Coassement de la Grenouille
Journal
of the Milice de Sainte Famille August 2000 Vol. 12, No. 4
Spring
has sprung
Fall
has fell
Summers
here
and
its ... not as hot as usual.
It
has been a great summer. The weather was so good, I wish I had more events to
go to. But, I did get a lot of work
done at home. (Earns point for the Fall
events)
I
know we had members in Boston for the Tall Ships, and in Williamsburg for the
arrival of Hair buyer Hamilton. A good
time was had by all.
Now
we can look forward to the fall season.
Some weekends have two and three vents.
It gets hard to choose...I am not going to list all the upcoming events
here, check the website.
Some
important dates to keep in mind.
September
9 - Milice meeting at the Old Courthouse.
Come properly dressed and bring a musket. We need a little drill for the newbys before the Oct. F & I
at the Fort. I do not know what is
planned for the F & I, but it would be good to get a couple of teams
organized.
October
14 - Wedding of Dennis Lybarger and Donna Reeves. Dennis has asked the Milice to serve as an honor guard. I need to know who is available. If you can attend, call or e-mail me asap.
November
4 - Woods walk and Milice meeting. A
reminder for the Executive Board - the Board serves as a nominating
committee. Nominations are opened at
the Nov. meeting.
December
2 - Caroling at Kimmswick. They loved
us last year. This also is our annual
meeting. Donna Reeves (by then it will
be Lybarger) is in charge of the details.
Dec
9-10 - Christmas at the Barracks. A fun
time at Jefferson Barracks ( a little cold some times.) They have a candle light tour of the camps. I need someone to write a little (5 min)
script for us to do. Let people know
who and what we are and what time period we represent. The Civil War guys put on a cracker-jack
presentation. Last year they caught and
shot a female spy.
I
am looking forward to seeing everyone again.
It seems a long time since June.
I
remain
Your
Humble Servant
John
Mefford, Capt.
Hello -
My name is Mike Pierce. I’ve met some of you guys over the years at Jefferson Barracks, where I volunteer. I’m also a Confederate artilleryman.
During the past few years, I’ve arranged for Civil War re-enactors at Old Settlers Days in Kampsville. IL . This event draws 10,000+ per day to this little town of approximately 300 people.
Beginning this year, I want to turn this into a living history encampment, with various periods represented, probably from French and Indian War through WWII. This is a really laid-back weekend. The organizers furnish firewood, water and straw. You can either bring your own food or eat at one of two very reasonably priced restaurants within walking distance of where we camp.
We camp on the banks of the Illinois River. This event is open to all branches of service.
If you guys can make this, I need to know two things by September 1 - How many people will you bring? How many tents.
E - mail me
at stlreb@altavista.com
Good Evening to All!!!
Just an update on our return to Ft. Ligonier on October 14 & 15 to try and finish the job.
I have just returned from that area and spoke with several of our must trusted agents about the condition of the fort. From their observations, they were impressed with the English engineering bu knowing of our Superior intellect along with our cannons and and our devotion to duty they feel we will be able to breech their walls on the first assault. I will be in constant contact with these agents from now on since time is running short and the need for information great. Of course I will keep all of you informed.
Since returning I have been able to calculate the distance to our objective which from my home is approximately 634 Leagues (634 miles). It is very important for us to reach either of these cities on the first day of March: Columbus Ohio....412 miles from Collinsville 212 miles to the fort...Zanesville, Ohio 161 miles to fort...Wheeling W. Virginia...88 miles to fort...Upon reaching New Stanton PA, on the second day we must go East on 70/76 Toll Road to the Ligonier exit (9) then on 711N to the fort (15 miles). By leaving early the next morning we will be arriving by mid day if we had been able to reach any of the above cities the previous day. This will give us plenty of time to set up camp and develop our battle plan. I was also informed that this area has received much rain these past months which will result in a bouquet of Fall Colors thus giving us good cover to scout the enemy camp for plunder. I will need to know who will be going so maps and orders can be sent. We will discuss our travel plans at our club meeting in September. Everyone has been invited to attend this Great Event in the Ligonier Valley.
TO THE KING
John Murphy
CHRISTMAS MEETING
December 3, 2000, 2 pm - Ravanelli’s in Granite City. The cost of $10.50 for adults (includes broasted chicken, mash potatotes/gravy, choice of side dish - green beans, butters carrots, broccoli, corn - and salad, rolls coffee, tea, cobbler, tax and gratuity. The price does not include soda, beer or wine.
The cost for children 12 and under will be $5.25.
The money must be received by November 19, 2000. Checks can be made payable to Donna Reeves/Lybarger, 709 E. Country Lane, Collinsville IL 62234. Please RSVP - 345-5057
WEDDING OF DENNIS LYBARGER AND DONNA REEVES
The wedding will take place on Sunday, October 15, 200 at 2 pm, and will be at Pontoon Baptist Church in Granite City. The church is located at Hiway 111 and Pontoon Road in Granite City. There will be a reception immediately following the wedding in the church’s fellowship hall and you all are invited to that as well. There will be food served as well and the traditional cake and punch. This date is also Donna’s father, Don Reeves’ 82nd birthday and the 100th anniversary of Donna’s grandparents, Lena and Robert Reeves.
I would also like to ask you all a favor. We have several people that are coming from out of town for the wedding rehearsal that would like to dress in eighteenth century clothing. Since Donna and I are fairly new at the living history game we do not have an over abundance o eighteenth century clothing to dress these people as they want to be dressed. (Here comes the favor part...we were wondering if any of you would be willing to loan us some of your clothing for the people at the wedding rehearsal. We promise that great care will be taken with your clothing and that all borrowed items will be returned to their rightful owners or will be replaced to the best of our ability.
Thanks,
Dennis
Lybarger and Donna Reeves
CHANGES IN THE ROSTER
Marshall (Dog) Meadors
- new email - bossdog9@cs.com
Anna Meadors - new address
- 4733 W. Conrad Rd., Ludington MI 49431, 231-843-4099, bopeep1124@aol.com
Ed Glock’s email address is FRITZGLOCK@aol.com
not fritzblock - SORRY
In the 18th century in France -
13 different measurements were used to designate one foot.
NEAT WEB SITES
Know tying - http://www.realknots.com/knots/index.htm
Voices from the Trading post - http://www.nau.edu/library/speccoll/exhibits/traders/
or
http://www.xmission.com/~drudy/amm.html
free searchable database
- http://www.findarticles.com
NOTICE
Hello everyone.
I have been lucky and found one bolt of off-white melton
(23-25 ounces per yard, 58-60 inches wide, 75% wool, 20% nylon, 5%other fibers)
in a factory. This is the weight I use
to make capots ( in blue or brown) and compagnies franches soldiers’ coats ( in
grey-white). They will not produce any
more of it because it did not sell well to the modern market. I bought the whole thing (55 meters) and I
am willing to sell part of it to other tailors, dressmakers and reenactors
alike.
Susanne Gousse gousse-matte@sympatico.ca
Love teaches even asses to dance. - French proverb
Salut mes chers:
Here is the latest online collection from the American
Memory Project. Tres kewl.
Mimi
The most recent addition to the American Memory online
collections “The American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North
American and the West Indies, 1750-1789" presents an important historical
record of the mapping of North America and the Caribbean online. Advancements in mapmaking tools and the
onset of the French and Indian War and, later, the American Revolution, created
a flurry of activity in European and North American mapmaking and
publishing. This online collection
will include well over two thousand different maps and manuscripts, with easily
as many or more unnumbered copies, many with distinct colorations and
annotations. This collection can be
found at the following url:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/armhtml/armhome.html
Almost six hundred of these items are original manuscript
drawings, a large number of which are the work of such famous mapmakers as John
Montresor, Samuel Holland, Claude Joseph Sauthier, John Hills and William
Gerard De Breahm. They also include
many maps from the personal colelctions of William Faden, Admiral Richard Howe
and the Comte de Rochambeau, as well as large groups of maps by three of the
best eighteenth-century map publishers in London: Thomas Jefferys, William
Faden and Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres.
Historical cartographers can compare multiple editions, states, and
impressions of several of the most important maps of the period, follow the
development of a particular map from themanuscript sketch to the finished
printed version and its foreign derivatives, and examine the cartographic
styles and techniques of surveyors and mapmakers from six different countries:
Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Italy and the United States.
Most of the items presented here are docmented in “Maps and
Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789: A Guide to the
Collections in the Library of Congress” compiled by John R Seller and Patricia
Molen van Ee in 1981. The online essay
“Mapping the American Revolution and Its Era” is taken from this bibliography.
I’ll not listen to reason.
Reason is always what someone else has got to say”
- Elizabeth C. Gaskell
As most of you know we as a unit have been invited to this
year’s event at Fort Legonier, the second weekend of October. Here is an account of the French attack on
Legonier as told by Pouchot in his book.
On
September 22, 1758, M. Aubry, a Captain of the Illinois, set out from Fort du
Quesne with a detachment of about 600 men, Canadians and Loups Indians, in
order to reconnoiter the English camped at Loyal-Anon. He found a small camp just beyond the
retrenchments which was held by a corps of 2000 men. As soon as the vanguard of our detachment was discovered, the
English sent out a Captain & 50 men to reconnoiter it. They stumbled upon entire detachment, which
utterly destroyed them. In pursuing
those who had been put to flight, the French came across the small camp, took
it by surprise & sent the garrison fleeing for the main retrenchment, which
they only just reached in time. He had
200 cattle or horses killed. Almost all
of our men returned on horseback. They
estimated enemy losses at 200 men while ours were one corporal and two soldiers.
A Legend of Ticonderoga
A few of you have been to
Ticonderoga for their F & I War encampment the last weekend of June. But, I don't know how many of you are
familiar of the story of Major Duncan Campbell of the 42nd Highland Regiment who
fought and died in the battle of Ticonderoga, July 8th 1758.
The ancient castle of Interawe
stands by the banks of the Awe, in the midst of the wild and picturesque
scenery of the western highlands. Late
one evening, before the middle of the 18th century, as the laird, Duncan
Campbell, sat alone in the old hall, there was a loud knocking at the gate; and
opening it, he saw a stranger, with torn clothing and kilt besmeared with
blood, who in a breathless voice begged for asylum. He went on to say that that he had killed a man in a fray, and
that the pursuers were at his heels.
Campbell promised to shelter him.
"Swear on your dirk!" said the stranger; and Campbell swore. He then led him to a secret recess in the
depths of the castle. Scarcely was he
hidden when again there was a loud knocking at the gate, and two armed men
appeared. "Your cousin Donald has
been murdered, and we are looking for the murderer!" Campbell, remembering his oath, professed to
have no knowledge of the fugitive; and the two men went on their way. The laird, in great agitation, lay down to
rest in a large dark room, where at length he fell asleep. Waking suddenly in bewilderment and terror,
he saw the ghost of the murdered Donald standing by his bedside, and heard a
hollow voice pronounce the words: "Inverawe! Inverawe! Blood has been
shed. Shield not the
murderer!" In the morning Campbell
went to the hiding-place of the guilty man and told him that he could harbor
him no longer. "You have sworn on
your dirk!" he replied; and the
laird of Inverawe, greatly perplexed and troubled, made a compromise between
conflicting duties, promised not to betray his guest, led him to the
neighboring mountain, and hid him in a cave.
In the night, as he lay tossing in
feverish slumber, the same stern voice awoke him, the ghost of his cousin
Donald stood again at his bedside, and again he heard the same appalling
words: "Inverawe! Inverawe! Blood
has been shed. Shield not the
murderer!" At the break of day he
hastened, in strange agitation to the cave; but it was empty, the stranger was
gone. At night, as he strove in vain to
sleep, the vision appeared once more, ghastly pale, but less stern of aspect
than before. "Farewell,
Inverawe!" it said;
"Farewell, till we meet again at TICONDEROGA!"
The strange name dwelt in Campbell's
memory. He had joined the Black Watch,
or Forty-Second Regiment, then employed in keeping order in the turbulent
Highlands. In time he became its Major;
and, a year or two after the Seven Years War broke out, he went with it to
America. Here, to his horror, he
learned that it was ordered to the attack of Ticonderoga. His story was well known among his brother
officers. They combined among
themselves to disarm his fears; and when they reached the fatal spot they told
him on theeve of the battle, "This is not Ticonderoga; we are not there
yet; this is Fort George." But in
the morning he came to them with haggard looks. "I have seen him!
You deceived me! He came to my
tent last night! This is
Ticonderoga! I shall die
to-day!" And his prediction was
fulfilled.
Such is the tradition. The indisputable facts are that Major Duncan
Campbell of Inverawe, his arm shattered by a bullet, was carried to Fort
Edward, where after amputation, he died and was buried. The stone that marks his grave may still be
seen, with this inscription: "Here lyes the Body of Duncan Campbell
of Inverawe, Esp.", Major to the old Highland Regiment, aged 55 Years, who
died the 17th of July, 1758, of the Wounds he received in the Attack of the
Retrenchment of Ticonderoga or Carrillon, on the 8th of July, 1758."
Another story that is part of the
Campbell family tradition tells of an old man who's grandfather was
foster-brother to the slain Major. The
man carried a salmon for the grandfather to an inn near Inverawe. The old man's grandfather was sleeping with
his son, then a lad, in the same room, but in another bed. This son, father of the narrator, "was
awaken by some unaccustomed sound, and behold there was a bright light in the
room, and he saw a figure, in full Highland regimentals, cross over the room,
and he saw the figure stoop down over his father's bed and give him a
kiss. He was too frightened to speak,
but put his head under his coverlet and went to sleep. Once more he was roused in a like manner,
and saw the same sight. In the morning
he spoke to his father about it, who told him that it was Macdonnochie (the Galic patronymic of the laird of
Inverawe) whom he had seen, and who came to tell him that he had been
killed in a great battle in America.
Sure enough, said the old man, it was on the very day that the battle of
Ticonderoga was fought and the laird was wounded."