Event Post - Bushwhacker Days 2013

Bushwhacker Days is now one of my favorite events! The Border Creek Raiders take their traveling town over to Nevada, Missouri to play a series of fun little skits through out the day.


This year is of particular notice for the town, since it is the 150th Anniversary of Nevada being burned to the ground, by the Union Army. As you can see it has been rebuilt.


A Union soldier was killed right at our doorstep, by the Bushwhackers, despite our pleading to spare his life!


The battle raged on, the guns were loud! Dad would like us to have ear plugs next time.


Soldiers are really terrifying when coming in such a large mass, and wildly shooting their guns.


And when they're forcing you out of your homes.... Burning it to the ground....


Now how this was done.... Is a trade secret! ;)


But Safety First! with the special effects! Right behind the building are Firemen, carefully watching the flames. Along with everyone one of us re-enactors!

We're looking forward to an event in Pleasanton Kans., this October that The Border Creek Raiders are planning to attend. Maybe Abi and I will write one of the skits? Just maybe... :) We're brainstorming some hopefully comedic stories.

Also, more photos from the Nevada Daily Mail!
Gallery 1, Gallery 2, Gallery 3, Gallery 4, Gallery 5, and Gallery 6.

2013 Civil War Encampment at Fort Scott!

Lots of photos over on our family blog! WELL FULL >>>

Pattern Review: Simplicity 2890 - Corset

Ladies and.... Ladies, I am pleased to bring to your attention the wonderful, beautiful and finally finished Simplicity 2890 corset!

I'm so happy with how it turned out, and the pattern wasn't hard to follow either, which means a lot to me! hehe. 

 Simplicity 2890 was created by Kay Gnagey of Originals by Kay based on the standard short corsets worn in the 1860s. You can even purchase the boning and busk for this pattern from her site.

Wanting my boning custom sized I ordered mine from Corset Making. Though more risky attempting to figure out the right measurements, it was worth it for me, having suffered from my last corset being a nightmare to wear because of fitting issues.

-Busk too long, eventually snapped from bending and when sitting it'll raise up looking rather strange.

-Boning on side jabbing into armpit.

And can you believe it took me five years to finally realize I needed to toss it in the trash, and start over?! don't make the same mistake as me... ;)

What do you think of this scrumptious pink and white stripe??? Seeing it in Rebecca's fabric stash, I fell for it like a ton of bricks. "That's mine, my fabric, mine, mine" You know that feeling right?? ;) 

A feature not included in the pattern, that I added, is a handy dandy drawstring through the top of the corset, which helps prevent that ugly ridge. 

When cutting out the pattern you might need to make it a size or two smaller, the commercial patterns have run a little big in our experience. Be prepared, make a mock up first!!!  

The lacing in back can be as wide as 8" with no bad effect, but being close together, for example 2" hasn't worked for me because the space there allows flexibility. I adjust the lacing on my corset every once in awhile, but most of the time put it on as is, and that's worked just fine for me.  

Event Post - Bushwhacker Days

 Every Saturday for the last three weeks there has been an event to go to and next week is a Tragedy Tour!

 Helping the Border Creek Raiders is something new for us, we've been doing living history at the Fort for several years now, but hadn't been anywhere else.

 They invited us to join them for Bushwhacker Days in Nevada Missouri last week at Good Ol' Days.
It turned out to be so fun I'm glad we went.

 Here is the full post on the family blog.

Marais des Cygnes Massacre Site

 I've passed signs to this place for several years, wanting to stop and see it.

There are some pretty disturbing accounts of Bleeding Kansas history,

one of them being the Marais des Cygnes Massacre,

 which occurred on May 19, 1858. 

Charles A. Hamilton and a band of about 25 to 30 Pro-Slavery men came to Kansas Territory. On the path to the Marais des Cygne they took several men captive, letting some of them go, according to the book 'Border Warfare" by G. Murlin Welch, the various reasons these men were released were they were either too young, too old, pro-slavery or members of the Masonic Lodge.

According to Reverend B.L. Read the men were brought to this ravine, ordered to halt and form a line, then Hamilton gave the command to "Face Front." He then ordered his men to form a line and "present arms" in front of the prisoners. some of the pro-slavery men refused to participate. 

The eleven men captured met these fates: 

William Stillwell of Sugar Mound, killed,

 was a Mason and was buried at Mound City. 

Patrick Ross, farmer from Pennsylvania, killed. 

William Colpetzer, farmer from Pennsylvania, killed. 

John F. Campbell, store keeper from Pennsylvania, killed. 

William Hairgrove, farmer from Georgia, wounded.

Asa Hairgrove, farmer from Georgia, wounded. 

Rev. B.L. Read, from Wisconsin, wounded. 

Charles Snyder, wounded. 

Amos Hall, wounded, 

Austin Hall, not wounded, saved himself by feigning death when he fell.  

 Mrs. B.L. Read on being informed that her husband had been taken prisoner, hurried to the home of her neighbor where she could see the company with the aid of a spy glass. In Mrs. Read's own account she went to the home of Colpetzer and found three more women whose husbands had been taken. Mrs. Read then followed the company, and when near heard the shooting. She then encountered contigents of Hamilton's men, who told her she would find men in the timber.  

Later that year John Brown built a fort near the Marais des Cygne massacre site. The fort was taken down, but this building that adjoined the fort still exists. 

It used to be open to the public, as a museum, 

but now you can only walk around it. Beautiful building.

According to the brochure I was reading there's a spring in the first level. 

This stone building is known as the Charles C. Hadsall House.  

If interested in Bleeding Kansas history I highly suggest the book "Border Warfare" by G. Murlin Welch. it has two chapters on the Marais des Cygnes massacre history.

Here's the official website for the Marais des Cygnes Massacre State Historic Site.

 http://www.kshs.org/marais