Tag Archives: Monmouth NJ

Free-for-All Friday

24 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by in Events, History, Living History, Reenacting, Research

≈ Comments Off on Free-for-All Friday

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Well, at least I can dress myself.

Well, at least I can dress myself.

Most sadly, my obnoxious yellow gown will not be finished for this coming weekend, so I will not be flaunting my goods in such flashy clothing. Instead, I will be dressed like a giant version of the darling Miss B, whom I fear does wear the Space Invaders print better than I.

The real point, of course, is the action expected for Saturday, June 25, at the Craig House. The press release is fairly general about how we’ll be representin’ New Jersey’s 18th century civil war, and no one has leaped up to portray Little Anthony the [Quaker] Insurrectionist, but here’s the scene:

Craig House is empty the day of the battle. John Craig is with the Continental Army, leaving Ann Craig to flee with chattel, child, and two slaves in two wagons. This leaves the house and remaining property vulnerable to occupation and depredation.

An armed member of the Association for Retaliation is snooping around the Craig house and catches Loyalist and Quaker refugees who are squatting/hiding, as well as a “London” trader. He can’t let them go, and he is afraid to move them for fear of the British by day and the Tories by night. The Retaliator is joined by a local farmer who has stopped by to check on Mrs Craig’s safety in the surrounding commotion of the troops moving towards the coming battle. 

“Disaffected” smugglers use the chaos of the war in New Jersey to continue trading with the British and Loyalists. The “London trade” feeds the taste for tea, fabrics, rum, lemons, and sugar that even the Revolutionaries cannot shake.

Quakers are viewed with suspicion and animosity for their pacifist, anti-slavery views, which gives the impression that they are Loyalists. Harassed in Philadelphia by various committees requisitioning blankets and other goods; by 1778, the Quakers’ abolitionist views make them vastly unpopular in Monmouth County.

These characters in search of a plot will encounter each other at Craig House and, with some history improv, portray the tension and conflict between New Jersey residents in the Revolutionary period. Want to come out? Craig House is here, and a visitors’ guide is here.

Civil War and Uncivilized War

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by in Events, History, Living History, Reenacting, Research

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The Hunting Party- New Jersey. oil on canvas ca 1750. MMA 1979.299

The Hunting Party- New Jersey. oil on canvas ca 1750. MMA 1979.299

Slightly turbulent and busy days chez Calash have resulted in a lack of postings, but work proceeds: Genesee and then New Jersey lie ahead, with some extra-interesting interpretation at Monmouth in late June. For a time, I despaired of figuring out what to do to occupy the time and interpret what was essentially a civil war in Monmouth County. The Craig House, while interesting, is no longer a working farm, so we couldn’t farm a not-farm. Then there’s the tedious issue of the not-home not-farming Craigs: on the day of the battle, John Craig is with the Continental Army and Ann Craig has taken off with wagons of chattel, two slaves, and her child. This began to seem a lot like interpreting the John Brown House without John Brown: they are more present by their absence.

Full Sail off Sandy Hook- Entrance to New York Harbor. watercolor and gouache by Pavel Petrovich Svinin, MMA 42.95.2

Full Sail off Sandy Hook- Entrance to New York Harbor. watercolor and gouache by Pavel Petrovich Svinin, MMA 42.95.2

What to do? Read more, of course, and talk and talk and talk with Drunk Tailor, who discovered the Association for Retaliation (yes, exactly what it sounds like: vigilanteism) and the Pine Robbers. Much satisfaction there, and finally I listened when he said, “Why can’t we all be refugees?”

Sometimes, you just have to give in to reality. The “London trade” flourished between New York and New Jersey, Sandy Hook providing ready access to the city and Staten Island, where so many Loyalists fled the radical Whigs of New Jersey. Male slaves ran away to join the British army, and the most fearsome and feared in New Jersey was Colonel Tye. The Retaliators promised “a man for a man” for every depredation Whigs suffered, while a similarly-chartered Loyalist association promised the same in return. Chaos reigned and people of all kinds fled the civil war and the uncivilized war. It promises to be an interesting weekend.

Monmouth Menus

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Events, Food, Living History, Reenacting

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

Food: It is always on my mind, even cataloging. When the tan and brown and black colors of a sampler make me think of Tiramisu,  I know it’s time to wrap up work for the day. But food is particularly on my mind this week, as I plan and calculate for Monmouth, hoping to use the lessons I’ve learned in the past instead of just being anxious. I know it’s not a test, but it feels like one, somehow.

The Young Mr has aged suddenly, in Don Draper’s kitchen.

Continental rations were supposed to be a pound of beef and a pound of flour a day for man, half that for a woman employed by the army and a quarter of that for a child. The Young Mr (who isn’t really a child and is sort of a soldier) would get more if he was really a drummer… but in any case, we’re looking at 2 + ½ + ¼ or 2 ¾ pounds of beef and the equivalent of flour at a minimum to feed two soldiers, a woman, and a child per day (at a minimum, I expect to feed the adjutant as well as ourselves).

I float out ideas like fire cake or pudding to take account of the flour, but Mr S reels me in and suggests that we should stick to what we know until we can test other ideas on the landlord’s fire pit. We shall substitute bread, therefore, and I probably will not make a nuisance of myself at the bakery or the grocery and ask them to weigh the loaves, as I have my own kitchen scale and can obsess about this in the comfort of our home.

Too fancy! From the Complete Housewife.

Too fancy! From the Complete Housewife.

My plan is about the same as every camp dining plan: that’s suitable, given the repetitive nature of Army rations (and the repetitive complaints of the soldiers, echoed in every war).

Friday
Pasties. They keep and travel well.

Saturday Morning
Bread, cheese, strawberries, eggs
Ideally, I’ll find a farm stand where I can buy local strawberries, but we will only get into a discussion of what exactly would have been in season on New Jersey in June 1778, which leads to a discussion of global heating.

Saturday Lunch
Bread, cheese, ham, cookies from home

Saturday Dinner
Beef stew and bread, strawberries, cookies from home

Sunday Morning
Bread, cheese, fruit, eggs

Sunday Lunch
Bread cheese, ham, and anything that’s left

This is essentially the same plan that I had for OSV last year, with the biggest sticking points being: will I remember the eggs? Will I manage coffee? I’m not very good at anything until I have coffee, or some kind of caffeine, which could be a challenge this time around. There’s an ice truck scheduled to go through the camps, but what I want to know is, when’s the coffee truck coming?

5 Days till Monmouth

10 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Clothing, Events, Living History, Making Things

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

This is not Cassandra's idea of a nice frock.

This is not Cassandra’s idea of a nice frock.

Cassandra doesn’t like wearing uniforms and bayonets. She wants to wear a dress. She will have to be patient. (Actually, she is wearing a chintz jacket in need of a hem, and if I revolt against buttonholes, I might finish that tonight. More fringe must be made this evening for the hunting frock.)

I switched to Mr S’s overalls for awhile, and we’ve done the first fitting, which gets us to buttonholes and then re-basting the inseam and outseam. In the process, I discovered that he does, in fact, have a twisty leg. I do not think it is statistically probable that the two pairs of overalls I have cut for him and the pair cut by Mr Cooke would all include the same slightly on the bias leg. So I reversed my plans to get those done, and will stick with getting them to fitting number two. They will need a master’s hand and eye for fitting.

Sunday: One last strip o' fringe required.

Sunday: One last strip o’ fringe required.

But I think I have a plan for food for Monmouth, have confessed to Mr S that, based on the Monmouth sutler list, we must leave room in the car for possible additions to the Strategic Fabric Reserve, and have convinced the child to try learning a new song on the drum. I also started a new pocket, but I’m not sure if my hands can take the backstitching. Slipstitching and whipstitching aren’t too painful, but backstitching proved quite painful last night. It’s totally annoying, because it’s pointless to post a photo until it’s done and right-side out!

You can see the binding, but not the stripes. Silly!

You can see the binding, but not the stripes. Silly!

But this will be a panicky, intense week of samplers, reference, grant applications, and event prep. I suppose that’s not too different from many other weeks…though the last time I had this combination, we were only going to Sturbridge. I took comfort in the idea of how close we were to home, the way the cat knows how long it takes to dash to the basement when the doorbell rings. From Monmouth, it’s a long way back to my own basement.