Ohio's Civil War Battlefield

Yes! It's true! Ohio has a Civil War Battlefield. And I never knew about it until I started reenacting. Nobody talks about it. I don't think many people know about it. It always seems to me that the State of Ohio who doesn't really seem to value our history.(I promise not to get going on Zoar) I mean, our school systems never taught it! Can you imagine having a connection to the civil war like that and not having it taught in school? I mean, West Point teaches about it, but the Ohio Schools don't? Oops... Tangent!

Anyway, today I was surfing the web looking up future reenactment locations when I stumbled upon an OHS The Battle of Buffington Island (aka St. Georges Creek Skirmish) web page which shamed me to pieces! Buffington Island has had its own little monument for 20 years! Its a nice little decaying pillar, suffering from apathy and neglect even though the community tries to care for it. It has a nice little park around it also suffering from neglect. There is good news! Our little battlefield has a preservation action plan attached to it and everything! I hope this means the community will get the funds keep it going. I guess if its being taught at West Point, there is something more to it than a generic 3.5 hour battle, right? So here I'll quote from the web page "Buffington Island commemorates the only significant Civil War battle that took place on Ohio soil.

Here a Union army routed a column of Confederate cavalry commanded by General John Hunt Morgan in 1863. Major Daniel McCook, patriarch of the fighting McCook family, consisting of his eight sons and his brother John's five sons, was mortally wounded in the fight.

A monument made of broken Ohio glacial boulders is set in a four acre outdoor park where visitors can enjoy picnics and read the signs describing the history of the area. It is not on an island."

So now we have General Morgan slithering around Southern Ohio, sending fear into the tri-state area only to be hunted down like the dog he was. He was finally captured and after some song and dance about surrendering to one of his prisoners, who granted him a full pardon he ended up in one of Ohio's many prisons. Unlucky for him that he was pretty much surrounded by Union prisons in Ohio. We had, Johnson's Island, Camp Chase and the Ohio Penitentiary which was where he landed.

Research: Laundress Documentation

Okay, I was at a company meeting a few weeks ago and something came up that needed a vote. It would be a vote that only the military would be able to vote on. I raised my hand and said, me too right? Someone automatically responded, "no, you're a civilian." Well of course I argued going through my time worn "I'm the first woman with official status in the US Army" spiel "I get paid by the army. I've got documentation that I'm military." By now,everyone already has a natural reaction to ignore when I'm on a tangent, but one of my beloved company members piped up and said "Hey if you're paid by the Army, it's good enough for me!"

So, what documentation do I have that I'm in the military? Exhibit A is the House of Representatives 49th congress Report No. 204. If laundresses weren't in the military, then why did the house of representatives think they were and spent so much time talking about how they either loved or hated them and then have to vote to discontinue them?

Laundresses in the Army
Yes, its entitled Laundresses in the Army. They were not camp followers, no matter how lousy they they were treated in some cases.

Still not convinced?

Well take a look at this. It is a document containing information of the discharge of Benjamin F. and Catherine Oliphant. This is from the Library of Congress: Laundress discharged

Yes it said laundress/nurse, however, laundresses were called upon to do nursing duties, helping the cook and whatever else was needed at the time. A laundress would do nursing, if needed. Its sad that they ended up a jenny-of-all-trades and weren't given the admiration and respect they deserved. But,the fact is that she was hired in as a laundress and wouldn't get a pension. In most cases, laundresses were from the lower class. Nurses wouldn't call themselves laundresses. You have to remember social class was the know all end all in Victorian society. Notice she went for a pension. I've yet to see if she got it as laundresses with few exceptions didn't get pensions like nurses did. That was 100 shades of wrong. Those women worked their bustles off!

Okay, I'm no expert so if anyone has any corrections, opinions or new information. I'd sure love to see it.


Highest Regards,

Mrs. Peters

Irons in the Fire and Burns on My Hands - My 1st Try at Ironing!

Wow! This ironing thing... all I can say is OUCH! My ironing day went quite well considering I thought it would be a nightmare. It really was not. Yes, I did burn myself quite a few times but that was something I expected. The actual ironing was what I thought would be trying. I expected scorching and burning, neither happened!
I toyed with the idea of a fireplace log but as silly as it sounds, I wanted to smell the wood burning and hear the fire popping. I guess I wanted an authentic experience as possible. I knew I'd enjoy it tremendously.

I started off gathering wood. For easy access, I piled it on the deck, right outside the family room slider facing the back yard. I have a flat skillet or griddle, as some may call it, that I use to set the irons on in the fire. Try as I might, I couldn't find it. Not a happy laundress... I ended up using a cast iron pot my brother Rick found in his chicken coop when he moved into a 100 year old farmhouse 30 years ago. I plan on using it under the fly on rainy days when my large outdoor fire isn't possible because of the weather. It worked for me so well today I may end up using it permanently. Also, think it really helped with keeping the ashes off the irons better. I have a big problem with that at events.

Remember in previous blogs how I mentioned that in growing my laundress gear for my impression, I've started collecting old and antique laundry equipment? Well, I dragged out this really nice wooden ironing board I recently bought and set it up to iron. I started ironing but then felt oh so guilty because I know ironing boards probably weren't used. Mass produced ironing boards were really just in their infancy about then. So, I put away the ironing board and set up the proper way, two wooden chairs.

I have a lot of stuff I haul to the events. I'm trying to downsize my gear but everything I have I pretty much use so I've recently vowed that if I add any new elements to my impression I can not add new items to haul with me unless I take away something else. Up to now I mentioned ironing and showed the spectators the irons in the fire but that was about it for ironing.

Luckily for me (and my solomn vow) my gear includes beaucoup wooden boards and wooden folding chairs, basically everything I needed to set up an ironing presentation. Yay me! and since a major part of my gear is laundry, I also have a lot of sheets, blankets and other things I can use for my ironing board pad and cover. Life is good! Okay with my newly correct ironing space complete, it was time to start ironing. Using a rag to protect my hands, I pulled the first, and heaviest iron from the fire and sat it down on a trivet.

It took about an hour for the irons to heat up completely. I was shocked at how easily the iron flowed across the fabric, how crisp the fabric looked. As I said before I expected to burn or scorch the fabric on my first few tries. It was almost as if I was using a regular iron. But soon, I did notice that in using the irons, as opposed to contemporary irons, that it mattered which way the iron moved. Being right handed I went from left to right, but if I then came back, left to right, my fabric would wrinkle or crease. Going up and down was fine but I just couldn't go backward. My iron was cooling down. It was still hot, as I learned when I flicked water on it and it sizzled, but I guess it wasn't hot enough!

I mentioned how irons cooling down fast in my presentations but I thought cool meant cool not less than blistering hot! And blistering hot it was as I can tell you by experience! I frequently grabbed the handle of the iron without the rag without thinking!

I guess its not really off the beaten path since I also have a habit of poking about the fire and for some reason thinking certain logs wouldn't be hot. Again........OUCH! Figures my daughter got the shot of me burning my hand on the handle!

The Library, Pickled Pigs Feet and the Scorching Heat of Hades, women in the civil war,

Today was library day. I spent 3 hours going through books to see if I could find any references to the Company Laundress. I didn't. Well, I suppose I did find the word, once. It was a reference to low class hospital workers. Other than that -nada!
I was just going to scan the pages, looking for a few keywords in hopes of finding some kind of information however small.

I can't say it was a waste of time as I found myself reading instead of scanning. I ended up checking out 4 of the 6 books I'd sat down with. There's one book I just couldn't part with, Sunday Mercury - Writing and Fighting the Civil War. Soldier Correspondence to the New York Sunday Mercury. What a good book! Although, so far, I haven't found laundress info, the book is interesting and a really great way to to get a glimpse of what was in the guys heads. I never knew they thought of the sutlers as blood sucking vampires and pretty passionately too! I couldn't put it down so I checked it out so I could go back and read the pages I'd merely scanned. The other 3 I haven't started reading yet. I found out the library is going to do a four month to-do on the Civil War starting in March. The kind lady that assisted me with my search took my name and number just in case there was something I could be involved with in the future. I hope there is.

In one of my recent antique shop treks I bought a "Mrs Potts" style sad iron. You know, the ones with the detachable wooden handle. Too bad I can't use them at reenactments. It wasn't patented until the 1870s. I wonder if they were available before the patent date. I'd love to use them. My old and antique laundry equipment collection grows! Tomorrow is D-Day. I'm going to get up-close and personal with my irons.

Also in an antique store I saw a tripod drying rack. Its not period correct as its from the 1920s but I really want it bad! I started reading up on drying methods and found that I have here at home, a few items that I can use. Hooray! I really need drying racks. This past year was so wet that having something to dry laundry in the tent would have been priceless!

I was getting all excited because I finally decided that I wanted to go to antietam 150th reenactment next year. But in classic Mrs. Peters fashion reality rained on my parade. Now, I could be reading this wrong but only A-Frame tents are allowed? I have a hospital tent.

(I think) Its roomy enough for me and my kids and it was the only tent I could afford. I'm thinking I can't use it. I'm going to have to get clarification on that. I'd really like to do one of the anniversary reenactments. I guess any large one would do, maybe Gettysburg if someone else in the unit was going. Let me rephrase that; I'd really like to do one of the anniversary reenactments. I guess any large one would do, any large one whose climate isn't that of the scorching heat of Hades and have large animals dying from said intolerable heat. Yes, I'm a wimp.

I'm also gathering recipes to make in camp next year. I want quick and easy, yet period correct. My mom is a wealth of information...and a wealth of weirdness. She likes pickled pigs feet. I love my mom so much. She's the greatest mom on the planet but for me that is so wrong on so many levels. Luckily she has never greeted me at the door with a big plate full. Geez, which would I choose..pickled pigs feet or the scorching heat of Hades? Anyone know how to make smores?

Motivated

I'm sitting here feeling all proud of myself. I went to bed last night, or should I say morning since it was 3am...and got up Tuesday morning at 7am. Lyle had not roused her lazy butt out of bed to go to school so I woke her up. She was pretty impressive, she got ready in like 10 minutes and was out the door! Anyway, I decided to stay up instead of go back to bed. (I get home from work about 1am) I got so much done!

Monday night I'd started to practice skirt making. I have a pretty blue-green, perhaps one might call it aqua-colored fabric and decided to make a pleated skirt. Now, mind you, I've never made a skirt in my life, let alone pleats but I thought now was as good a time as any to learn! And as surprising as it is, it doesn't seem to be turning out so badly! The only bad thing about it is that the body wearing it belongs to me! I'm not the thinnest or most fit person on the planet. Okay, brass tacks time here, I'm pretty much a blob.

A while back I bought a rebounder and started using it! Every day , mind you! But the strangest thing happened. Every time I exercised, I ended up having a hard time breathing and my chest hurt for a week afterward! I went to my doctor and what he told me really made me feel like I was poster child for the 'biggest-losers-on-the-planet!" I have.......get this and I'm not making it up....exercise induced asthma!!! I kid you not! It exists! I have an inhaler I don't use because I am so tired of 'disorder of the month club', little pissy ailments that I end up getting. If my lungs aren't popping or falling out of my body, no medicine. Forget it!

Omg..total tangent time (TTT) okay, so where was I?. My skirt. I'm shocked at how not so sucky it is for a first try! I was going to show a pic of my maiden voyage but just as quickly decided against it. Why look at my unworthy scraps when there are many women Civil War Reenactors blogging here that can show you incredible masterpieces! I was roaming the blogs and saw an incredible laundress blog called 'The Laundress is In' You want to see a talented person? Check it out. I'm not kidding!


Oh god TTT again... Anyway No, my attempt is not a work of art but neither is it something to be embarrassed about considering I'm winging it! No pattern! I guess its just dabbling. I am, however, serious about making men's drawers and shirts to hang or crumple around Suds Row. I'm going to my Mom's house over the weekend and she's going to show me how to do it. I'm also putting together pin cushions. Why? I have no idea why. I guess its just that they're just so darn pretty.

What I really like doing is making washboards! In fact, I think it was my first blog, I'd mentioned that the little kiddie-poohs liked washboards. So, I'm making washboards that will attach (probably) by rope to a large tub so the future company laundresses and laundrymen can scrub to their heart's content. I think I'm going to ask the parents if my personal photographer (my husband) can take pix to use on my blog. The kids are just so darn cute when they're obsessed for 10 minutes then go away.

Its kinda neat that winter is upon us. Last year I vowed I'd spend the time putting together my impression, experimenting in cooking, mastering the laundress profession and spending time at the library researching. I didn't do any of those things, but this year I'm so motivated for some reason.

Oh wow it's 2am. I'm going to motivate myself right into dreamland.

Goodnight!

Mrs. Peters