I like sprinkling “gems” of description through my writing. I don’t go into great detail about every person and every item, though I do offer more than many writers do. Instead of describing a round, yellow green apple of medium size, sometimes it’s more efficient to just say, “He bit into the Granny Smith apple…
George Ellsworth Gen. John Hunt Morgan Mention wiretapping and everyone automatically thinks of FBI, NSA, smarmy illegal eavesdropping by unethical private investigators and various other modern scenarios, but it actually began long before. Some people elevated it to an art form during the Civil War. George Ellsworth was one of those men. Ellsworth was Canadian…
Vivandiere’s were first used by the French. They were women who followed the armies, as sutlers or canteen keepers. In the American Civil War, they assumed nursing duties mainly, often tending wounded on the battlegrounds even during the battles. Sometimes, just taking water to wounded was enough to save a life. Several of these women…
It will come as a surprise to many that older blacks, slave or free, were referred to as “Auntie” or “Uncle” by many people whether they knew them or not. I had read this before, but wasn’t really sure about the truth of the matter until I started reading diaries and letters. In Sarah Morgan’s…
Frank Stringfellow Stringfellow headstone, which has a pointed top as many Confederate stones do so Union sympathizers can’t sit on it. The television show Mercy Street has introduced a character Frank Stringfellow. I had high hopes for the show and in a lot of ways I enjoy it because they get a lot of things…
This snow battle won’t make it into Rain Crow as the book will probably end sometime at the end of 1861, but if there is a second or third book, I will surely find a way for Lorena or Baron to be present. During the winter of 1862-1863 the snow fell particularly deep and moist…
I have a steamer trunk similar to this and it would be like some of the trunks Lorena and Imogene have. Some of the traveling Victorian vanity cases in were quite elegant. With the outbreak of war, supplies of medicines and manufactured goods soon became a problem in the South, which was definitely a agrarian…
I’m so far behind today on comments here and elsewhere, but I shall persevere! Oh, my stars. Petticoats and pinafores. Ringlets and ruffled drawers. Little girls were so sweet. Now, I’m not quite that old, but I well remember my aunt fixing my hair in rag rollers to make ringlets for church. Once the ringlets…
Whoa ho. We’re half way through the month. Apparently I don’t know how to write a short blog post. sigh. During the war of 1812, the British burned the United States Capitol building in August, 1814. Congress built a Federal-style brick financed by Washington real estate investors as temporary quarters. The building became known as…
I adore Victorian fashion and etiquette. Men wore more colorful garb than a person might imagine. I think the Netflix show Ripper Street does a very good job on costuming. Etiquette rules were very well defined. A lady never lifted her skirt high enough to show more than one ankle while stepping up. A gentleman…