The Hessian Feldjagers

Winter Woes

How many people can stand winter's ugliness after several months? I don't mean bleak scenery or the cold (although some people like me might find that ugly). I'm talking about winter's backlash of ugly on us! Dry skin, dry scalps, dry face, itchy shoulders and hard to reach spots. I'm spoiled-- for winter and sometimes spring break (this spring break is looking bizarre and unplanned), I visit Florida and roll around on the beach. We all know the amazing feel of exfoliating sand on skin, after a day or two, you'll be glowing! I find that the itchiness intensifies after I lay down for the night, because then my brain has nothing to do but think about how itchy my skin is. It sucks. Also, first world problems.

This gelatinous mess is a mixture of pure olive oil and sugar. Want to feel like you rolled around on a beach and got some smooth feeling, exfoliated skin? Mix some olive oil and sugar together, seriously. I never used a set amount of sugar or olive oil-- I've always eye balled it and mixed together however much I needed to make the mixture. I suggest using a little bit less olive oil than sugar, but the sugar should be completely mixed and mashed together with a spoon. I've used this in a bath and soaked in the olive oil water. Baby, was I slick and feeling better afterwards. If you have one of those sponge on a stick things if you need to reach that impossible spot that I mentioned before. After a few sighs of complaints, I get my other half to do it for me. Go on and beat winter's wrath! 

Haughty Princes: Margrave of Anspach

After reading parts of "The Hessians" by Lowell, I've grown attached to learning about one of the Margrave of Anspach, who seems to take the cake as the most feared rulers. He looked over the territories of Anspach and Bayreuth. 

What did this prince do when he ran out of booze? Death penalty to criminals. Charles Alexander didn't mess around. When hearing that his dogs had not been fed, he rode to the house of the man who was sent in charge of his dogs, and shot him. An inn-keeper who complained about a little theft?  The thief was hanged on the inn-keeper's door. After a servant girl helped a soldier desert, even she was hanged.

Charles Alexander wasn't someone I'd want to come across of in one of his unexpected bad moods either. After a sentinel guard was asked for his musket, and when he gave it up to the Margrave, he was sent to drag through a pond at a pair of husssars' horses tails. It is safe to say that the man died.

The histories of these princes gave me a better idea of the control they had of their territories, and how the treatment of their people rested in their hands. As the saying goes, it's good to be the King. 

The Hessians

It's about high time I write about this. In the time of the Revolutionary War, the German (Hessian) Jagers were hired through their rulers (princes) to the British Empire. They were called Hessians because about 12,000 out of 30,000 of the men were from Hesse-Kassel. The Jagers were swift on their feet, smart and cunning. Their name literally meant "hunter", or in military terms, "rifleman". These were dignified men, who were prime marksmen and woodsmen, all reliable and independent. Their prim uniforms are almost regal in a sense. Almost princely. The Germans were honest, and often gained the respect from their opponents, and also quoted from Lowell's "The Hessians", many of them stayed in America in the end. 

The blog name is revolved around the historical reenacting group, my friends and family, who have kept me great company and have watched me grown for the pass several years. I consider the unit commander to be like a father to me.

T... The Ca-Caraco?

The name still sounds weird to me. Tonight, I found out what a caraco is! Apparently these beautiful things came about France in the 1760s. It was an informal jacket and identified working class. Someone of my class in Germany would probably have these in linen or cotton. The English would wear it closed in the front, but the Germans followed the French, and wore it open with a stomacher and stays. I think I would really enjoy myself a new piece of 18th Century wear... my shortgowns all show my elbows and are kind of short.

Benefits of Raw Honey

I will preach about raw honey until I'm old and gray. No, I'm not talking about the food store kind of honey that has some added sugars and stuff in it. Where I currently live, there are a few bee farms that are just devoted to the real deal. Nothing else added but the good stuff. If you do a simple, online search about raw honey, you'll find plenty of sites that claim beautiful, vintage Hollywood stars used honey to give themselves a glowing complexion-- its all true!

Honey can help with: Blemishes and scars, sunburns, exfoliation, and aging.

Honey is antiseptic, healing, anti bacteria and inflammatory. It helps fight wrinkles, reduces scar inflammation. The use of honey on skin goes all the way back to Cleopatria, who used milk and honey baths. Though it is recorded that Nero's wife, Poppaea first began the milk baths.

Milk baths are starting to make a come back in some modern skin shops. The Body Shop has a powder form of milk baths for sale online. It has been way too long without getting a honey facial, I'm over due for one!

Improving Impressions

I'm all about having an in depth character while reenacting, but, Revolutionary War doesn't really have the room to have that. I find that it's too hard to find information, or that I find too much of the wrong information. I have found plenty of sources about colonial/doodle/loyalist women. A great deal of these women were whores, some loners, and were a sore sight of the army. I recall even reading that these groups of campfollowers were told not to follow the army into the towns they went through. Many civilians who saw the campfollowers go into the town were repulsed.

According to the very little resources I've seen, the Hessian women had a bit more moral, and unattached women were not allowed (for the most part?). Surely, they must of had a much better life than the doodle and loyalist women, but I just find it hard to believe that all of them sat around camp and looked pretty. For a while, I grew out of the Rev. War reenacting scene. I went to see my reenacting family and get in on some awesome historical conversations. I've been attached to WW2 in recent years, as this allows me to put together a huge and colorful impression-- and still be a woman.

This kind of encouragement has sent me on a quest to find out how to make our Jager camp more diverse for the women. There must be a way, I know there is. Any different German lifestyles? Traditions. There must be things that I am missing that can allow us to expand on. I've never been into the idea of sitting around a camp and doing things that are like chores. I don't go to a reenactment to just wash dishes-- which I don't mind-- but I've seen some ladies who do just that and carry water all weekend.

I wouldn't mind doing something period, productive, and something that I actually find interesting other than "Hi, I'm a campfollower, have a husband and some kids." What could have women done... my mind is sticking with cooking and mending. Some women even aided in some medical business, even though the level of medical assistance was pretty primitive. I've always wanted to learn how to mend period clothes, or work on something, or add onto an outfit.

I've been meaning to bring more articles of my outfits to lay out, this way people can get a hands on experience in feeling the clothes, seeing how it goes on, etc.

Now that there's more ladies in the unit, one thing that I definitely see in the future is a group cooking adventure.