Southern Homespun:Articles in Civil War Era Newspapers

[tarwater_mess]

I thought this link was interesting enough to post and share with you.

Enjoy

http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts/homespun.htm

[DougCooper]

Re: Southern Homespun:Articles in Civil War Era Newspapers

Vicki's research is fantastic - we are going to use it as background for some homespun issue items at Mansfield and other TMD events, but I imagine it is applicable for any serious study of the homefront. My only problem is figuring out where to store all her good info. Hopefully she will write a book soon :) !

[vbetts]

Re: Southern Homespun:Articles in Civil War Era Newspapers

Thank you, thank you! But if I ever stopped long enough to write a book, with all of the permission negotiations and professional photography, and all the publishing headaches that would involve, I would have to stop reading and transcribing newspapers. And there are still so-o-o-o-o-o many to go through. I had hoped to get the Houston Tri-Weekly Telegraph (well, what scattered issues survived and made it to microfilm) for over the holidays, but a computer glitch threw the request past when the University of Houston was willing to send it by courier. Maybe the first week of January.

I'll be doing my homespun slide show in Liberty, MO next summer, and here in Tyler, Texas for the Smith County Historical Society (probably an abbreviated form) some time this year. One of the questions I pose at the end of each presentation is how does dress-goods homespun compare to men's shirt homespun, in weight, color (any male vs. female colors), weaving design (stripe, plaid, solid), and scale of pattern (bigger size of plaid in a dress, or smaller, or the same?). If anyone has seen plaid or stripe homespun shirts from the South for the immediate antebellum or wartime period, I'd love to know where you saw them. My *guess* is that hickory *stripes* seem to be commonly mentioned in accounts as shirt fabric, and there are certainly stripe swatches in the Texas UDC collection. I've seen original solid undyed off-white cotton shirts on display here and there. I'm wondering where homespun plaids rank--at this point I have no clue.

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[tarwater_mess]

Re: Southern Homespun:Articles in Civil War Era Newspapers

Vicki.. what a outstandin piece of work. Your research and postings are VERY educational. I would really like to attend one of your conferences sometime. If you were to publish your work? ahh what a gift that would be :-)

Now I can give proper credit

Thanks Vicki

[tarwater_mess]

Re: Southern Homespun:Articles in Civil War Era Newspapers

A example of Homespun used in the North.

I was a member of the Fairmount Militia Company refered to as the Home Guards for a short time in 1863, while I belonged we took our equipment home with us. This equipment consisted, as I now remember it, of a Belgian musket, bayonet, cartridge box, and sixty rounds of fixed ammunition. Very few of this comany had uniforms. They were boys from 15-16 and men 40-55, most of them clad in homespun, with straw hats made from straw plaited by mother, and now and then would be seen a coon-skin cap.

J.M. Hundley
Summitville, Indiana
April 2, 1917

[fahtz]

Re: Southern Homespun:Articles in Civil War Era Newspapers

[QUOTE=vbetts]
I'll be doing my homespun slide show in Liberty, MO next summer,

Do you know the dates for this show? Is this the summer of 04 or 05? I am just a hop and skip from Liberty and could probably get the group to show up for it, all we need are dates! Thanks!

Mitch Critel

[vbetts]

Re: Southern Homespun presentation

The Mid_West Women's Civil War Conference is scheduled for July 30-31, August 1, 2004, at the Jewell College campus, Liberty, MO. Kelly Schott contacted me about speaking, but I don't think they have a webpage up yet. If anyone has further information, please speak up!

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[DougCooper]

Re: Southern Homespun:Articles in Civil War Era Newspapers

Vicki - will you be presenting at Mansfield/Pleasant Hill 140?

[vbetts]

Re: Southern Homespun:Articles in Civil War Era Newspapers

I don't think Pleasant Hill has ever had presentations as part of the reenactment. Several years back I did do a talk at the Mansfield park on the impact of the Red River campaign on the civilians of the immediate area, and I think it was the same weekend at PH down the road. However, I've not been approached to do a talk (or in this case, a talk/slide show) for this year. The problem is, it's a little too indepth for the general walk-in public, and those who might really enjoy it will be otherwise occupied with the march or the cabin(s) on the park site.

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[DougCooper]

Re: Southern Homespun:Articles in Civil War Era Newspapers

I assume Don and Scott and the gang at Mansfield know about your presentations? How about Gary Joiner at Friends of Mansfield? Go to the http://www.mansfieldbattlefield.org/ and check out the events calendar - there is a huge hole (civilian impact of the campaign) that you could fill quite nicely.