Last weekend Colonial Williamsburg broke with tradition to offer a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
A couple of years ago we attended a slide show presentation by Colonial Williamsburg historian Carson Hudson, discussing the Civil War in Williamsburg.
Showing us slides of the 18th century buildings we love as they were in the 19th century so that we could guess which building was which!
I’ve since obtained his book, Civil War Williamsburg.
A few months later we viewed the redoubts from the Battle of Williamsburg.
Thus we entered 19th century Williamsburg.
THOMAS JEFFERSON: WOLF BY THE EAR
Opening the weekend’s Civil War events was a special dramatic program Friday night: Wolf by the Ear: Thomas Jefferson and the Pursuit of Freedom, set in March 1820, the eve of the Missouri Compromise.
The players are Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Edmund Randolph, Henry Clay, and Jean-Jacque Dessalines.
As Thomas Jefferson anxiously awaits news as to whether Missouri will enter the union as a slave state or a free state, he recalls his attempts to end slavery through various documents, such as his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, removed by delegates from colonies south of Virginia.
While Jefferson quietly sits in his home of Monticello on one part of the stage, other parts of the stage come to life as various contemporaries foreshadow the issue at hand.
We returned to 1788 where Patrick Henry and Edmund Randolph debate the slave trade clause at the Virginia Ratification Convention.
Jean-Jacque Dessalines helped end slavery in 1791 Haiti.
Finally, Henry Clay in 1820 proposed the Missouri Compromise which allowed the admission of Missouri as a slave state balanced by the admission of Maine as a free state.
Furthermore, future new states in the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri were to enter as free states.
While the light faded on Clay, the light shone on Jefferson as he received the gazette, full of disheartening news of the Missouri Compromise from his man servant.
But, as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is on the scale, and self-preservation in the other. -Thomas Jefferson to John Holmes, Monticello, April 22, 1820
…we have the wolf by the ear and feel the danger of either holding or letting him loose. -Thomas Jefferson to Lydia Huntley Sigourney, Monticello, July 18, 1824
BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG – SOUTHERN ENCAMPMENT
While we meandered around the encampment of the Confederate army, we soon found horses and dragoons!
Chatting about calvary sabers and bayonets with Dragoon #1, we learned that he and the other calvary members there represent the Sussex Light Dragoons of the 13th Virginia.
After a wonderfully long and fascinating conversation, we started to leave when he thanked me for asking the best questions!
Oh my, I told him he got an A+ for the long and well researched conversation with us regarding calvary sabers and bayonets!
At that moment dragoon #2 popped over and exclaimed, “Don’t you know who these people are?”
Dragoon #1 looked at us closely, checked our passes, and then he knew exactly who we were!
That’s when he told us who he was! Ohhhhh! He had grown some chops just for this event.
{{{On this day we were out of colonial costume since I didn’t have time to sew 19th century attire, so we wore modern clothes. Funny how he didn’t recognize my kids out of costume, and we didn’t recognize him with 19th century whiskers.}}
While dragoon #1 and I kept talking extensively, dragoon #2 showed all the equipage to my son, as he commonly does on our other visits.
Then we saw dragoon #3, whom we also know!
MEETING THE AMBULANCE DRIVER
As we walked to a lunch spot we passed the Courthouse which had become a Civil War hospital.
Walking by, we saw another CW employee we knew walking quickly down Duke of Gloucester street, dressed 19th century style…with a note tucked in the side of his hat.
Curiously, I snuck up to read it: Ambulance.
Catching me trying to read his note, he cheerfully said hi, in recognition of us.
As we walked down the street he told us a bit about his job as a Civil War ambulance driver.
Since ambulances are an easy target for an ambush they have to carry pistols.
BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG – NORTHERN ENCAMPMENT
After lunch we visited the northern encampment.
Representing Company K from Vermont, this man gave us a tour of the camp.
This is the “Radar O’Reilly from MASH” of the Civil War…or in other words he did all the paperwork. He seemed to be every bit as organized as Radar too.
He explained how they recruited and how they kept daily tallies of the soldiers and supplies.
This was filled out for the day, so he explained everything about the form.
If a soldier lost something, that had to be noted on the paperwork because they would be charged.
Since the North won the Battle of Williamsburg, they occupied that side of the Duke of Gloucester Street.
Although the citizens were free to come and go, they could be spies for the South.
Whenever they left, they had to fill out this paperwork promising they would not give away any secrets…under penalty of death.
Of course, the townsfolk did spy and gave away all the secrets they could when they left town, but no one was ever punished for it.
MILLINER SHOP SHOWCASES 19TH CENTURY FASHIONS FOR THE WEEKEND
Wrapping up Civil War weekend at Colonial Williamsburg was a peek into the era’s fashions at the milliner shop.
Laying side by side on the counters were 18th and 19th century fashions.
The tailor, working the shop that day) engaged the children in picking out which bonnet was 18th century and which was 19th, and so on.
Before quizzing the children on each item, the tailor regaled us with a bit of history of each.
Conversation also turned to other 19th century matters.
There was a Kashmir shawl laying on the table which the tailor described in great detail, from pattern, to origins, to reproduction.
Then a huge discussion on 19th century colors as opposed to 18th dominated the floor, from the colors of mauves to blacks and the process by which they could be created with new techniques in the 19th century.
Especially interesting to me was his description of the development of shape throughout the 19th century with the caged crinoline…
He then concluded his tour of 19th century fashion by asking me if they were next in my sewing basket!
Absolutely! I’m in need of a crinoline…
