The Young Campaigner

Stripes or No Stripes?

There has been a controversy for a long time over musicians' stripes. Are they authentic? When are they appropriate? Why musicans' stripes? Here, I will try to set the record straight.

Musicians' stripes (also known as birdcage trim) are frequently seen in photographs of musicians from the Civil War. They run horizontally across the chest, level with each of the buttons on the coat or jacket.

If you own the Confederate Echoes of Glory book, please turn to page 234 and look at the photograph in the center of the page. It shows a Confederate frock coat with musicians' stripes on it. They are not in the style of "birdcage trim" with tape running up the sides of the stripes. Instead, they are "looped" around each button in an oval shape. Also note that the caption for the image states that the frock coat was from a drummer boy who was captured in 1862.

What does all of this tell us? Several things can be gathered from the information given on tis page. For one, the coat pictured there is an early war artifact because of the date that it was captured. Also, the boy who wore the coat was an average regimental drummer boy, not a member of any kind of band or drum corps.

I did a survey of perid photographs of field musicians, examining ten union ones and ten Confederate ones. Out of the ten Union photographs, I found that only two musicians wore stripes. Furthermore, the stripes only appeared on frock coats. Those with roundabouts or sack coats remained stripeless. Out of the ten Confederate photographs, I found that only one field musician had stripes. Those were on a frock coat.

Repeating this study with a different set of photographs, I found the result to be much the same. Union musicians had two who had stripes out of every ten and Confederate musicians had one who had stripes out of every ten.

From looking at the results from my survey and the frock coat from "Echoes of Glory", I can fairly determine that musicians stripes were not uncommon, but they were certainly not common. Judging from the information given with the photographs, most musicians' stripes dissappeared by the end of the war. The statistics would probably be dramatically less.

(Image courtesy of the Authentic Campaigner)

When I did a survey of band musicians, however, the statistics were vastly different. Out of ten Union bands, five of them had all of their musicians in musicians' stripes. Once again, all of the stripes appeared on frock coats. In Confederate bands, all ten of the bands surveyed were stripeless.

The book, "A Pictoral History of Civil War Era Musical Instruments and Millitary Bands" by Robert Garofalo and Mark Elrod is a great resource for band musicians. It shows a great number of photographs of musicians and even more of instruments. Much of my research on band music was done from this book.

From this research, it is safe to say that Union field musicians should have a good mix of stripes and no stripes. Confederate musicians in bands and in the field should stay away from stripes at all costs unless they appear on a frock coat. Musicians' stripes should never be put on anything other than a frock coat. Also, there should be more musicians stripes at early war events and as few as possible at late war events. If you are in a band, follow the band's regulations and you will be fine. Good Luck.

Cedar Creek '07

I just got back from Cedar Creek.  What an awesome event.  There was a great turnout of reenactors and spectators there.  I was with the Signal Corps Of The James that weekend along with the rest of my family.  The battle on Saturday was phenomenal.  My good friend John-John Schultz and I drummed during the battle.  During the Union counter-charge towards the end of the fight, we were captured by Vincents Brigade.  I would like to congratulate the musicians in that brigade on their musical skill.  They really sound good out there on the field.  I understand John-John has some friends among them, so it was cool to get an opportunity to see them.

We ran away from Vincents Brigade only to be apprehended again by the Irish Brigade.  An officer among them kept us at gunpoint but because we were within about fifty feet of the Confederate line, we decided to make a break for it.  Looking dismayed, the Irish boys made a few attempts to pick us off but we got back safely.

The next day, I woke up to the sounds of gunfire.  The dawn tactical had begun about an hour before I got up and when I got over to see it, all that could be seen in the fog and early light was the silhouettes of the troops.  The Confederacy won that tactical.  During the day on Sunday, I had a dageurrotype portrait taken of myself by Robert Szabo, a wonderful photographer.  He is a great guy with an incredible talent for photography.

The battle on Sunday was a reenactment of the battle of Guard Hill.  That went really well.  The whole weekend was incredible.  I really recommend Cedar Creek to anyone interested in finding an event.  There were plenty of kids there.  I got to meet a lot of great people and see some great things.  I hope to see you there sometime.

P.S. To see more photos of Cedar Creek, visit Jonah Begone's page about it.

How To Choose A Good Impression

What is an impression anyway?  For those of you who are veteran reenactors, that may sound like a dumb question.  An impression is the character that you "play" in reenacting.  It can be as involved as you want.  You don't have to choose an alias for yourself and all of that unless you want to.  Your impression is simply the period, social class, level of education, rank, and so-on that you choose to portray.  The best way to get started in finding a good impression for yourself is to "translate" yourself to the past. 

Basically, that means that you ask the question, "If I lived 146 years ago, what would I be like?" 
Try following the flowchart below to figure out a basic idea of the kind of impression appropriate for you.  (Click on the image to enlarge it)

View this image

Remember that the results that you got from the flow chart are just ideas and reccomendations for your impression.

So, you have a basic idea for your impression; now what do you do with it?  Let's take a look at each of the possible results that you could have gotten. 

If you got "field musician" as your impression, you have really done well.  Being a field musician is a very important and rewarding impression.  If you want to be a musician, the first thing that you should do is buy a good instrument.  For a Union musician, drums with eagles painted on them are very authentic.  The U.S. government ordered over 32,000 drums for the millitary over the course of the war.  Many of them were eagle drums.  If you are a Confederate drummer, drums with simple painted designs or tack designs are authentic.  If you play the fife in either army, spend the money in a nice maple or rosewood fife.  A nice bugle also really helps a bugler's sound and look.  Union musicians should wear a roundabout with no musician's stripes or a frock coat with musician's stripes on it.  Confederate musicians can get away with just about any Confederate garb.  If you wear a frock coat, it should have musician's stripes on it also.

Anyone who got "Under age Enlistee" should first check with their unit's rules and regulations to make sure that they will be allowed to carry a weapon on the field.  Some units will let you carry a weapon in the field but not fire it.  Remember that you will not be able to participate out on the field in some events.  Just be sure to check all of the regulations before you spend too much money on a weapon.  There were hundreds of soldiers in both armies who enlisted under the official age.  Many young men would write the number 18 on the sole of their shoe so that they could say that they were "over 18".  You should dress like all of the other musketmen in your unit if you wish to have this impression.

Anyone who got "Refugee" or "Camp Follower" as their result should concentrate on getting a really good civillian impression.  Refugees were civilians who were forced out of their homes by the army.  Whenever the army passed through an area, thousands of refugees followed the army.  They traveled in whole families, just trying to keep alive.  Camp followers were families who had a loved one in the army.  They followed the army, often sharing a tent with their loved one and tried to make money by mending and washing clothes, selling food, and other schemes.  Try for a ragged civilian look.  Note: There is existing photographic evidence of young male camp followers "dressing up" in tiny military uniforms.

The last impression that you could have come up with is "Female Spy".  There were many spies on both sides during the Civil War.  Many of them were children.  Young girls would carry messages inside dolls and in other clever places. Young boys also make exellent signalists in a signal corpsunit or runners out on the battlefield.

Just remember, when chosing an impression, always do your research first and then buy all of your gear.  Also, you should be creative.  The impressions given here are very common.  Think outside the box.  If you hear about something, try and incorporate it into your impression.  Goodbye and good luck

 

Make Your Own Mechanic's Cap

The mechanic's cap (also known as a wheel hat or pinwheel hat) was a common form of headwear for civilians and the military in the 19th century.  They are commonly seen in photographs of the army during the Civil War, especially on the Confederate side.  The standard forage cap from the Mexican War was basically a pinwheel hat.  After the war was over, that style of hat became popular with common people.  By the time of the Civil War, mechanic's caps were extremely common with children, working class men, and even wealthier planters as a casual alternative to the top hats common in that time. 
So how do you make your own?  Just follow the instructions below and you will have a pinwheel hat in no time. 

Materials: 1/2 yard of fabric (wool works well but heavy ticking or canvas is also good)
               thread that matches the color of your fabric
               sewing needle
               pins
               interfacing
               scissors
               medium sized saucepan lid
               large sheet of paper
               1/2 inch wide strip of canvas (optional)
               black paint (optional)
               2 buttons (optional)

Spread the fabric out on a flat surface that you can cut on like a self-healing mat.  On the paper, trace the pot lid.  The resulting circle should be somewhere around 9 to 13 inches in diameter.  Cut out the paper circle.  This will be your pattern piece for the top of the hat.  Now cut out another circle with the same diameter from the paper.  About 1 to 3 inches from the edge of the circle (this will depend on the size of your head and the size of the circle), cut another circle with the diameter of your head.  If you have a larger head, try making the top of the hat bigger to accomodate your big ole' melon.  Smaller heads can get away with a nine inch diameter on the top.  Once you have your pattern pieces, cut them out of the fabric. 

Sew the two circles together.  If you want to, turn it inside out to make the edge neater.  You can also just leave it raw.  It was commonly done either way during that period.  Go back to your piece of fabric and cut out a band piece to go around your head and a semicircle for the brim.  The band should be like a long rectangle.  The band can be up to 2 1/2 inches tall.  Just remember to double the desired height when you cut out your band or else you will not be able to fold it.

Fold the band and sew the top and bottom edges of it together with the brim in between them.  The brim should be made of two identical pieces with interfacing in between them to keep it stiff.  Then, turn the band inside out and sew the ends together to make a circular tube that should fit snugly around your head.

Sew the band and the top together and you have a pinwheel hat.

For decoration, you can take the piece of canvas and paint it.  Sew buttons on either side of the hat like in the picture below and button the canvas on to them once the paint dries.

Welcome To The Young Campaigner

Welcome to the Young Campaigner, the newest site for young reenactors. More is coming soon. Please visit again!

-William