very doubtful company.

Maritime history, men's fashion history, the Franklin Expedition, and the long 19th century. Claims to be a capital-R Romantic, but won't shut up about the War of 1812. I have a Captain Frederick Marryat sideblog at @marryat92, and I'm the person behind Is the 19th Century Man Okay? My name is Shaun, and if we have interests in common I would love to be friends!

[clove-pinks]

Accessing my blog content control panel and turning the dials labeled ROMANTIC and MILHIST waaaaaay up

[ripstefano]

Action between the U.S.S. Ranger and the H.M.S. Drake, Revolutionary War

Worden Wood (American, 1880-1943)

[petaltexturedskies]

All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person's (or thing's) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt.

Susan Sontag, On Photography (originally published in 1977)

[clove-pinks]

I saw a news article about surplus recruits for the French Army—unlike every other Western nation, the French are exceeding their armed forces recruitment goals, to the point that last year they declined to recruit the equivalent of a regiment.

WHAT IF THEY'RE CREATING ANOTHER GRANDE ARMÉE?! No one is safe!! (Trust me, I've read a lot of books about this).

[clove-pinks]

Everyone get into the Mexican-American War RIGHT NOW. Absolute peak 1840s aesthetic.

[endofmarch-blog]

John Dunmore, Sailing ships in an ice field, 1869

[clove-pinks]

Belgian daguerreotype of a man with cane, Brussels ca. 1855.

[the-penalty-box]

I recently learned an old French euphemism for bisexuality. It means to be powered "by sail and steam," and it absolutely comes from a specific flavor of 19th-century ship.

HMS Terror and Erebus were bisexual, you heard it here first.

Happy Pride!

[ltwilliammowett]

Portrait of Jérôme-Amédée Langlois, Deputy Colonel for the Seine and Seine-et-Oise, as a naval midshipman / By his father, Jérôme-Martin Langlois, member of the Institute / Certified by Paul Langlois, c. 1805

[clove-pinks]

Which outfit would you rather wear? (1853)

Left 🎀✨️

Right ⚰️💀

Remaining time: 5 days 3 hours

[clove-pinks]

Portrait of a Seated Man, hand-colored daguerreotype by unknown American photographer, about 1855.

[clove-pinks]

Miwackulous Tye Monday

HOW THE DOOSE DOES HE MANAGE IT ?

[edinburgh-by-the-sea]

pale quiet blue

[clove-pinks]

Something just occurred to me—

Richard V. Barbuto begins Niagara 1814 with a personal anecdote from his days at West Point in 1967: "We new cadets were told that our gray uniforms were in recognition of Winfield Scott’s brigade at the Battle of Chippawa." He states that this sparked his interest in the War of 1812.

Famously, the Confederate uniforms in the US Civil War were also grey due to the influence of West Point on Southern military leaders (which is simplifying things a bit, but still a factor.) This creates a connection from Scott's brigade at Chippawa -> West Point cadet grey -> Confederate grey.

NO WONDER WINFIELD SCOTT LOOKS SO GODDAMN PISSED IN THE 1860s.

[twiggy-in-pink]

[clove-pinks]

“I hate, I despise your religious festivals;

your assemblies are a stench to me.

Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them.

Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,

I will have no regard for them.

Away with the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river,

righteousness like a never-failing stream!"

— Amos 5:21-24 (NLT)

[clove-pinks]

The raw recruit, perhaps firing live rounds for the first time in battle, experienced much that was dangerous and frightening. The discharge of hundreds of weapons created a deafening roar and clouds of impenetrable smoke. After two volleys, the musketeer probably could not see his target and perhaps feared that the enemy was even then attacking with the bayonet. Before long, his eyes burned, and he began to gag on the smoke. Splinters from flints breaking against frizzens and bits of burning powder hit unprotected faces. The kick of the musket was similar to that of the twelve-gauge shotgun of today. The barrel grew hot to the touch. Biting into cartridges with their heavy content of saltpeter for any length of time caused great thirst and swollen, cracked lips. Men dropping, perhaps good friends, caused fear, and fear led to mistakes and the inability to detect a malfunction. The smoothbore musket was unforgiving of error.

— Richard V. Barbuto on the experience of War of 1812 soldiers in Niagara, 1814: America Invades Canada.

Battle of North Point (detail) by Don Troiani

[tweedzingari]