Mosquito nets

[Joanna Jones]

Gentlemen:

I am assisting in the organizing of the “Raising the First” event in April. One of the items that the newly-enlisted soldiers at Ft. Snelling left with was “mosquito nets” made by the ladies gathered at the fort to see them off. I have been searching with very little success in getting descriptions of the size and type of fabric used, though there are numerous references to show they were fairly common. I did find out that it came in a variety of colors, and green was suggested to be “the most restful for the eyes to gaze upon when waking”. The Richmond Depot lists mosquito nets among the supplies, but provides no description of size or weave.

I have been searching Google Books for “mosquito net” “musquito net” “mosquito bar” and “musquito bar”, antique textile sites, and googled “antique OR Civil War mosquito net”. I have come across numerous photos of large nets in use in hospitals, but the pictures are not close enough to see details of the fabric. I am not sure where to go, so I am asking for assistance. I do not want to assume that today’s cotton net, or cheesecloth, was used. One person did locate this reference:

http://books.google.com/books?id=9oMHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA317&dq=mosquito+net&output=html&cd=2

"Hardtack and Coffee" makes no mention of them.

I have also searched this forum and several others thoroughly with no success.

The gentlemen of the First Minnesota with whom I am aquainted do not know.

One other note - the soldiers of the First started out in Sibleys, so a net would have to be a personal one, rather than one to drape over the end of a dog tent.


So... I am asking for assistance -
1. What type of fabric – other than the one description of “silk net of the mosquito-type” – was it a true net? A loosely woven cloth?

2. The size and shape of a “personal” mosquito net that might have been issued to soldiers – were the edges finished? raw? bound? Was it square? round?

3. Probably most important – would an article like that have been considered useful by soldiers or something impractical given by ladies who don’t know any better, and discarded soon after? I don’t think we want to go to the effort and expense if they will be tossed after the event. Would YOU use one?

Thank you for the help,

Joanna Jones
St. Paul Volunteer Soldier’s Aid Society

[Spinster]

Re: Mosquito nets

:tounge_sm This post is OPINION and experience only--and civilian experience at that.

We did some pretty extensive research in this area on the ramp up to In The Van, for the wagoners. That being a summer, southern event of a week long length, with animals to attract even more insects, I figured this would be an exercise in self defense rather than just one more useless gee-gaw.

Most of the questions you ask above, we found unanswerable---or answerable, and proper material unfindable at anything approaching the proper volume or a reasonable price for an *issue item*--especially given the other costs for Raising the First.

Since we felt we *really* needed some mosquito bars amoungst the wagon crews (as we would be sleeping closest to, and often right beside, the draft animals, we made some expedient fall backs, based on various images and descriptions.

We used high quality cheese cloth or a very coarsely woven heavily sized cotton mesh. Both these had a true woven selvedge (not the modern 'fringed' selvedge) and those were left without hemming as they were firm enough to do so. Various cotton twill tapes on hand were used to provide additional support and ties, and to seam two pieces of netting together. I also tend to use my period sewing machine for such efforts, but was snagging the mesh with the needle (always in short supply with these machines) and quickly switch to a combo of hand sewing and modern machine.

I tried it out at a mainstream event known for swarms of mosquitos in the Deep South in late April. It worked, but it sure was hot, and took awhile to string up. I've been more comfortable sleeping with a sheer slat bonnet over my face in similar conditions. Snatching it up and down on a regular basis would soon have it in tatters.

Actual useage for In The Van---I think I got around to stringing this thing up for one night. Other wise, I was too tired, and even rolling out a bedroll was enough effort. It took up less space in my snap sack than a shelter half would, but when the opportunity came to offload for personal carry weight (at the same time we left backup supplies by the side of the trail for pickup by kabuki) I offloaded it in favor of holding on to my silk raincoat.

Bottom line---I think a soldier on campaign would have dumped this thing at first opportunity. An officer with a bed and 'campaign furniture' might have held on to it--but when the wagons lagged behind as they so frequently did on campaign, the mosquito bar would be back there too.


Given all the listed things that the St. Paul Ladies made for soldiers---if you want to do something that the recruits will want after the fact--make shirts, socks, drawers, towels, sleeping caps, personal item rolls, housewives, and such.

And if you want to borry my semi-farb cotton mosquito bar to wave around for effect, you are welcome to it.

[Joanna Jones]

Re: Mosquito nets

Thank you, Mrs. Lawson. I think you have talked me off the ledge, unless I hear from another gent that it was the most wonderful thing he ever recieved. We had thrown around the idea of the nets because it seemed 1. Do-able in quantity in the 2 days we have during the event, and 2. Something different than most guys get.

Oh, well!

Regards,
Joanna Jones

[Hank Trent]

Re: Mosquito nets

Well, I'll chime in on the usage. I actually have and use a modern version of the smaller face/hatbrim kind for modern camping, and find it extremely useful and practical in the evening and at night, since I dislike using bug wipes and sprays.

However, I also made a cotton, green-dyed one to portray an upscale naturalist on a period camping trip, and while I also found it practical and useful, I just don't bother to pack it for other portrayals. Somehow, bugs don't seem to be a problem in the evening at events, or if they are after I lie down, I just put a blanket over my head. I think it may be that period camping is more focussed around a fire in the evening, even in summer for cooking, or there are pipe smokers, which keep the bugs away. When modern camping, you can't pull a sleeping bag over your head, and I usually pack things that don't need cooked, and of course don't smoke, so there are more bugs.

So the bottom line: even though I have a period version of the face net all ready to go, and use one in modern life, I don't feel the need at events.

I expect, though, that in some situations it would be absolutely indispensible, such as one period example I read, fishing up north in black fly season, but that's a situation one doesn't run across much at reenactments.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Mosquito nets

During the Vicksburg Event several years ago, I made a Cheese Cloth covering about the size of a very large pillow case. It is large enough to cover my head and arms. Think of the design as a sleeping bag in reverse. Very light and works very well. I am sure you could cut the design to your needs. The idea came from when I was a child, my Great-Great Aunt would use it to cover the windows and door ways of the kitchen, while they were canning. She would also brush the cheese cloth with some type of weed or something that repealed mosquitos, or it may have been a Creole Gre Gre ...I'm sorry can't remember what it was.

[Spinster]

Re: Mosquito nets

Dale,

She could have been using anything from citron grass, or some of the other wild sub-tropicals that produce such oils, to chrysamthemum flowers and stems, to marigold, to long leaf pine--all serve to deter flies when brushed on the screens.

The useage of a number of these plants for insect control pre-date the War period.

Over the years, I've looked at what purports to be original bar material in great houses, and I liken it to a fine bridal tulle. (There's that cost factor rearing its ugly head for an issue item at an event--fine silk bridal tulle is $$$$) In the Gulf Coast homes, the tradition actually called for 'summer clothing' for the great houses---light slipcovers on the furniture, very sheer bed hangings, held in place by the removable finials of the bed posts, and similar coverings on windows--all in the name of insect control. There is one property in New Orleans that is publically open for tours, in the back of the Quarter that continues to do the full clothing change each year.

I question the economic availability of such fabrics to the lower classes, especially when silk is called for. But I continue to search for references to more economically available fabrics, such as heavily starched and loosely woven cotton. A hundred years earlier, there are references to leno weave linen in the French families of Alabama-but again, these are people of prosperous backgrounds, albeit fallen on hard times when they choose to settle and colonize in the Alabama Delta.

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Mosquito nets

Reading your post just jogged something I do remember. They used the same cloth to filter while pouring into large pickle crafts. My GG-Aunt had a large herb garden, don't remember anything except mint that she used in teas and other afternoon drinks. Sorry I don't know what she used. They were of both French and English families, so it's just hard to pin it down. I also remember that she did cover her furniture while she was away. But that cloth was not what she used to cover the windows.

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Mosquito nets

Terre,
I do remember that she had plants outside planted near windows. I remember her saying it kept the bugs away. Enjoyed the "down memory lane"....now if i just had her old recept of Gumbo. Boiling shrip today, that Dennis Neal and I got in Hammond day before. Cest est Bon!

[Spinster]

Re: Mosquito nets

Multiple layers of what we call cheese cloth, sometimes referred to as sleaze or slease' (with a French turn to the voice)or sleazy cloth were used to filter pickling juices of all sorts--especially those heated with herbs. I do not know the 'real' word behind this useage--its remarkable what the Lower Alabama accent does to mutilate French words in the language over time.

Again, the plants near the windows were likely the same ones mentioned above---there is a reason for the ubiquitous 'window box' in subtropical architecture.

Originals of the summer slipcovers are a light colored cotton twill weave--I've seen a couple in private homes in Lower Alabama, specifically tailored to the silk brocade upholstered pieces, and one as far up as Tuskaloosa (a river town, well above the 'moss line' and on the 'fall line'). As Dale mentions, these were used when the house was unoccupied and were not meant as decorative pieces, but to protect the furniture from insect and mold. Not only were upholstered pieces covered, but also, chandeliers, mirrors, and wooden pieces, as all of these could be damaged by summer humidity. These also kept dust off the furniture, a great boon in the days before electric vacumn cleaners. Similar methods were used pre-war in Charleston and Savannah, when families left the rice plantations for cooler areas with fewer insects. Not that the field servants benefited from this exodus--they stayed to work.


The tradition of familes leaving the main home during the heat of the summer (and fever /mosquito season) continued until after the Second War, when airconditioning began to become available. The Friday afternoon train running from Birmingham, Alabama approximately 100 miles north to Valley Head, Alabama, and returning early Monday morning finally discontinued hauling its load of heat-weary businessmen to their families summering at the higher elevation (usually 20 degrees cooler) in the 1960's.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Mosquito nets

Covering furniture in summer doesn't seem to be limited to southerners only. For example:

Up in Massachusetts, Mrs. Lydia Child wrote about varnishing gilded frames: "This would save the trouble of covering and uncovering picture-frames with the change of the seasons."

From Philadelphia (with a childhood in England), Eliza Leslie gives detailed instructions on covering everything in summer.

From England, courtesy of "Punch": "These women go about with big round brown flop-hats, to save their skins; just, I suppose, as we cover up furniture in summer to keep the mahogany from cracking."

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Mosquito nets

Terre, your right I know about one thing, my Grandmother and all of her family left South Mississippi and Louisiana and went to Memphis, during the hot part of the summer. I use to ride with them on the train, and my Brother and I would chase the ducks at the Peabody. This has brought back good memories. The "Big House" had 8 bedrooms, and my brother and I had so much fun playing on the "Big Farm".

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Mosquito nets

There is an Old Story why the farm was not burned during the War, will tell you that story at a later date...;)

[Spinster]

Re: Mosquito nets

From England, courtesy of "Punch": "These women go about with big round brown flop-hats, to save their skins; just, I suppose, as we cover up furniture in summer to keep the mahogany from cracking."

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

So THATS what's wrong with my maghogany sideboard!

:embaresse Hangs her head in shame at being a slovenly housekeeper......

[Michael Comer]

Re: Mosquito nets

Dale,

I'm curious as to how that worked. I got chewed on by the skeeters at Vicksburg and just about suffocated under that wool blanket but that was the only way I could get any respite from them. But I'm thinking that if you made something akin to a pillow case that it would actually lay pretty close to your skin and allow the gallinippers to actually insert their little snouts through the mesh or fabric and bite you anyway. Did you use anything to keep the fabric lifted some off the face and arms?

[Spinster]

Re: Mosquito nets

Micheal,

You are pointing out the other thing about a net on campaign that proved cumbersome to me. One night during In The Van, I chose to sleep in the road--it was sand, it was softer, and I was separated from my bed roll. In any open territory, there's not a good way to string up a net.