Redcoats and Rebels 2013

Our unit returning to camp from Saturday's battle.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

This past weekend was Old Sturbridge Village's 11th annual "Redcoats and Rebels" weekend, when the 1830s village gives way to the Revolutionary War years of over 50 years past to host the largest New England reenactment of the year.  Our unit has been attending this event for as long as it has been running (see Ashley's posts from years past), but this was the first time I've personally been able to make it, and I had a splendid time.  Of course I missed Ashley; it still feels strange attending events without her, since reenacting has always been our "sister time" together.  She couldn't make the long trip from her new home to attend the weekend's festivities, and everyone in our unit noticed her absence and expressed regret at it...though that was typically swiftly followed by a qualification that no one should feel too bad that Ashley was missing the fun, since she does get to play in the 18th century every day for "work" now...;-)  So because this was the first big event that we've missed being at together, this extra-long post is as much for Ashley as it is for general blogging purposes!  :-)

The British encamped on the village green.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Another view of the British camps with the Union Jack flying high.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

I drove up to OSV (too early) on Saturday morning with a couple of other ladies of the distaff and arrived bright and early to settle into the camp that had already been completely set up the evening before by some of our most dedicated and diligent members.  The morning was warm and sunny, so after helping to tidy up after breakfast (which we just missed, alas!), we sat under the kitchen fly catching up with everyone. 

Our camp at Sunday nooning.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Photo by TMW.

The view of one side of our camp from the road.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Photo by TMW.

This year, we had a fantastic location in the School House Field, right on one of the main paths between the town green and the farm fields in which the larger military demonstrations took place, so the visitor foot traffic through our camp came in an unrelenting stream of dozens of people at a time throughout the weekend.   To a group like ours, full of people who love to talk (and love even more to talk about the hobby and history we're so passionate about!), the chance to interact with hundreds of friendly and inquisitive visitors is what makes an event like this extra special and even more fun than our usual battle reenacting weekends.  I loved seeing so many families learning together, with kids visiting in mom-made costumes, eyes bright as they discovered a new (old) game or tried on a hat for a memorable picture as they asked questions about what we were wearing.

C preparing the spinach salad for Saturday's dinner.
Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Preparing Saturday dinner for 35 hungry souls.
Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Mistress M, who oversaw the food planning and preparation for the weekend,

did an incomparably splendid job, as always.  Thanks again for all your hard work!

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

After preparing and eating dinner, several of us ladies headed over to the "Runaway Runway" to partake of one of the cleverest and more humorous activities on the schedule.  Hosted by the Ladies of Refined Taste, the "Runaway Runway" is precisely what it sounds: a fashion show of working-class clothing with models dressed to replicate descriptions from 1770s runaway advertisements.  And who should I happen upon as we went into the show, but two of the models themselves - none other than the delightful Miss Emily (of Emily's Vintage Visions) and her finance!  We didn't get much of a chance to chat before the show, but spent some time afterwards catching up with each other.  And we also finally got our picture together!  Despite collective weeks spent together over the past few years while working on our shoes and everything, we had never managed to get a "formal" picture before, so here it is!  Unfortunately, it had to be sans Ashley this time, but next reunion, we'll get the three of us!  :-)

With Miss Emily.  I'm in love with the scarlet red lining of her bonnet's brim.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Because I hadn't been to OSV since a sixth-grade field trip way too many years ago, I spent much of the afternoon touring the village with some of the ladies and some of the younger members of our unit.  We skipped the battle that afternoon, opting to keep sight-seeing instead, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves wandering in and out of the trade shops and houses and stopping to visit with friends from other groups.  One of our stops was to a fellow CT militia unit, whose camp was clear across the village from ours.  Several of their members had taken part in our hearth cooking workshop back in February, so we were thrilled to see them again and excited to find that they were putting their new skills to most excellent use to feed their large number of weekend attendees.

Our friends from another CT unit put their new cooking skills to work with this splendid

display of culinary abilities.  While we were cooking for 35,they had to prepare enough food for 60!

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

A group of ladies keeping cool the 18th century way.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

The Brits returning to their camp after the battle.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

The Brits returning to their camp after the battle.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Although OSV closed their indoor sites and interpretation programs at the usual time that evening, they left the village as a whole open to visitors until quite late, which gave the guests more time to visit in the camps and watch as we prepared and consumed and cleaned up after supper.  By the time dusk fell and 8 o'clock came around and the park closed to guests, the majority of our group prepared to head over to the famed evening Jolly.  Exhausted from our early-morning drive, however, I and the other ladies with whom I'd driven opted to depart for the evening and headed to the mosquito-free and shower-awaiting comfort of our hotel room.

Evening shadows begin to fall over the camps scattered in the farm fields.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Back in camp early the next morning, we again helped clean up after breakfast and then got to work on lunch early.  As we were preparing a chicken stew, we wanted to give it maximum simmering time before lunch.  Well, that, and the tasty aroma of things cooking over a fire is always the ideal way to draw in visitors to camp!  :-) 

Some of our youngest members tending to the morning fire.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Once that was on the fire, we settled down to do a bit of sewing.  B began the process of trimming a new hat with some delicious red satin ribbon she purchased at Monmouth a couple of months ago, and K was working on finishing up a new shortgown, as was I.

B and K taking advantage of some down time with a bit of sewing.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

And then I got a very special surprise: a visit from family friends who had driven up from CT to spend the day!  After nearly a lifetime (no exaggeration, we've known them that long!) of hearing me and Ashley go on about how much we love Rev War history and reenacting and sewing historic clothing, they decided it was time they saw for themselves what it was we're always going on about!  Believe it or not, they'd never actually seen either of us in costume before, so they got quite a kick out of it!  One of them told me he was pleased to see I looked just like I did in all the pictures he's seen!  ;-) 

Sunday lunch was a chicken and wild rice stew with mushrooms, beans, and carrots.  Yum!

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Photo by TMW.

I gave them a quick tour of our camp and then we headed off to do a bit of sight-seeing together before I had to head back to camp to help with dinner, at which point they departed to watch the British troops assemble on the green before following them to the battle.  I missed Sunday's battle as well, as C and I stayed behind in camp to keep an eye on everything, but I didn't mind and my friends very generously shared their pictures afterwards.

Our men beginning to muster for battle.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

The Brits marching past our camp on their way to the battlefield.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Sunday's battle, Redcoats and Rebels 2013.

Photo by TMW.

Sunday's battle, Redcoats and Rebels 2013.

Photo by TMW.

Ah, the necessary anachronisms of the reenacting life!

Photo by JHW.

C is currently working on putting together her second camp-appropriate outfit, so while waiting in camp for the battle to end, we whiled away the time talking about styles and fabric options for new items.  You might recall that she began her very first bedgown at our distaff day back in June, and she wore it this weekend.  Didn't it come out lovely?  And speaking of which, K also sported the floral print neckerchief she finished during our sewing gathering over that weekend as well!  It's so fun seeing finished projects "come to life" at events!  :-)

C beginning work on a new apron, while sporting her recently-completed bedgown.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Following the battle, I met up with my friends again and we spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around town together seeing buildings we hadn't yet had a chance to visit.  Around 4, the sky started to look pretty threatening, so my friends decided to head for home (and generously took my new favorite hat home with them so it wouldn't get poured on!  Thank you!!!), and I scampered back to camp to help quickly pull tents down before everything got drenched.  Fortunately, it only ended up raining lightly for a quarter of an hour or so, but we decided to head out a little early and start our long drive home.

Returning safely to camp.

Redcoats and Rebels, OSV, 2013.

Another weekend, another set of fantastic memories!  With the exception of UTR, this is my only major summer event for this year, but it certainly lived up to its promise and was even better than I could have hoped it to be!  There are a multitude of photos of the weekend on flickr that can be easily found with a search; my own set is here, with apologies for its limited nature because I was too busy most of the time to have time to get too many pictures!  Many thanks to the W family for filling in the holes with their pictures and permitting me to use them for this post!

On both days during the weekend, I wore new outfits - a gown the first day and a jacket the next - so stay tuned for two new Threaded Bliss posts coming up very soon!  If you've joined us on Facebook, you've already seen a hint at what the gown project might be... :-)

A Weekend Sewing Retreat

This weekend, our Distaff Coordinator R hosted the ladies of our regiment for a two-day sewing retreat!  We quickly realized the last time we gathered together to sew that one afternoon will never, ever be enough to get anything substantial accomplished; when you gather all of us into a single confined space, we tend to get just a little bit chatty...just a little...;-)  So R's solution to this was to invite us all over to her lovely restored 1750s home to stay for a full weekend of indulgence in good company and lots and lots of fabric.

Stitiching away.  That's my gown draped over the back
of the chair in the foreground.

Early Saturday morning, seven of us ladies arrived at R's, each of us with multiple baskets of in-progress projects in tow.  On our last sewing day, W was just finishing up her new raspberry linen gown, so much of her day yesterday was spent working on the matching petticoat.  She also began working on a blue checked apron and kerchief.  When these few things are done, she'll have her first completely hand-sewn outfit.  Huzzah!

Enjoying the natural light - there's nothing better for period sewing!

K came armed with what was probably the most impressive in-progress pile, but, as we quickly assured her, every project she had was more than half-finished, so in no time she'd have a very satisfying collection of completed items.  After working a bit on her husband's regimental coat, she turned to finishing up a cloak and bonnet from earlier workshops she's taken.  With everything pinned into place on these two, we then taught her the art of pleating a petticoat to a waistband so that she could repair an old one to ready it for the coming season of events.  And as if that wasn't enough to accomplish, she also worked a little magic with two small, rectangular pieces of very pretty printed linen to create two beautiful new neck handkerchiefs.  We tried to talk her into starting a gown, but she's resisting...for the moment...

C, our newest member, also came with a potpourri of projects and questions, but by the end of the weekend, we had her well on her way to being completely outfitted in her own hand-sewn, perfectly accurate outfit (including stays!) by her first big summer event!  This weekend, she jumped around from working on a shift, to cutting out a new cloak (obviously not for summer wear, but it's such a quick project and she already had the fabric, so why not?!) and jacket, to beginning a cotton print bedgown and trimming a hat.  She purchased some gorgeous deep purple wool for her cloak and was so worried she wouldn't have enough fabric.  After cutting out the cloak, she had a couple of decent sized, oddly shaped bits left and was ready to relegate them to the scrap pile.  Enter 18th-century thrift to the rescue!  15 minutes and a bit of creative fiddling later, we managed to squeeze a jacket out of the leftovers.  Not bad for 3 yards of wool, so we were both pretty pleased with ourselves over that accomplishment!

P spent the day working on a gown.  We got her sleeves and shoulder straps in place, and she's very nearly done, with only the skirt left to pleat into the bodice!  B, who began work on a new pumpkin-colored linen jacket last time, continued diligently forward on that.  She's hoping to have it finished for summer wear, and it will be so cute when it's done!

Sleeves in progress...

As for hostess R and me, we spent Saturday morning and early afternoon beginning work on R's new striped silk gown.  I had purchased the same silk but haven't yet decided precisely what I want to do with it, so as we worked on designing hers, we had fun brainstorming ideas of the many little ways we could possibly make our gowns different.  By early afternoon yesterday, we had finally conquered the stripes and wrangled them into a very eye-catching chevron.  Because the stripe widths aren't all identical, and because there are so many different stripes to work with within the pattern, it took a bit of time and lots of trial and testing to figure out which option we liked the best.  By lunch time on Sunday, R had cut out her front bodice pieces and I had fitted them on her, giving the back a quite lovely effect indeed.  I can't wait to see this finished!

I've had major sewing ADD lately, working on a couple of different things on and off, so I brought the pieces of a new Dutch chintz gown with me, and the silk for the petticoat intended to go with it.  R fitted my bodice pieces on Saturday morning, and then I spent the rest of the weekend concentrating on the petticoat, which is nearly finished.

This would be a lovely period picture if we were in costume,
but the 90+ degree weather rather dampened that idea! 
That, and the laptop on the table...:-)

It was a prodigiously enjoyable weekend for everyone, with good company and good conversation in abundance, and we even managed to get a spectacular amount of work done this time around!  On the whole, a highly successful venture indeed!  Thank you again to our lovely hostess, and we all must plan to do this again very soon!

Battle Road 2013 Postscript: Videos!

I've just posted to flickr four very short videos from the Battle Road  "Bloody Angle" tactical demonstration last Saturday.  If you're interested, check them out!

Battle Road 2013

April 19th marks the 238th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which is commemorated annually with the Battle Road reenactment weekend.  Though our unit as a whole has taken an active part in this event for several years, this was the first time I was able to attend.  I unfortunately could only be there for the first day of the three-day weekend, but it was nonetheless a very special experience and one that I look forward to repeating next year, hopefully with more time to spend in the area in order to take in the full experience of all the event has to offer.

The long walk along Battle Road, past the Captain William Smith House,
to reach the morning's battle site.

Saturday morning dawned wet, dark, dreary, and cold, which meant three petticoats, mitts, and long cloaks all around!  We arrived at Minute Man National Park just after 7:30am in time for registration and to get accustomed to the lay of the land before the troops would be called to assemble for the first public event of the weekend. 

"Local" militia assembling.

We ladies spent our time before public hours chatting and meeting new friends from other groups, all the while desperately trying to keep our damp feet warm (there are only so many layers of stockings you can fit in period footwear!).  Hartwell Tavern was a-buzz with the ladies of The Hive setting up their sewing, quilting, spinning, and cooking demonstrations for the day, and we found some brief warm respite inside before heading out to find a spot to watch our men-at-arms in action at the first tactical demonstration of the day.

Hartwell Tavern, quiet in the early morning before being inundated with hundreds of visitors.

B warming up near the hearth in Hartwell Tavern.

Militiamen congregating in the yard of the tavern.

The weekend officially opened on Battle Road itself, where the "local" militia clashed with British Regulars between Hartwell Tavern and the "Bloody Angle," on the very same ground where gunshots first rang out 238 years ago.

The militia marching down Battle Road...

...hiding amongst the trees in preparation for a confrontation

with the approaching Crown forces.

Although I've seen countless battle reenactments and tactical demonstrations over the years, I have to admit that there was something eerie about this particular experience.  Knowing it took place on that very same ground, almost to the day, and then seeing and hearing the seemingly endless stream of redcoats marching up the road towards us, horses' hooves quite literally thundering, the solidarity of the troops' numbers and even their physical statures overwhelming and threatening - it was all prodigiously impressive and yes, even scary.  It was so easy - much easier than it usually is - to imagine how our colonial ancestors must have felt, bravely staring into those faces, ready to fight for what they believed in.

The British are coming!

 

 The colonial militia begins to push the Redcoats back.

Militia men assembling for a final parade at the end of the battle,
with cheers and applause from the spectators watching.

After enjoying lunch out with another unit, we all headed into Lexington for Tower Park, the second battle demonstration of the day.  The crowds lining the closed-off streets of the town were multiple people deep, everyone peeping over the heads of those in front of them, and children perched atop the long stone wall enclosing the battle site to try to get the best view possible.  With some time to spare before the demonstration began, and our gents engaged in pre-battle drilling and preparations, we ladies headed up the street a bit to explore Munroe Tavern.

Munroe Tavern in Lexington, occupied once again by Crown forces.

Munroe Tavern, built in 1735, was overtaken by British forces on April 19th, 1775, and occupied as a field hospital and the headquarters of Brigadier General Earl Percy for a couple of hours on that fateful day.  From 1770 to 1827, William Munroe served as the tavern's owner and proprietor; on April 19th, he responded to the call to arms, serving with Captain John Parker as orderly sergeant.  When his wife, Anna, heard the gunfire and saw the British troops approaching her home, she took her children and fled into the woods behind the house.  When she returned home, she found her front dining room strewn with bloody bandages and the remains of hastily eaten meals.

While the house is largely interpreted as it looked under Percy's occupation, with the goal of recounting the British experience during the Battles of Lexington and Concord, it also saw another significant piece of history that is commemorated in an upstairs chamber.  George Washington toured the Lexington battle sites in 1789 and stopped to dine at Munroe Tavern.  The chair in which he sat, the table at which he dined, the set of dishes and cutlery he used, and even the metal bar to which he tied his horse, were all preserved by the Munroe family and passed down through the generations.  Munroe family descendants owned the property and its family heirlooms until the middle part of the twentieth century, when they gifted it all to the town.  In 2010, a major restoration restored the tavern to its 1775 appearance, and it now stands as a unique representation of "the other side" of Lexington's dramatic Revolutionary War story.

For dinner that evening, we all gathered together to enjoy each other's company and some tasty traditional New England fare in true 18th-century style at Concord's famed historic Colonial Inn.  Our evening ended with plans for about half of us to meet up in the morning to explore some of the many local historical sites and museums.  A full account of those adventures will be offered in the next post, so stay tuned for more!

And since no reenactment event is complete without an account of its wardrobe...!  I had finished a new gown of pink worsted in the hotel on Friday night, and wore it Saturday paired with a new kerchief.  Unfortunately, the incredibly damp and chilly weather meant that my new outfit stayed well-concealed inside the warmth of my cloak the entire day long, so I only have one picture - with cloak shed momentarily just for this purpose! - to show for it!  So consider this a teaser, and the next time I wear this gown, I'll be sure to give it the proper Threaded Bliss treatment with additional photos and details!

A sneak peak at my new pink worsted gown!

While you await the tale of our Sunday museum-hopping in the next post, a prodigious amount of additional photos from Saturday morning's Battle Road event can be found on our flickr photostream.