Cockades - Political Lapel Pins and Military Rank Badges

By Susan F. Craft
Author, Xanthakos Family Trilogy

       
        Cockades, handcrafted ribbon rosettes, served as the political lapel pins of yesteryear. People wore them to identify themselves with their political stance, to declare their loyalty, to support their troops, and to show patriotism.

        At the time of the Revolutionary War, men pinned cockades on the side of their tricornes or cocked hats or on their lapels. Women also wore them on their hats or in their hair. 


George Washington wears a cockade.

        During the American Revolution, the Continental Army initially wore cockades of various colors as a form of rank insignia.
        In July 23, 1775, General George Washington wrote: “As the Continental Army has unfortunately no uniforms, and consequently many inconveniences must arise from not being able to distinguish the commissioned officers from the privates, it is desired that some badge of distinction be immediately provided; for instance that the field officers may have red or pink colored cockades in their hats, the captains yellow or buff, and the subalterns green.”


Brigadier General Francis Marion

          After a time, the Continental Army reverted to wearing the black cockade they inherited from the British. Later, when France became an ally of the United States, soldiers pinned the white cockade of the French Ancien Régime onto their old black cockade; the French reciprocally pinned the black cockade onto their white cockade, as a mark of the French-American alliance. These cockades became known as the "Union Cockade."
        By the time of the War of 1812, however, Americans had reverted to black cockades.
        A fantastic step-by-step demonstration of "How to Make an 18c Cockade" can be found on the blog, American Duchess, Historical Costuming at http://americanduchess.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-make-18th-c-cockades.html
        According to some historians, on April 19, 1775, when colonial militias confronted British troops at Concord’s North Bridge, they marched to the tune of “The White Cockade.” This was a traditional Scottish tune that celebrated the attempt by Bonnie Prince Charlie to reclaim the British throne for the House of Stuart. Colonists were familiar with this “rebellious” tune as a country dance and a fife and drum piece. You can hear this tune by going to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me_LOrsFLsE

Susan F. Craft is the author of the Xanthakos Family Trilogy, a series of inspirational historical suspense novels including:
The Chamomile

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1941103685/

Laurel

http://www.amazon.com/dp/194110391X/

and Cassia

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1941103731/

 

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Harvesting and Gathering

The Thomas Garden 2015

'Tis the season to harvest and gather and store away for the long winter months. While some of us still practice these traditions today, they were absolutely essential to our colonial ancestors. Without proper preparation, a disastrous winter may befall the family.

Maybe things were treated just as we treat them today. Potatoes, onions, carrots, rutabagas, and turnips were dug and stored. Root cellars were common, but without one, these crops could still be stored under the floorboards of a cabin or even in baskets along the wall away from the heat source.

Fruits could be sugared and cooked into preserves to be stored in crocks or jars. The tops of the crocks were sealed with wax or lard to prevent spoilage.

Certain vegetables could be salted and kept for most of the winter, like cabbages (sauerkraut), cucumbers (pickles), and green beans. These were combined with a salty brine and kept submerged in the brine in large crocks. Meats could also be brined for storage, salt pork being the most common, but also corned (pickled) beef or venison.

Drying fruits and vegetables was a common method for preservation. It required no crocks, brine, or sugar. One way was to string the fruits and vegetables on a thin twine with a sharp needle attached. Long strings of these foods could be hung in the attic or from the rafters and plucked off as needed. Depending on heat and humidity, they may take a month to fully dry out. Another method was to lay them out between two layers of cloth stretched in the full sun. The top cloth kept insects from getting in.

Naturally dried foods like beans and peas were gathered and kept in baskets or bags. Today we harvest our peas while they are tender and green, but in colonial times, they were allowed to dry in the shell. These would be shelled when they were needed and the husks fed to the livestock.

Herbs were generally harvested at their peak of freshness and tied into bundles then hung upside-down to dry. Herbs were used to flavor food, but many also served for medicinal purposes.

Next time you're tempted to complain about the price of food in the supermarket check-out line, take a minute and appreciate what your ancestors had to go through to collect that much food for their families.

~ Pegg Thomas

Making Colonial Cloth

Today is a big day in my house--I'll have my first knitting lesson at my church, along with my daughter (who has had lessons before). Being a history buff, I don't think of it as learning a new skill so much as learning an old one, and glimpsing a history long handed down from mother to daughter (my mother will be in these classes too, as it happens).

One of the things I best remember from a trip I took to a Colonial-era village is the way housewives in rural areas had to create their homespun cloth. During the Revolution, wearing homespun became a thing of pride--because true Patriots would refuse to purchase cloth imported from Europe.

Inside this historic house,

Visitors get a glimpse of the spinning process. They have a huge spinning wheel set up, called a walking wheel, great wheel, or wool wheel. These spinning wheels are usually about 5 feet in diameter--so big that you have to walk back and forth about six feet as you're spinning, hence the name. (Exercise while you work!)

 The wool ends up on a spool, which is then detached from the big wheel, and spun onto the weasel, which puts it into skeins. It takes 150 rotations to equal one skein--and because the brilliant creators of this device knew well no one was going to sit there counting to 150 all day, the weasel pops after 150 revolutions. Sound familiar? Altogether now: "Here we go round the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel . . ." =)

This process would give you your yarn or thread...but then what? The loom, of course.

When European settlers first arrived in America, they brought with them hand looms of a style that had been in use since the 1300s. Plantations would have loom-houses set up where slaves produced the cloth for servant clothing, bedding, etc. In smaller households, not everyone had a loom--but there was generally one in a neighborhood, and colonials often traded goods and services to the wife who had one in return for her turning their wool into cloth for them.

(Side note--in my homeschool last year, we read a novel [aimed at kids but enjoyable for all] called Calico Bush that includes this aspect of Colonial life.)

We today often look at this laborious process and think that producing cloth was very labor intensive and difficult--a sentiment shared by many of our forebears! Hence why those who could afford to do so bought cloth imported by Europe.

~*~


Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna's 10th book, The Lost Heiress, just released.

Oconee Indian Wars, Part 1

by Denise Weimer

Since the back story uncovered by my modern characters as they restore a log cabin in the third book of my Restoration trilogy dates to 1790, my research delved into the history of the early settlers and Creek Indians of Middle Georgia. Many Georgia settlers were Scots-Irish not so welcome in staid New England communities who traveled down the Great Wagon Route and Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap. By 1730, Carolina offered “head right” grants, and ships began to sail there instead of Pennsylvania. The 1773 Treaty of Augusta unofficially opened lands east of the Oconee River to settlement. In 1783, Georgia leaders notified 100 Creek Indian towns of a meeting that only two Creek chiefs attended in defiance of Supreme Chief Alexander McGillivray, who had demoted them. They signed away Creek and Cherokee lands west of the Oconee. McGillivray denied both the subsequent Galphinton and Shoulderbone treaties and by 1786 prepared for war.

Map of Frontier GA Forts

The 1773 treaty had established Cherokee Corner, a spot on the Cherokee Trading Path at the junction of Wilkes and Washington Counties, as the edge of the Indian boundary. According to an early Oglethorpe County history book, block houses along this route saw many early attacks. A PG-13 violence warning should accompany one of these! A certain mother outside Fort Knox made the fatal mistake of taking a warning of approaching Indians as another false alarm. The Indians scalped her, beat her baby's brains out against a tree, and took her two young sons into a dense swamp. Settlers tracked and recovered the boys, finding the son with long black hair unharmed, while the other had been scalped. Though he survived, he forever had to wear a wig in public.

A certain Mrs. Fielder had better success in June 1787 when Indians attacked her farm in the absence of her husband, a scout and hunter. She and a Negro woman held off the raiding party by firing their guns from the cabin and shouting in such a way that the Indians believed a number of men to be ensconced. That same year, 20 braves approaching from the west on the Augusta trail attacked and burned the frontier town of Greensborough. They launched flaming pitch arrows to demolish the store, blacksmith shop, new school and courthouse and numerous cabins. Thirty-one were killed, 20 wounded and four women and two slaves taken captive. (This will come into play in my novel, Witch: 1790!)

Burning of Greensborough, photo by Jimmy Emerson

Oconee Indian Wars continued in my next blog post …

How a Quaker Woman Saved a Ship

by Tamera Lynn Kraft

 

 

 

 

This is an incredible true story about how a Quaker Woman saved a ship full of people on their way to Colonial America.

Mary Prior was a simple Quaker woman living in England who loved God. When she was young, a rich man asked her to become his wife, she refused. Her nurse chided her saying, “You might have eaten gold!”

Mary said “But I could not have digested it.”

Riches didn’t matter to her because she had determined to do only what God wanted. In 1760, she found the man God had for her and married John Pryor, a fellow Quaker.

In her lifetime of serving God, she became a prophet and went on evangelistic tours throughout England and Wales. After the birth of her last child, she felt called to travel to America and preach the Gospel. After a few years, her husband agreed but couldn’t go with her. She was 60 years old when she finally made the voyage.

Mary found the ship she believed God had told her to book passage to America with. It was called Fame and was in need of repairs. Her son, who worked for Lloyds Insurance Company warned her not to sail on the ship, but she knew God had told her to go on this ship.

During the voyage, the ship sprang a leak. Sailors and passengers worked pumps day and night to keep it afloat for several weeks, but they finally gave up.

At this point, Mary came from her cabin and announced that God had shown her they would all be rescued if they would continue to pump for two more hours. She even told the name of the ship that would rescue them, the Archibald.

The crew threw everything overboard they didn’t need and continued to pump. Two hours later, the Archibald, a sixty-ton fishing boat, showed up and rescued them. They had to reduce water ration and cram aboard the crowded ship, but they made the 600 miles left to America safely.

On March 15, 1798, the Archibald docked in Philadelpia without a single member of the crew or passengers lost.

Upon departing the boat, Mary immediately fell to the ground to thanked God. A friend who was meeting her there thought she’d stumbled, but another passenger, stopped him from disturbing her prayers. The captain, crew, and passengers gathered around her, removing their hat, and joined her in thanking God.

Because of her unusual story of rescue, Mary was able to preach the Gospel in America in a way that attracted many crowds.

Off the Beaten Path: Southport, NC by Carrie Fancett Pagels

This summer I've used some travel opportunities to do research for the blog on colonial spots that are off the beaten path. One such place is near Cape Fear, North Carolina--Southport, which was a colonial era seaport of some note! Southport is approached from the Atlantic Ocean, which then empties into a river west of Cape Fear, providing some protection from storms. This spot is at the very southern tip of North Carolina coast. Beyond, is North Myrtle Beach,  in South Carolina. Although the sign, above, indicates the city was established in 1792, the town has even earlier history. See the image below. For those of you who believe the Sioux tribes were always out West, make note of the far left on the timeline.

From the River Walk in Southport, you can view large ships coming into the very deep channel of the Cape Fear River. Nowadays it is regularly dredged so that shipping companies can go upriver to dock, but when I was there, I could really imagine pirates scooting up that river and could imagine people on the banks shivering in terror!

Below is a cargo ship going upriver! It was shocking that it could be that close to shore!

The beautiful small town has a real hometown feel. Note the patriotic bunting on the lovely homes below.

This was a great place to visit! Watch for an upcoming post on another place to visit in Southport!  It has a colonial influence, too! I got several story ideas and research done while in this area and it was well worth the time we spent investigating.

Question: Have you ever visited someplace and then wanted to either read or write a story set there? Where was it?

 Bio: Carrie Fancett Pagels is the award-winning and Amazon Christian Historical Romance bestselling author of The Christy Lumber Camp Series. Her latest release, Lilacs for Juliana is now available in both ebook and paperback formats.

An Intriguing Character Emerges in the Revolutionary War’s Southern Campaign

The British were convinced that their southern campaign strategy would bring them victory and an end to what had become an expensive and an increasingly unpopular war in Parliament. There were still many Loyalists in the Carolinas and the British counted on the antagonism between the Patriots and the Loyalists to prove their strategy successful.

British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton left New York in late December 1779 with fourteen warships and 8500 troops on ninety transports. Winter storms off the Outer Banks of North Carolina significantly scattered the ships, but by mid February they had arrived within thirty miles of Charleston. 

This is the story of a lesser known character, a strong and courageous woman by the name of Elizabeth Jackson. Elizabeth and her husband had come from Ireland and settled in the Waxhaws settlement near the North Carolina and South Carolina border. In 1767, after her young husband died unexpectedly, Elizabeth and her three sons moved into the home of her sister and brother-in-law. Her sister had been ailing since moving from Ireland was now an invalid. Elizabeth provided nursing care and housekeeping for the large Scots-Irish immigrant extended family.

All three of Elizabeth’s sons, the youngest being only thirteen, joined the Patriot cause. Her oldest was killed in 1779. After the bloody Battle of Waxhaws her remaining two sons were injured, captured and held prisoner where they became infected with smallpox. Elizabeth arranged a prisoner transfer. The older of  the two died after returning home, and her remaining son took several weeks before he regained enough strength to leave his bed.

The Siege at Charleston began on April 2, 1780 and lasted six weeks. In 1776 and again in 1779 the British had unsuccessfully tried to capture the city of Charleston, but the city’s natural defenses were too strong. But this new campaign would change that ― for awhile.

Charleston Harbor

The Americans suffered their worst defeat of the revolution. Major General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered to British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton. Of the American forces, 92 were killed, 148 were wounded, and 5,266 were captured. Those that were captured were sent to British hulk ships in Charleston Harbor, and some of them were later sent to do service in Jamaica.

The disease and plight of the captives touched many local residents. Many of the women of Charleston began visiting the prison ships bringing food, medicine and comfort to the prisoners; one of these ladies was Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth’s two nephews were captured in the Siege at Charleston, she made trips to the prison ships to bring food, medicine, and to nurse them and other prisoners. She became known as an angel of mercy before herself falling victim to the cholera that swept through the prison ships.

Elizabeth was buried in an unmarked grave. While her youngest and only surviving son promised to locate her remains and rebury her alongside his father and brothers, he was never able to locate her grave. That young man was Andrew Jackson who would one day become the seventh President of the United States.

Colonial Style Corn Fritters

I love combining my writing research with my love of cooking and good food. My characters need to eat and I want them to enjoy foods that would have been common in their time period. My current WIP (work in progress) is set at the beginning of the 19th century. My characters would have had to grow, gather, or hunt most of what they consumed.

This past week I pulled out a favorite cookbook, History from the Hearth, and made a batch of corn fritters. Yummy? You bet! Our ancestors knew their way around food. And thankfully, some of them recorded their recipes and handed them down through the generations.

Colonial Style Corn Fritters

2 cups cooked corn
2 eggs - separated
1/4 cup cream
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teas salt
1/2 teas pepper
lard for frying

Beat the eggs whites in a small bowl until stiff. In a larger bowl, slightly beat the egg yolks, then stir in the cream, flour, salt, and pepper. Fold in the egg whites. Add the corn last. Heat lard (or oil if you prefer) in a large frying pan. Drop batter by the spoonful into hot fat and fry until golden brown, then flip and cook the other side. Serve hot. 

This recipe is so simple, with ingredients any Colonial good wife would have had on hand. It could have been made over a kitchen hearth or campfire. Full of both protein and carbohydrates, these hearty fritters would have given them the energy to do all the work they needed to accomplish to survive. 

Tweet this: 

Corn fritter #recipe from Colonial American. #Writing research that's tasty too! 

The best part of enjoying a historical recipe like this, is to eat it while enjoying a great Christian historical book. Maybe one day - God willing - it will be mine!

~ Pegg Thomas

September Tea Party - Susan Craft, Roseanna White, Joan Hochstetler, Carrie Fancett Pagels, Gina Welborn

   

Cassia by Susan Craft        

         The Xanthakos family’s sea voyage from South Carolina to the North Carolina Outer Banks turns ugly after they pressure their ship’s captain to rescue a pregnant woman thrown overboard from a slave ship. When the slave contracts smallpox, the captain maroons her, Lilyan and Nicholas and their children, Laurel, Paul, and Marion, on an island.

        After Nicholas and Marion leave to seek help, Lilyan and her children and the baby, whom they have named Cassia, are captured by pirates and taken to their island hideout under the command of the vile Captain Galeo (The Shark), but Paul escapes along the way.

        Galeo is attracted to Lilyan and orders her and Laurel to dine with him where reveals his plan to make Lilyan his own and auction Laurel to the highest bidder and where he forces them to witness a mock trial and a hanging. Heartsick to see her child exposed to such evil, Lilyan rekindles her long-dormant courage and forges an escape plan. Meanwhile, Nicholas faces his self-perceived failure to protect his family. He must abandon the life of a vintner and once again call upon the skills he honed as a captain in Francis Marion’s militia. Together they face the hardest challenge to a parent, watching as life tests the mettle of their highly sheltered and beloved children. Bolstered by their faith, they realize their strength isn’t enough to see them through and that God is in control.

        Will the Xanthakos children withstand their trials and learn to be as tough as their parents? Will the family be united and return to their peaceful Blue Ridge Mountain home?  

     Cassia is the third novel in my historical romantic suspense series, The Xanthakos Family Trilogy. The first is The Chamomile and the second is Laurel.

Cassia in Hebrew means to bow down the head. An aromatic bark, it was known as the poor man’s cinnamon because it had a similar fragrance to cinnamon, but was not as costly. It was an ingredient of holy anointing oil used to anoint priests, kings and their garments, and will be the aroma of Christ’s robes when he returns to us (see Psalm 45:8 and Exodus 30:24). The ingredient of cassia reminds us of the suffering servant who in his body was the sacrifice for the world. The brokenness of his body was the sweet fragrance to the Father that he had won the human race back to himself (Ephesians 4:8).

     I will be giving away a copy of Cassia and I'll be giving away a second prize of a cinnamon candle and a box of Cassia notecards. 

Amazon link to Cassia (pre-order):  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1941103731/

*******

The Lost Heiress

by Roseanna M. White

Brook Eden has never known where she truly belongs. Though raised in the palace of Monaco, she's British by birth and was brought to the Grimaldis under suspicious circumstances as a babe. When Brook's friend Justin uncovers the fact that Brook is likely a missing heiress from Yorkshire, Brook leaves the sun of the Mediterranean to travel to the moors of the North Sea to the estate of her supposed family.

The mystery of her mother's death haunts her, and though her father is quick to accept her, the rest of the family and the servants of Whitby Park are not. Only when Brook's life is threatened do they draw close--but their loyalty may come too late to save Brook from the same threat that led to tragedy for her mother.

As heir to a dukedom, Justin is no stranger to balancing responsibilities. When the matters of his estate force him far from Brook, the distance between them reveals that what began as friendship has grown into something much more. But how can their very different loyalties and responsibilities ever come together?

And then, for a second time, the heiress of Whitby Park is stolen away because of
the very rare treasure in her possession--and this time only the servants of Whitby can save her.

Giveaways!

One signed copy of The Lost Heiress will be given to a Colonial Quills commenter ~

PLUS, you can enter Roseanna's big giveaway... 

Roseanna's huge giveaway of BROOK'S TREASURES is going on right now on her website, featuring coffee, chocolate, Brook's heirloom necklace, a leather journal, CD, a copy of Chivalrous by Dina L. Sleiman, and a signed copy of The Lost Heiress!

Enter on her website | Enter on Rafflecopter

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Valley of the Shadow
Book 5, American Patriot Series 

by J. M. Hochstetler

Can he save them both from the Valley of the Shadow?

Following a humiliating defeat at Philadelphia and a rival’s stunning victory at Saratoga, Washington’s army faces yet another bitter winter, this time at Valley Forge. Meanwhile, General Jonathan Carleton races to save Elizabeth Howard from the horrors of the prison ships in the British stronghold at New York, while British General William Howe plots to execute them both. 

From heart-pounding battles on the high seas, to the rigors of Valley Forge and the Shawnee’s savagely fought wars to preserve their ancestral lands, Valley of the Shadow continues the thrilling saga of America’s founding in an inspiring story of despair, courage, and triumph. 

The American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive, accurate, faith-based historical fiction series on the American Revolution.

~Two Giveaways~

A copy of Valley of the Shadow or any one of the previous books of the series—Daughter of Liberty, Native Son, Wind of the Spirit, or Crucible of War—in either print or ebook edition.

A Blue Willow 16 oz. teapot with a ceramic brewing infuser, along with a tin of Gunpowder Green Tea.The teapot’s classic Chinese Blue Willow pattern illustrates the Chinese legend of Kwang-se and her lover Chang. Pursued by her father as they sought to elope, the young couple were transformed into turtle doves and flew away to hide from the world. The traditional China gunpowder green tea, popular since colonial times, is commonly known as Pearl Tea because of its round, tightly rolled, grayish-green leaves that unfold when brewed to give a sweet fragrance and delightful taste.

*******

Lilacs for Juliana now available in paperback by Carrie Fancett Pagels

During the colonial times, Michigan's straits of Mackinac area was occupied by the French. Step forward to 1891, when a French descendant, Juliana Beauchamps, is about to meet eye-to-chest with the imaginary folk hero Paul Bon Jean (later immortalized as Paul Bunyan in print) when 6'6" Richard "Moose" Christy shows up in her library story circle! But as their affection grows, will a Milwaukee beer baron, or her love of lilacs, come between them?

Book 3 in The Christy Lumber Camp Series is a story about the youngest Christy sibling, Richard, as he assumes responsibility as the boss of a new lumber camp in Michigan's beautiful Upper Peninsula.

Giveaways: Carrie is giving away two paperback copies of Lilacs for Juliana and an E-book copy of Christmas Traditions a #1 Best Seller on Amazon for Anthologies and Short Stories! Also a complete Kindle Ebook set of The Christy Lumber Camp Series for one reader who hasn't read any of the stories yet. Extra giveaway credits for those who sign up for Carrie's newsletter (which will also get you a free short story from her!) Email her at CFPagels(at)gmail(dot)com and put newsletter in the subject line.

Christmas Traditions Eight-in-One Collection (August, 2015) released with novellas by Gina Wellborn and Carrie Fancett Pagels (as well as authors Angela Breidenbach, Jennifer AlLee, Patty Smith Hall, Darlene Franklin, Cynthia Hickey, and Niki Turner who are not CACW members.) This ongoing #1 Amazon Anthology Bestseller (PTL!!!) is also available in paperback. Carrie's Selah Award Finalist and Family Fiction Book of the Year Finalist The Fruitcake Challenge is one of the novellas in this collection. Gina's wonderful novella, Holly Daze, is also included.

Giveaway: Gina is giving away TEN (YES, TEN) ebook copies of Christmas Traditions and we are also giving away a paperback of the entire collection.