New Book: "A Soldier Like Way"

This post was on the RevList today. I thought I would share it with you. The author, Ryan Gale, leads a company of the 44th of Foot, who fought at Braddock's Defeat.

New book: "A Soldier Like Way"

This new book from Ryan Gale is the most comprehensive work on the British infantry material culture to date, brimming with exquisite full color photos of original artifacts and paintings. The story of the British infantry, their daily life, weapons, tools, food, and clothing is described in the soldier's own words, utilizing
entries from original journals, orderly books, and official papers, all of which are fully cited.

The 11" by 8-1/2" horizontal layout allows for 22" long spreads of original muskets and swords. Includes images of original uniforms, muskets, pistols, swords, eating utensils, canteens, haversacks, gaitors, halberds, hangers, smallswords, officer's fusils, medical devises, and more.

Artifacts and paintings were taken from public and private collections throughout the United States, Britain, and Canada, including the Royal Collection, Colonial Williamsburg, Fort Ticonderoga, Fort Ligonier, Fortress Louisbourg, Fort Pitt, and
Jummonville Glen.

Also included, the complete series of grenadier paintings by David Morier, shown in high resolution, full color. These important paintings have never before been published in their entirety and in color, and are here presented in high-resolution full color.

A must-have for the mid 18th century historian, collector, reenactor, and artist.

137 pages, paperbound, 11" by 8-1/2" format, full color photos. By
Ryan R. Gale. Published by Track of the Wolf Inc.
Now taking pre-orders for a mid-August 2007 delivery.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
#BOOK-ASLW $32.50 + S&H. ISBN 978-0-9765797-2-4

You can see a preview and order online at Track's website:

Military Travel in the 18th century

Good day,

A post on one of the egroups [CustalogaTown] about early American travel got responses with an interesting link to a web page about how the army traveled in the colonial era. The page is focused on the Revolutionary War but it refers back here and there to the French and Indian War. The web page I'm speaking of belongs to the U.S. Army Transportation Museum.

I hope you find this interesting and informative.

YH&OS,
Sarah M. / Chauncey

More on Egroups

Good day,
I am finally following up with my blog (I need an 18thC term for "blog") about egroups for reenactors. I want to provide info on how to join them and get the most out of them.

Joining a Group
Many egroups let you browse the messages without joining, some do not. Almost all require you to be a member before visiting their links, photos, files, etc. But you cannot get any messages sent to you by email if you don't join. So, you need to join.

When you click on the link for any one of the egroups in my previous blog, you will go to the "home" page for that egroup, and in the upper right corner, you will see the blue button that says "Join This Group".

Click on the "Join This Group" button. That will take you to a page where you specify your email address, how you want the email messages sent, and other information. The "Digest" means you get all the emails rolled rolled up into one rather than having them sent individually.

In many cases, the egroup moderator(s) will have to review your request. This may take a few days, as they are normal people who manage the list for fun.

In all cases, Yahoo! sends you an email to confirm that you are you signing up you. Click on the link in that email. Then, you will get a second email from Yahoo! when you are in, and you can just click on that link to go to the egroup website.

Getting the most of out Egroups
To get the most out of egroup, create Yahoo! account. You can send and receive emails from the egroup without joining Yahoo!, but you can access all the wealth of information on the egroup websites only when you have a Yahoo! account. Just go to Yahoo.com and create an account.

Once you can do that, you are able to:
~Search archives of messages: Click on Messages on the left side menu and that will take you to a page of messages where you will see a Search box. Enter key words and Yahoo! will show you previous messages where those words occur.
~Post and answer messages
~Read files and photos (other people's research)
~Post your own files and photos to share with others.

I could go on, but I think I will stop here. I trust you are clever enough to figure it out yourselves from here.

YH&OS,
Sarah / Chauncey

18th Century Reenactor's egroups

Good day,

One of the best resources around for reenactors who use the web for research, shopping, and socializing, is the Yahoo! egroups and other email distribution lists. If you aren't familiar with them, I will tell you later how they work. For now, let me list the ones I know of that are worthwhile for 18th Century Reenactors:

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/18cMusic/: a bit of a misnomer, as it is there to assist reenactors in the accurate portrayal of the 18th Century military field musician, not 18th century music in general (as the name implies).

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/18cWoman/: without a doubt one of the best, this is a place to discuss everything about women in the 18th century, clothing, manners, status, condition, and more. Stories of actual women, excerpts from letters & diaries, sources for study. Emphasis on regional differences, and the abilities displayed in home and the running of businesses. An exploration of how events affected their lives. Men and women are both on this list, and "men's stuff" does get discussed now and then, especially clothing.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/250thFIEventsLakeGeorgeNY/: focused on the 250th anniversary of the events that occured at the southern end of Lake George and which will be re-enacted through 2007 at Lake George.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cookfi/: relevant to the 2005 Cook Forest (PA) F&I War Encampment plus a number of other great events in the PA area.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FandIBrits/: This group is intended to communicate information between members of French and Indian War reenactors portraying British Regulars,Provicials,Rangers and Natives loyal to The British Crown.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FandIWAR/: military battles, life in camp, material culture of the times, weapons, the social order of colonial America, and just about anything else on subjects pertaining to the eighteenth century, including topics specifically related to re-enacting the period on both sides of the conflict (French, British, general Colonial, and Native American).

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FandIWomen/ a discussion of women and their pertinent issues in the French and Indian (Seven Years) War era, including interpreting the daily lives of women in Nouvelle France (roughly 1740-1760); this list is useful because 18CWoman has a strong emphasis on Rev War era and very little influence on Canadian women.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/historic_animals/: while not just for reenactors, this forum brings together Living historians and breeders of historically correct breeds of Livestock which includes cattle,horses sheep,pigs,goats,poultry,cats and dogs, for discussing historically correct breeds, and for reneactors who are intersted in incorpating the historically correct animals into the Living History community.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalTrekking/: dedicated to living history or historical trekking, for people who are interested in recreating the daily life skills and activities of the people who lived in North America during the 18th century.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MiddleWatersGroup/: not a French group or an English group, an F & I, Revolutionary War or 1812 group specifically, nor exclusively military or civilian, they are a group of Midwestern reenactors who need to share information for people, personas, and events in their area of the country.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NativeList/: for people involved in living history who portray 17th-early 19th Century Native Americans, mostly of the Eastern Woodlands' cultural groups during the 18th century, the scope also including people who portray Indian Agents, Traders, or members of recreated military units that supported native operations, but not Indian Fighters.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nieuw-Nederlandt/: for people interested in the historical New Amsterdam/New Netherland and interested in the living history portrayal of it.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Revlist/: an active community of living historians, re-enactors, research historians, historical writers, genealogists, and other persons interested in the period of time during which the American War of Independence was fought, with topics including military battles, life in camp, material culture of the times, weapons, the social order of colonial America, and just about anything else on subjects pertaining to the mid to late eighteenth century.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RevWarBuySellSwap/: for folks into Rev War reenactment to list things they are either looking for, selling, or willing to swap.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RevWarCostume/: for discussion on making and wearing Revolutionary War era costumes and clothing (Costume:" 1. A style of dress, including garments, accessories, and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period, or people."-Websters). There is some overlap here with 18cWoman, but this list has more info on men's clothing.

~http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SavoryFare2/: focuses on the historic foodways of the 18th Century, including receipts (recipes) and appropriate documentation, ingredients (both finding original and possible modern substitutes), measurements, cooking methods, foodways background and relevant material culture of colonial America, including immigrants of the period and their contribution. This group is the successor (hopefully temporary) to SavoryFare, until we can get subscription problems sorted out on the original list.

Whew!! That's enough for now. Check back tomorrow to find out more about how they work and what you need to do to get the most out of them.

Oh, if I have missed any that are important, please leave a comment and let me know.

YH&OS,
Sarah / Chauncey