Culpepper Minute Battalion, Hunting Shirts and Duck Pouches

 Time to muse again. Maybe if I do, Kobuck will write another useful article that tells you how to do stuff. 

I've been throwing myself into some research of Culpepper Minute Battalion. I've been falling in with the recreated NWTA unit since I was a teenager and recently there has been a push within to try steering into some more updated research or rather, better interpretation of the research that has been there all along. So I've been enjoying looking through Greg Sandors amazing compendium "Journal of the Public Store at Williamsburg 1775-1776". 

 One of the real problems with these "militia" style battalions is we tend to think that "brought from home" means "anything I have laying around becomes fair game" or "wearing just a waistcoat works cause that's all I had. I'm just a poor farmer after all". Getting ourselves further away from this founders day pageant costume approach to living history where everything was homespun and your wife sat weaving her own cloth in the cabin and updating to a view of the incredible economy and vast resources of the 18th century even on the frontier is a struggle. 

 We know from the records they received a lot of oznaburg and linen for hunting shirts. Initially it was thought that these shirts were a pullover style smock. Original recreated Culpepper units would dye them or make them out of green linen or cotton and paint or stitch in big letters LIBERTY or DEATH on the front. It looked cool, but more recent scholarship on the hunting shirt seems to indicate a split front, caped shirt with Liberty or Death embroidered on the breast as a more likely option. 

 

Culpepper Minute Battalion 1996

"We encamped in Clayton's old field (at Catalpa, the home of Philip Clayton). Some had tents, and others huts of plank, &c. The whole regiment appeared according to orders in hunting shirts made of strong brown linen, dyed the color of the leaves of the trees, and on the breast was worked in large white letters the words, "Liberty or Death"! (Green, p.13)

The more plausible appearance of the Minute Battalion Hunting Shirt 

 Another thing we see in the records is a lot of cloth being purchased for leggings with Stroud being reserved for officers of the battalion. 

 Captain William McLanahans company received "49 yards of Blue thicks for Legings" while receiving "best blue stroud for officers".

 

 Another cool aspect that I've at present never seen anyone carry is the duck shot pouch. In October of 1775 the battalion received "88 yds of stout duck for pouches".

 This pouch would fit the bill and was probably a cheap source to get guys supplied with a way to carry ammunition. The following example was made by Adam HL based on an original. 

 There are so many cool details one could bring to this impression and I hope more effort will be made to dispense with the "brought from home" catch all militia impression to something a bit more representative of what we find in the sources. 

 This brought from home idea, the homespun etc should be contrasted with what we actually know about the availability of goods in the backcountry or at the edge of the frontier. In Virginia in the early 1770s, John Hooks store is a prime example. In her book "Buying in the the World of Goods", Ann Smart Martin writes the following :

"The quality, variety and fashionability of the items he stocked belie the pervasive currently held notions of rugged, self-sufficient, backcountry life ; his customers could thumb through the Spectator or  Johnsons Dictionary and handle Backgammon boards, china tea cups and feather plumes."

 She goes on to list an incredible amount of items and goods that certainly turn the homespun rugged frontiersman narrative on its head. It's not that in some places and in some cases this ruggedness didn't exist, we just need to be careful and specific about when, where, who and what when we are portraying something in history. 

In the case of Culpepper's, these men would have been aquanted with the "fashionability" of life in 1770s Virginia and it would reflect in their clothing and accouterments and items "brought from home".  

 

Did you come here in a wagon? And other fun reasons to justify your impression

   

         Just returned from a weekend of catching up with friends and making new ones at the newly formatted Martins Station spring event. There was a lot of great conversations and talks given about frontier life. Two of them that I really enjoyed was given by Nathan Kobuck of the Buffalo Trace 1765 blog and the other by Simeon England in which each talked about the gear of two particular occupations or limited occupations, that of the Longhunter/Market Hunter and the Militia man of the Revolutionary period. Both talks brought up two basic ideas, one, that I'll return to in another post and one that will be the focus of this post, being that as you dig into what makes your persona tic, it's important to go to sources and to understand the wider and broader context of the time period and how it relates to what you're trying to portray. To understand other industries and the economy that these people took for granted by virtue of living it everyday, and how we also take for granted our own time and the ways in which we interact with commerce and everyday commodities. 

    When I was listening I was reminded of a comment made once and one I've heard as an argument to sort of say that theres no real reason to improve an impression. "Did you come here in a wagon? Well then you must not be that authentic." This comment is meant to suggest that if you're not able to completely recreate the conditions of 18th century life, to travel by horse to an event, catch a period disease or live in a cabin with no running water or electricity then somehow you shouldn't offer up any critiques or that since those conditions aren't possible to meet we should throw out all expectations and by extension justify all manner of items documentable or not. It's a line of logic I do not follow. 

    I would therefore like to discuss some things and admit to some things during this post that might help you. I very much tailor my level of immersion to the event. This past weekend at Martins I camped in a "modern" sun forger canvas tent. I kept a cooler behind the tent covered with a blanket that contained our food as well as cans of Coca Cola. Inside my tent was a plastic tub and a modern backpack and fiddle case. Typically at a public event, depending on the scenario, I will lessen the expectations on myself to be this uber authentic person.  HOWEVER, one thing I will not compromise on is what I carry and wear on my person. This is completely and totally under your control. Getting to an event in a wagon, or suddenly not having a modern food pallet is not exactly easy and in most cases impossible. I know after an event the first thing I do is go get fast food because I've been jonesing for it after a weekend of grazing on parched corn, bread and cheese. We are modern people and that is OKAY. But what is not okay, in my mind, is using my need for a cheeseburger after an event to justify wearing a giant antler handle knife made out of a file, or modern glasses or shoes.

    So here are some things to think about or rules of thumb that I use and questions I ask before attending an event. 

    What am I going to be doing at the event? What is my purpose for attending? What is my role in it? 

     If I'm with my unit or we're doing a special thing, I know to prepare for living out of a knapsack and probably sleeping on the ground or in a building with a whole bunch of other people. But if I'm going to be camping with just me and Eileen and we are just hanging for a weekend at a laid back public event like Martins or Vincennes in a couple weeks, we'll bring along some small comforts. What doesn't change though is what I wear and what gear I use. When I walk away from my modern sun forger wedge tent with a cooler of Coca Cola, what I have on my person is the important part. Our plan is though to eventually go from sun forger to a linen tent within the next year or two. Pacing yourself is a good thing. 

    And as a brief side tangent, don't let your gear and clothing not being up to snuff keep you from attending an event. There's great opportunities to learn and most people if you're willing to take the time and put in the effort are more than happy to help you. 

    My philosophy has morphed over the years. At one time I was basically campaigning at every event, not bringing a tent just roughing it every way I could possibly think. But at some point I felt like I needed to take an event by event approach about how "hardcore" I want to be with my camping situation. 

    What shouldn't change though is our commitment to nailing those things we can completely control and that is what we choose to put on and carry on our body to represent the people of the past. If you didn't show up to an event in a wagon, that doesn't make you a farb. But if you use not showing up in a wagon to justify wearing a sleeveless waistcoat over a long shirt, well....