Chancellorsville to protect some of the important sites during the battle. Through matching donations, each $1 they collect will be multiplied by 13. So even a $5 donation will become $65 dollars. Please donate, if you can.

It was a fantastic event overall.  

How to Make a Colonial Era Sugar Cone or Sugar Loaf

During the Colonial period, refined white sugar was commercially available in the shape of cones, or loafs because of the processing technique used to refine the sugar. Sugar during this period came primarily from the Caribbean and was typically the product of slave labor.

In simplistic terms raw sugar from sugar cane was boiled and filtered a number of times, then poured into cone-shaped molds. Once in the mold, sugar water or other solution was poured over the sugar to remove the excess cane molasses. The sugar loaves were then removed from the molds and dried. Many loaves during the period were wrapped in blue paper for shipping. 


Fine sugar came in smaller cones and cheaper sugar came in bigger cones as lower quality sugar was more difficult to crystallize and worked better in bigger molds.     

Sugar Cone Prop Recipe

Things you'll need:

- Sugar (white)
- Mold or glass
- Cooking Spray
- Water

Things you will need.

Spray mold with cooking spray. Add water to sugar. There is no real formula for how much water should be added. Just add a few teaspoons at a time until your sugar sticks to itself but not so much that it is "slushy." It should have the consistency of brown sugar. Add sugar slowly into the mold, being sure to pack it down every few spoonfuls. Let sugar dry in mold for a few days. Tap out the sugar and feel for any softness, if still soft, let dry out of the mold for another day. 

Sugar "slush."

Pack it down.

Let it dry.

Enjoy your sugar! Sugar cones had to be broken with sugar nippers before use. (Pictured in top image.)

I've had some questions about brown sugar cones, as many Mexican grocery stores still sell brown sugar cones. I have not come across evidence of brown sugar cones during this period as the cone shape came from the refining process. If anyone has evidence to the contrary, I would love to know of it. As of right now, brown sugar cones don't seem to belong to the 13 colonies during the Colonial period. 

Lincoln's Bixby Letter: A Study in Sources

The Bixby Letter has enchanted millions since its publication in 1864. The letter was reportedly written by Abraham Lincoln in 1864 to Lydia Bixby after hearing that her five sons had died in the Union army.











The letter was as follows: 

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.
Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln

The letter was printed in The Boston Evening Transcript the same day it was delivered to Lydia Bixby. The letter was read in the movie, Saving Private Ryan and even read at the World Trade Center site by George W. Bush during the 10th anniversary ceremony in 2011. 

 Primary sources are a historians best friend but this particular letter is a great example of why primary sources can be deceiving and should only be a part of a historians research. 

From this letter, one can get some basic facts:

1. Mrs. Bixby lost five sons in the Union army.
2. President Lincoln wrote a letter of condolence to her.  

However, through more research we find out that while five of her sons were in the Union army only two of her sons died during the war. Did Mrs. Bixby not know the fate of her sons at the time she reported they all had died? Did she exaggerate in an attempt to gain compensation? No one is sure, but the fact is that facts reported incorrectly in a primary source can trip up a researcher who might assume that primary sources are the most accurate sources. 

Another problem with the Bixby letter is that many historians dispute who actually wrote the letter. Lincoln was very busy the week that it was written and some evidence points to the probability that his secretary John Hay wrote it. 

There's even more to the story. Mrs. Bixby was living in Massachusetts but she was reportedly from Virginia and was still supporting the southern cause, despite having her sons in the Union army. One of her sons said that his mother ripped the letter up upon its receipt. No one is sure how the newspaper got a copy of it or if it received the original and the original hasn't been located, although there are many forgeries and copies. 

It is very important to analyze sources and to find corroboration with other sources of evidence. It is also important to see what other historians have written about sources you find. Sometimes other researchers realize something that you did not or propose theories that seem likely. 

It is easy to fall into these traps and new researchers frequently do. I know I certainly did when I started researching. Even today, we don't just trust one source of news. We shouldn't blindly believe every account we read unless there is subsequent evidence to back it up.   

As a side note: If you have the original Bixby letter, it's said that it would fetch millions at auction. :)    

Neshaminy Reenactment 2013

First event of the season has officially ended. It was cold but still generally enjoyable. The event is small, relaxed and located along the water.

The event typically has a long tactical in the woods before the battle for the spectators begin The boys like it because it is unscripted and over brush and leaves and is between the trees. Typically they have so much fun in the woods that the spectator battle ends up being pretty short. I decided against bringing my camera on Saturday but got it for Sunday's battle.

Our events are coming up fast this year as there are a lot of big 150th anniversary events and no one wants to miss any of them. I'll keep everyone posted and hope to post more as school dies down. I miss everyone in the blogosphere and hope we'll all get to reconnect soon.


Some of Sunday's Battle:

Of course, I witnessed most of the battle like this:

There were a lot of neat specialty displays at the event, such as this medical display:

Overall it was a fun event. Hope all the events this year go well!

Colonial Quakers and Silhouettes

In colonial times it was fashionable for wealthy Americans to have paintings or small miniatures made of loved ones. For many this was prohibitively expensive but middle class families, especially those in the country, could have silhouettes made of their family members relatively inexpensively.

A silhouette, known then as "profiles" or "shades", were line portraits with no internal detail. Many of these were cut from paper and glued to contrasting paper but some were painted. They typically were 3 to 5 inches in length. Varying methods were used to produce the profile, some used light to trace the shadow of a portrait sitter, others were drawn quickly by artists.

One popular method of creating silhouettes involved folding the paper into four so that the cutter could make four copies of the same silhouette at once. These could then be given away or exchanged. Silhouettes could also be easily traced and copied if more were needed.     

Along with country folk and the middling class, silhouettes appealed to Quakers, even wealthy ones, due to the simplistic nature of the art and the cost. Quakers felt that silhouettes did not emphasize class or vanity as many paintings did.

Silhouettes were also of interest at the time as theories of physiognomy at the time claimed that a person's character could be read through the face.  Silhouettes were popular until the invention and spread of the Daguerreotype in the 1840s.

In modern times, silhouettes are made easily using photography and computers. There are many tutorials showing how to do it. But if you wanted to do it the old fashioned way, profiles tend to be relatively easy for people to draw.  

Resources:

Clark, Joanna. "Quaker Silhouettes." The Friend: The Quaker Magazine. http://www.thefriend.org/article/quaker-silhouettes (accessed April 11, 2013).

Verplank, Anne. "The Silhouette and Quaker Identity in Early National Philadelphia." Winterthur Portfolio 43, No. 1 (2009): 41-79.