Parades, July 4, 2018

Per the usual observances, Company C of the 4th US Regular Infantry participated in Dupont and Steilacoom Independence Day Parades.

A Fine-Looking Crew

Photo courtesy Mr. Talbot.

Union Gap, 2018

Double event weekend, with some 4th members travelling to Union Gap for the annual WCWA event, and others at Puyallup's 'Meeker Days'.  A very hot weekend either way, but participants of each event reportedly enjoyed themselves.

The ladies congregated in Mrs. Flores' parlor.

...and were joined by a most peculiar individual.

The privates take a break from striking tents,
in order to enact a morality tale about temperance.

Deep Creek

Memorial Day weekend saw the WCWA's final Battle of Deep Creek, near Spokane.  This was my first event many years ago, and though I couldn't attend this year, other members of the 4th did.  It even made the paper. 

Work Party

Mea culpa. Last season got ahead of me, and this blog, unfortunately, fell behind.

Let's see if the 2018 season goes any smoother.

The group has already had a full off-season of demonstrations and recruiting events: the Puyallup Antique Show, Cascade Mountain Man Show, a living history day at the Ft. Lewis museum, and a boy scout outing, among others.  We also had the usual pre-season work party, to get the company's tents and gear in order for the summer.  As usual, a large quantity of rain also decided to attend.

Coming up soon: the WCWA's School of the Soldier at Union Gap, and the Armed Forces Day living history event at Fort Lewis.

Updating Dresses

The Seamstress (1858) by Charles Baugniet 

The ladies of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford aren't alone in their practice of  'elegant economy'.  Altering dresses to keep up with the prevailing style is a recurring theme in stories and magazine articles of the 1860s.

"Nothing, it seems to us, could be more graceful in a lady, in these times, than a little self-denial. Alter, turn, and freshen the dress that is passe. Buy new frames, and make new bonnets of the old. The dress that has been worn one season,--why not wear it another?" -The Ladies Repository 1865

Instructions from 1862 (appearing in both Godey's and Genessee Farmer) recommend disassembling a silk dress for washing, and taking the opportunity to update the sleeves. This is hardly a new practice: in The Behavior Book (1839/55), Miss Leslie advises buying an extra 1.5-2 yards when purchasing dress material, so that there fabric in reserve for new sleeves and any mending or alteration that may come up.

"Old Basquines can be modernized by cutting them shorter, especially in the front, and by making the sleeves narrow." -Peterson's, July 1865.

Peterson's and Godey's both ran the same article in 1862 about updating and widening plain, 2 or 3 flounce skirts.

Peterson's (1862) has tips for stylishly remaking dresses:

There have been but few new goods imported this season, economy being the order of the day. Old dresses are "made to look like new" as nearly as possible. Skirts worn out at the bottom are renewed or lengthened by a bias band, plaiting or ruffle, or silk of black or some color contrasting well with the dress. In this way two old dresses often make one stylish new one. Then antiquated bodies or worn out bodies are discarded and jaunty Zonave jackets with white shirt bodies and sleeves, or Garibaldi shirts, take their place. As the season advances, pique or Marseilles will take the place of silk or flannel for these articles.

A recurring motif in period stories is the economically-minded middle class woman in her re-made finery--occupying the same economic perch as the March family from Little Women.  I find it telling that quality of the material is the limiting factor in these cases: the labor to mend, alter, clean, and re-work these old dresses is no barrier to wear.

"On the bed lay my dress that poor old Swiss which I had worn ever since leaving off short frocks. It had been pieced down and tucked for this occasion; my own hands had clear-starched it to the last degree of sheerness and mamma by much contrivance had managed to procure fresh sash and gloves." 

"I cannot afford a new gown for you, Kate; but we will have Miss Brown to make over my green brocade."  

--"Katy Keith" and "Five Years" in Harper's New Monthly Magazine (1863)

Another Godey's 1862 article outlines various re-making practices, including cutting down old dresses for petticoats, mantles, children's clothing, etc.  Again, labor is cheap (assumed free), but the material is viewed as pricey enough to warrant recycling.

A favorite reference for resourcefulness is the 1866 Godey's article "Dress Under Difficulties", which recounts the tricks blockaded Southern women used to freshen their wardrobes.  While not all techniques will apply outside of late-war Southern impressions, I think the piece offers some insight into how problems of dress were considered and addressed.  It also has some interesting hints at how long certain garments were expected to be in service: the author notes, for instance, an "organdy muslin dress" lasting five summers or a crepe bonnet lasting three seasons (with the implication that these were impressively long periods).

Work Party/April Meeting

Saturday, April 1 was the 4th's spring work party. In addition to an open-air business meeting, we also set up some of the company tents to assess their condition. In a delightful turn of events, the pavillion tent was found to be significantly more useful than previously believed, and it is to incorporated into the field hospital this summer. Against all expectations, the weather held, so no canvas was put away wet.

Living History Symposium

(Cross-posted from my own blog: this isn't a 4th US event, but it is highly relevant)

Dear Living Historians, Historical Interpreters, and Reenactors:

You are cordially invited to a Living History Symposium on Sunday, March 26, 2017, from 12-4 in the afternoon. Guest speakers will be presenting on a variety of mid-nineteenth century subjects, to share their research and help you 'round out' your impression. The current offerings include:

*Dining in the 1850s & 1860s

*Early Photography

*Food Preservation

*The Genteel Hobby of Gardening

*Yeast and Innovations in Leavening

*Mrs. Mowett's Interactive Etiquette 

A tour of Historic Fort Steilacoom will commence at noon. The presentations will be held in Quarters 2, starting at 1pm. There is no charge to attend; visitors are advised to bring a water bottle. Feel free to invite your friends!

Please RSVP on the Facebook event, so we know how many attendees to expect.

Monroe Mountain Men Show

Last weekend, the 4th hosted a recruitment booth at the Cascade Mountain Men's Annual Gun Show in Monroe, WA.  While the authoress was unable to attend, popular report indicates a successful event.  Mr. Ryder's new signs were displayed to great effect, certainly assisted the group's efforts.

The 4th's booth, image courtesy of Mr. Talbot.

Event Weekend: Antique Show and Craft Party

Over the weekend, members of the 4th held a display at the Puyallup Antique Show.  The monthly member meeting also occurred on Saturday--thanks to Mr. Talbot for supplying pizza to the assembled multitudes.

On Sunday, a particular sporting event truncated the Antique Show, so many of the civilians (and Mr. Talbot), met to share tea and company.

Event: Fort Steilacoom Christmas.

December 10th was very busy day for the 4th.  After the ceremony for Mr. and Mrs. Powers, we participated in Fort Steilacoom's Christmas Candlelight Tour.  The year was 1859 and, with much of the 4th Infantry still up on San Juan Island for the Pig War, the 9th garrisoned the fort. Col. Casey, however, had recently returned to Steilacoom, and those in residence found time for some holiday observances.  

Yours truly called the dance figures for
a fine group of young officers and ladies.

Mr. Miller was seen enjoying the company of Col. and Mrs. Casey.
He seems to have evaded the photographer.

Captain Jones visits other officers in the bachelors' quarters.

Mr. Talbot and the boys are finally allowed indoors,
after a long evening on sentry duty.

[The editress again apologizes for the tardiness of this piece.  The festive season has been unfortunately busy.]

Event: ACW Soldier Interment

On Saturday, December 10, the 4th US participated in a burial service for James and Irena Powers at Tahoma National Cemetery. Mr. Powers served with the 12th Michigan Volunteers during the Civil War.  Although Mr. & Mrs. Powers died in Seattle in the 1920s, their ashes were not interred until now, in 2016.

Irena Powers (1847-1928)

James Powers (1843-1921)

The 4th assisted in the burial exercises, providing a gun salute and flag ceremony, and marching in the procession.

Folding the flag.

The company at attention.

Firing a salute.

Ladies with the Powers' descendants.

[The editress apologizes for the tardiness of this post.]

How to Dress, March 1860

DRESS: HOW TO ADORN THE PERSON.

BY MRS. M. L.

Who is there amongst us wholly indifferent on this point? We really think not one. Some may be careless, and some misjudging, yet even the most eccentric have some fancy of superiority in their oddities. Our desire is simply to advise and aid those who are not confident in their own good taste. Simple as the subject of dress may be, and frivolous as many deem it, yet it is very essential, and, indeed, important. We would not have it occupy all the attention of our fair friends, but we wish to assist those who would dress well, without devoting too much thought to the attainment of this object.

All are indebted, more or less, to the adornments of the person. Let them be neglected, and the deficiency would be evident, even though the cause might not be traced. Therefore, let us give it our attention, and see in what we can improve that which is good, and remedy that which is defective. Our province is to advise, not to dictate; therefore, we must make no rules absolute. The most attractive part of our subject, of course, is taste and style; yet we consider many useful hints with regard to neatness, quality, and expenditure. There is no doubt that the grand regulator of dress must be the purse; yet the humble, by good taste, may furnish an agreeable contrast, and, in fact, gain more in appearance by neat and well-chosen garments, than the rich in gaudy attire. The great difficulty with most of our fair friends is conformity of habiliments, the temptations of the plate-glass windows so often leading them to purchase dresses without having one other article of attire to correspond. The dress, of course, must be worn, at the sacrifice of good taste. In our days, dress, as well as cookery, has become a science, as much as an art ; even the minutiae of a lady's dress, such as the purse, pocket-handkerchief, etc., are now objects of care and labor. We remember, not very many years ago, when a plain silk or leather purse was considered all-sufficient ; at present, each lady seems to use a purse of more artistic production than her neighbor. As we remember well when crochetwork and knitting were mysteries and high accomplishments, and we consider that we are indebted for the wide dissemination of the taste for working and the means of producing the many beautiful articles we now see to the Lady's Book, we hope, in the same way, that our trifling efforts, through its pages, will not prove vain, and that we shortly may witness the evidence of an improved taste and style in dress.

We have no paucity of material to complain of now ; the varieties of texture and design are endless. Our chief difficulty lies in selection. Neither can we murmur at excessive prices. We are told that a Roman empress was refused by her lord a robe of silk as being too costly ! In our days, the most simple maiden is clad in what a Roman empress could not afford. Cotton and its beautiful printed varieties was but little known in those days; the empress was therefore condemned to heavy woolen textures—not bareges—or stiff and unpliable robes of linen. It is true, the long and flowing drapery looks well and classical in sculpture, yet in fact it could not have been as pleasant and convenient as our own style.

Let us now to our task—to consider and review our dresses, bonnets, and shawls, or their substitutes. These claim our first attention ; but we shall not omit the many minor articles forming the toilet of a lady. It is not to be denied, that all of us acknowledge the superiority of the French in everything that appertains to the toilet ; then let us endeavor to discover the main points and reasons of that superiority. Why do we always blindly follow their dictates, and yet never approach them ? We are led by the mere spirit of imitation, unguided by reason. We believe it is natural to French women to dress well, and they give the subject less consideration than we do. Whatever they pronounce comme il faut we fancy and follow, very seldom thinking of the comme il faut ourselves. Fashion is woman's idol, or what the magazines and their dressmakers designate as fashion. We blindly follow fashion, without consulting its becomingness; neither do we consider sufficiently the changes of season that a summer fashion will not suit a winter dress; and if we wear tarletan flounces on muslins and zephyr bareges, we must do the same on heavy merinos and gloomy carmelites. Again, our ladies will make a material fit only for morning wear in a full-dress style, and vice versa. This is bad taste, and gives the appearance of being ill-dressed.

We will now review a little our material for dresses. We are infinitely better off in this respect than our great-grandmothers of seventy years since; ay, and even have a very much greater variety of choice than our mothers had twenty-five years ago. Every season brings a number of novelties in designs and textures, for our choice and use. Every quarter of the globe sends its fabrics, formerly rare indeed, and to be obtained only at a great cost. Our own manufactures, too, are greatly improved, although the old ladies say there are no such cottons made as in their days. There are, indeed, but we procure a silk dress for the price they paid for one of their cottons. To our own taste, a cotton dress, good and neat in pattern, is, for most ladies, young ones especially, the prettiest for morning wear; then it must be well made. We would recommend every lady to be particular on that point, i. e. to have her dress well fitting ; and if economy be the consideration, let her have two dresses in lieu of three, and let the cost of the third pay for the making of the two.

There is a very remarkable reason why the French appear, at a general view, so much neater than ourselves. It is one which is beyond our power to regulate, and has doubtless arisen from our great and practical freedom. They have, so to speak, a class-dress, even in cities, where there is no decided costume. No one thinks in Paris of dressing the same as her neighbor, who is in a rank of life superior to herself. Servants will not attire themselves like the bourgeoisie,' these, again, do not imitate their superiors in rank or station. Therefore, all servants will be dressed in neat and new apparel, when requisite, and do not purchase the faded finery of their mistresses, or the cheap and gaudy things which look like it ; and the marchande de mode would disdain to wear the cast-off velvets of a duchess. She finds her own neat merino and straw bonnet much more becoming her style and station.

The French pay, too, a much greater attention to combination and assimilation of colors ; and their linen, collars, etc. are got up with so much greater care, which gives the finish to their dress. We cannot complain of this  as much as we might have done some years ago, for collars, caps, etc. are generally ironed in the French style.

Having now seen in what material points we differ from the French, let us consider how best we shall dress ourselves. Much we fear we shall have to encounter "Fashion" at every point; and we certainly are of opinion that, if the "Bloomer costume" were to appear in the Lady's Book on the first of the month, we should see it in Chestnut Street or Broadway within a week after. We most sincerely trust that it will not make its appearance under such authoritative auspices. We do not admire the dress; it is unfeminine, and therefore to be avoided. We are thoroughly delighted that those nondescript paletots have disappeared, and the graceful mantillas for summer, and burnous for winter wear, have substituted them. With the cloaks there is a little inconsistency prevailing, when lace hoods are worn upon silken mantles. A hood is most surely meant as a protection from weather ; in such materials it can afford none, and is a most ungraceful appendage, giving the effect of high shoulders. In consideration of its probable utility, we can pardon it for winter wear.

Godey's Lady's Book, March 1860

Event: Puyallup Antique Show and Unit Elections

The 4th had a display this weekend at the Antique Show in Puyallup, WA.  Civilians, officers, and enlisted men were on hand to share their stories and recruit new members.

On Saturday, the club also held it annual elections.  As officer terms are of two years' duration, half of the positions are determined each year.  By unanimous assent of those present, Mr. Jones was selected to continue as Commander and Miss Korsmo as Civillian Leader; Mr. Ostrander was elected secretary to replace Mr. Strand.  Next year, elections will be held for treasurer and chairperson.

General Grant and his officers were on hand to educate the public.

The ladies of the 4th share their handicrafts.
Miss Dories' hexagon patchwork was particularly popular.

Sgt. Hicks discusses the daily lives of soldiers.

Imminent Elections

We have reached the slow season, but all is not over: the 4th's election meeting will be on Saturday, November 5th.  We will be recruiting/hosting a display at the Puyallup antique show that weekend, with the elections to be held on Saturday.  The positions of commander, civilian leader, and secretary are open.  Mr. Talbot has indicated that pizza will be provided.

The County Election (1852) by George Caleb Bingham

Letters and Stamps

"The practice of inclosing [sic] letters in envelopes is now universal; particularly as when the letter is single no additional postage is charged for the cover. The postage now is in almost every instance pre-paid, it being but three cents when paid by the writer and five if left to the receiver. Therefore, none but very poor or very mean people send unpaid letters. Letter-stamps for the United States post should be kept in a little box on your writing-table. You can get them always by sending to the post-office--from a dollar's worth or more down to fifty or twenty-five cents' worth at a time. In a second box, keep stamps for the city or penny post, which transmits notes from one part of the town to another. And in a third, stamps to go on the covers of newspapers."

--The Behavior Book (1853 ed.) by Miss Leslie

Event: Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad 2016

On Saturday September 10th, several members of the 4th participated in a skirmish and living history event for the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad.  Photographs courtesy of Messrs. Strand and Walker.

Our boys in blue!

The skirmish in progress.

General Grant enjoys the view from his car. 

General Lee seems to be on the same train.

Event: Fort Worden, Day 3 & Final

The final day of the event saw a return to cool, damp weather.  Though well-suited for marching in wool uniforms, it proved less conducive to drawing an audience.  Wet canvas aside, spirits were high during take-down, and the younger members of the 4th are particularly to be commended for their enthusiasm.  

Monday morning mist over the camp.

Particular thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Strand, who organized the entire event and provided the mess.  Also to Mrs. Talbot for her work with USAS (and making delicious cookies for the group), Mr. Wyland for saving the dance, and to the military vehicle drivers who transported everyone between the two camps.

Event: Fort Worden 2016, Day 2

The mixed-era fun continued to a second day, the highlights of which included numerous Lee and Grant sightings, Civil War trivia, swing dancing, a massive group tintype, and trekking up to the motorcade camp.

General Grant, next to the "deuce and a half" transport which ferried
visitors between the camps.

General Lee meets the Eastern Front.

I count five soldiers, four countries, three centuries, and one saloon. 

Group photo!

Mr. & Mrs. Keyes show visitors the field hospital.

The military vehicle collectors' camp has two things in abundance:
nice people, and camouflage.

Event: Fort Worden 2016, Day 1

We had an exciting day at Fort Worden, with Civil War, Revolutionary War, WWII, and military vehicle collectors all in attendance.    

Sgt. Hick explains soldiers' daily life to the public.

The USS Tahoma's Land Ship. 

Revolutionary War camp.

Fife and Drum Corps.

General Grant's Command Tent

Ladies at the USAS tent.

Miss Ruby's Saloon serves cold drinks.

The fun continued into the evening, with an 1860s dance at the USO hall.

The Dancers and Audience Rest Between Dances.

Dancing the French Quadrille.

Event: Fort Worden 2016, Day 0

The event properly starts tomorrow, but we're here, we're setting up, and we're ready for some fun. So far, there are Yankees and rebels (Revolutionary War Edition) on the parade ground, APCs on the hill, and Soviets in the parlor.  

The Civil War reenactors occupy prime real estate
in front of the Coastal Artillery Museum.

The infantry and navy camps (and a neat cloud formation).

With teamwork, the kitchen fly can be raised!