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Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the r34ics domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/kzwlvlmy/public_html/dev/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6170 Page not found – Saintonge
On June 17, 1981, Mr. Palmer True received a letter from Michael Vaquer, Jr. (Brigadier-Colonel, Commandant; Le Grande Armée au Yorktown) accepting Saintonge’s participation at Yorktown October, 1981. This letter came shortly after an inspection of the unit in June, where Saintonge was presented it’s colors and ribbon. This is the birth of le Regiment de Saintonge, Le 85ème Régiment d’Infanterie de Ligne.
To celebrate our 40th Anniversary, the regiment will be reaching out to current and past members to collect memorabilia, pictures, stories, etc. We will digitize what we can and add them to our archives and make them available to everyone to view at a Regimental Gathering and online. The time and place of the gathering has yet to be determined but it will be early 2021, so stay tuned.
If you have anything you’d like to share with us, pictures, stories, news articles etc. Please email us at info@saintonge.org. Thank you
In our never-ending push to better our impression, we starting taking a look at gaiters, gaiter straps & gaiter buckles. In our research we have found very little information on such minute details as ‘what did the buckle look like’. Luckily we were able to dig up (literally) some information on the topic.
Published in an article of Traditions Magazine, we find an illustration from Michel Petard illustrating the 1786 French Uniform. Figure 1. shows us the style of buckle worn by French Troops. It’s unclear if this is for the breeches or the gaiter or both. However, the buckle is said to be 2.3mm x 3.3mm and has an anchor on it so it can be attached and removed without sewing
Figure 1 Les ETrangers Au Service De La France 1786, Petard, Tradition Magazine, pp21-29 w. technical drawings of chapeau chemise soulier guetres pokalem giberne
Figure 2: Close up of the buckle form the Petard drawing in Figure 1
Figure 3: Two buckles from an archeological dig at Gloucester Point.1
Figure 4: Buckle sold by Flying Canoe and is sold as ‘French Gaiter Buckle’.
Figure 2 Close-up of buckle (fig.1)
Figure 3 Found at Gloucester Point
Figure 4 Flying Canoe
If we put all three side by side, we can see these are all very similar. There a few differences
The anchor is missing, but you can clearly see where it should be.
The brass frame is wider than what we see in the drawing.
In conclusion, as the buckles in Figure 4 closely resemble that of those found at Gloucester Point, the Regiment Saintonge will use the style buckle show in Fig. 4 as the buckle for both the britches and gaiter knee straps.
Great Picture from 1751/2 of four rank firing Artist: Charles Eisen (Valenciennes 1720 – 1778 Brüssel) Date: 1751 / 52 Title: Vier französische Soldaten mit angelegten Gewehren (Four French soldiers with rifles laid out)
The folks who created our uniform back in the bicentennial did an amazing job researching every aspect of the 1779 regulation uniforms. Unfortunately most of that research has been lost, including pictures of original uniforms.
Over the past few years, in light of the Battle Road Regulations, we’ve challenged our selves to document every aspect of our uniform. It’s not a question of, where the founders of Saintonge right or wrong, it’s a question of, how did they come to this conclusion. We’ve been looking at museum pictures, regulations, diaries, etc to help us document our uniforms and equipment.
The biggest question on everyone’s mind is, what color was our ‘Green Trim’, and were can we find a sustainable source? The founders of the unit used Forest Green wool from Woolwich. WHY? Well our 1779 Regulations state “Vert Foncé” which translate to Dark Green. The founders of the unit looked at woolwich, found a dark green and went with it. It was a sustainable source and a logical choice. They used this green wool on everything, including the Linen Small clothes. There are too things wrong with that. 1) The 1779 uniforms do not mention wool on the linen small clothes; 2) You can’t just wash linen small clothes with wool on them. As we’ve seen over the years the wool shrinks, or bleeds, and sometimes it does both.
About 5 years ago, we went through a very lengthy task of finding a suitable linen for our small clothes. We weren’t just going to just through green wool on it and call it a day. So the search began to find green linen. Which brought back into question, what is the correct green and where do get it. Since the bicentennial a lot of research has been done into finding and even producing materials of the time period. We’ve had these experts tell us, ‘this is the green you should be using’. It turns out, that green they had shown us had more yellow than blue but was still considered a dark green. It didn’t really look like any other green we had seen or used before with Saintonge. This green found its way on to a coat and was ‘praised’ as the correct color. But is it?
Today a very interesting thing fell into our lap. A picture of wool swatches from the French National Archives. These wools where being produced in France and sold to the Spanish in 1762. The label for the last color is cut off, but we believe it to be “Vert Foncé ” Which is what is called out on our 1779 Regulations. Is this it, have we found it? If so, once again the founders had it right, but now we have something we can point to say, ‘this is why we have chosen this shade of green’.
