Reenactors At The Middle School –

A View From The Loyalist Side Of The Revolution

By Tanjua Damon

Understanding the history of the 18th Century can sometimes be difficult for students since times have changed and reading from a textbook sometimes does not fulfill the vision of what life was like. But the only thing missing at Newtown Middle School on Friday was the sound of gunfire as students were able to see first hand how Loyalist soldiers lived and fought during the Revolutionary War.

Two Loyalist soldiers entered the classroom reenacting orders and style from the DeLancey Brigade Second Battalion of the Revolutionary War. Richard Jenkins and Jack Frost brought the middle school students back to 1776, the year the war began.

The Loyalists were on the side of King George in England, Mr Jenkins explained to the students. Loyalists felt the English king should remain in control of the colonies. Loyalist colonists started out as regular people before the Revolutionary War, he said.

A white canvas tent that would have housed five men during the war was put in the middle of the classroom with students sitting on both sides of it. They would sleep spoon style, according to Mr Jenkins, in order to keep warm and have enough room to fit inside. Soldiers would camp in late spring when it was less muddy until the end of fall when it got cold.

“As you know if you’ve ever slept in a canvas tent and you pop your head up or touch the canvas,” Mr Jenkins said, “The rain comes in where you touched it.”

A shoe during that time period was not made for the right or left foot, but rather soldiers wore them on both feet so that they could wear evenly, Mr Jenkins said. If a man wore the buckle with the polished side out, that meant he had a little bit more money.

In 1776, the British moved out of Boston and into Staten Island, according to Mr Jenkins. In Boston, the British did not have an easy way out of the city and it was not very safe for them.

“If you can’t get out of the town you are in, you can’t get any control,” Mr Jenkins told the students. “The Connecticut colonies decided they would send men with arms. Connecticut, a province, now a state, sent more men and money to the conflict. That’s where the Armor State came from.”

By 1783 over 2,500 men had served in the DeLancey Brigade. The brigade was named after Oliver DeLancey, who was a leading citizen and statesman of New York, according to Mr Jenkins. The original brigade consisted of 1,500 Loyalist volunteers from New York City, Long Island, Westchester County, and Connecticut.

Wool uniforms were given to soldiers, according to Mr Jenkins. From 1776 to 1778 the uniforms were green wool regiment coats with white facings. In 1779-1782 the coats changed to brick red wool with green facings. In 1783 the facings changed to royal blue. The buttons on the coats were arranged singularly or by twos or threes depending on the battalion. The soldiers wore white pants or breeches and black hats worn sideways.

Musicians in the battalion wore attire that was the opposite of that worn by the soldiers. Their regiments would be white with green facing in order to stand out from the soldiers.

Officers wore a single-colored sash, Mr Jenkins said. The sash could be used by the enlisted to carry an officer off the field if he was injured.

The soldier’s hat was worn cocked to one side low against the eye brow, according to Mr Jenkins. Officers’ hats had feathers to differentiate between them and the enlisted soldiers.

“If the hat was to face forward,” he said, “every time you made a move the hat would fall off. The hat itself is useless.”

Seventh grade student Samantha Mitchell dressed as women did during the 18th Century. The bonnet she displayed was worn by women because “it was considered disrespectful for women to be in public without covering their head,” Mr Jenkins told the students. Women wore long sleeved shirts and long dresses.

“It’s different. It’s a little hot,” Samantha said. “The whole puffy sleeve thing, I don’t know if I could get used to it.”

Soldiers were given particular rations of food, according to Mr Jenkins. A certain diet was set. Soldiers might receive one pound of beef, a half a pound of pork, an ounce of rice, a quarter ounce of peas, an ounce of butter, and one and a half cups of flour or some bread. The soldiers would usually combine all their food, making meals to take with them on the battlefield.

The weapon used by British soldiers was a musket rifle that had a range of 50 yards, according to Mr Jenkins. Soldiers were also able to add a bayonet since they were not that far apart from the enemy and the way to win a battle was to have control of more space than the enemy.

“So now you can see why the fighting in the 18th Century was done in big blocks of men,” Mr Jenkins said. “The army that had the battle ground at the end of the day was the victor. It’s called a T. Firing really didn’t go on all that much. All the moves are deliberate.”

Sergeants were not illiterate. They had to read the Manual Exercise, a command book, to order the men under them, Mr Jenkins said. The Gentleman’s Quarterly was another way the soldiers kept up with what was happening outside the war.

“Sergeants by and large could read. They were expected to learn and memorize the Manual Exercise. The Gentleman’s Quarterly gave almanac date information and information about the stock market,” Mr Jenkins said. “They were advanced as we are today for their time. Sure there was 3,000 miles between here and Europe, but fast paced goods could be here in three weeks.”

The way people wrote was very different from the way we write today.

“Eighteenth Century writing is very passive. It’s very polite,” Mr Jenkins said. “It’s very stilted. It’s not like today.”

Orders to the soldiers were not always spoken because of the sounds of gunfire. A whistle was often used to send a particular order to the battalion.

“The sound is different. You learn to listen for it,” Mr Jenkins said. “Your ear gets used to it.”

Good soldiers had a good set of teeth. In order to fire the musket, a soldier had to be able to open the cartridge with his teeth, according to Mr Jenkins.

“In order to be a good soldier during the 18th Century, you had to have two teeth that met in order to open the cartridge,” he said. “They [cartridges] were wax dipped to protect them. There were 13 commands to load and fire the musket. It would fire four times a minute.”

Anyone between the ages of 16 and 60 was required to serve military duty, according to Mr Jenkins.

Jack Frost, one of the reenactors, enjoys speaking with students and giving them a close-up look at the Revolutionary time period.

“It’s fabulous. It’s getting the information out there and have them learn a little bit more of history,” Mr Frost said. “You bring a museum to them. It’s better then seeing it behind glass like at a museum.”

Adding to the standard history curriculum and helping students understand the 18th Century and the Revolutionary War is one reason why Mr Jenkins goes into classrooms.

“I feel this program is important because we bring a hands-on experience that they would not get in the standard curriculum,” he said. “It’s tangible; we make it real. They can see history is not just names, dates, and places.”