#bardengarde

[persianflaw]

Hey Prax, what are your top 5 desserts??

hi barde! glad you could make it! here, we just made popcorn

that's a rly hard choice. i'm gonna go off the dome for these

in no real order:

vanilla cake w/buttercream icing

soft-serve ice cream

popsicles

frozen strawberries (i like to add a little sugar if they're the pre-frozen kind cuz they tend to be more sour/bitter in my experience)

brownies

[aceofthyme]

WAIT WAIT TELL ME ABOUT YOUR ARTILLERY GUY IM SO INTRIGUED, WHATS HIS NAME, WHAT DOES HE LOOK LIKE, WHAT ARE SOME FUN FACTS, GIVE ME DEETS!!!!

YES YES okay there are so many things I have to say but I am going to try not to totally overwhelm with this post lol

For starters: his name is Lawrence Porter Hale, and he's the eldest of three brothers—the other two being Davis "Davie" Warren Hale, and Orville Conrad "Matt" Hale. All three grew up around Chicago, with Lawrence being born in late 1827 and the other two following in intervals of about two years. All three boys have hair in some shade of red or reddish-brown; Lawrence has dark auburn hair with green eyes. He's also relatively tall, somewhere around 5'10" or 5'11" ish I think? I can't seem to find my exact notes on that so I could be totally wrong, but I do know I described him as tall and lanky in his teen years so that's probably about right! In middle age, he's a fair deal softer (which is good bc he struggled a lot with food and things, he is happier and healthier now!) than he was as a teen, though. (there's. more beneath the cut. so much more,,,)

The boys grew up in a mixed religion household, with their mother being Jewish and their father Christian (of some variety, haven't yet decided). All three received an education, and I should note that Lawrence was particularly precocious; arithmetic was always a strong suit for him, and he can run sums in his head as well as read with intense speed. He could have been an engineer, easily, but Lawrence didn't actually go to college initially for...a few reasons that are a bit more complicated to explain (aside from a lack of funding). Chiefly, he thought it was more important that he help ensure his brothers got the education and help they needed—especially because Davie was pretty sickly as a kid—, so he began work with the rail companies and ended up a conductor at a pretty young age (that is, relatively). He's definitely very passionate about trains, so the job was a perfect fit, but he was going through a lot of things at that time and was pretty badly off for a while before he got better. Afterward, he met his partners—he's got two, they have a lil polycule and six children—and everything was pretty grand for a while before the war.

In the war, Lawrence served with an artillery unit. Those good ol' math skills were very helpful, as well as what he picked up over the years from his train friends. All of this is still sort of in development in my brain, but I've currently stuck him with Battery H of the 1st Illinois Light Artillery as it seems rather fitting! I haven't given much thought to rank yet but that's mostly because I haven't thoroughly examined the roster beyond a glance. After the war, he returned to being a conductor!

Lawrence met his wife, Penelope, when he was ill, and she nursed him back to health and the two fell in love! He met his other partner, Peter, onboard a train; Peter was the barkeep, and they sort of crossed paths and then there was this whole fight thing with a rowdy passenger and...it's a long story but yeah lol, I can always share more info if more info is desired. I can also share a picture of Lawrence, I know I have a proper picrew somewhere at the very least (I sure as heck can't draw, but thank god for picrews).

Okay and then. let's see are there other fun facts I can rustle up. Uh. Lawrence smokes a pipe (occasionally. this might have started with the war), usually prefers going by Porter rather than Lawrence (his partners + fam get rights to that), and also he has a raging sweet tooth but he really likes food in general ngl. He is very attached to his conductor's cap, too! Oh and after the war, his whole family sees to it that he gets the chance to go pursue a degree because He Deserves It. Anywho. That is a basic rundown on Lawrence and I love him very much asdfghj

[quicksiluers]

I was going to say this on anon, but I decided I'm not a coward. So confession time: I think Howard is attractive (feel free to judge, it's ok) and when talking about Civil War crushes with a friend once I joked that he (Howard) could "take me to church". The thing is, that very night I had a dream about sitting through a church service. Nothing else, just a long boring church service- which I've not been to one in years btw- and I am So certain that Howard's ghost must have heard me and that I offended him, so that was his version of payback.

I have no one to tell this to, but it's funniest thing to have ever happened to me shfjgjks

there ie NO JUDGEMENT here my friend because I ALSO find Howard very attractive, I mean look at him

that hair?? *chefs kiss*

sdfgh that's so funny, he's just in the afterlife like "you're going to think of me in that respect?? to church with you! 😤"

[fericita-s]

I just saw your tags to sub in "hunk" for "lion" and thinking of "Hunk of the Round Top" took me OUT

ᴺᵒᵗ ʷʳᵒⁿᵍ ᵗʰᵒ, ʸᵒᵘ'ʳᵉ ⁿᵒᵗ ʷʳᵒⁿᵍ

No, we’re not wrong! This man is objectively handsome:

but “The Hunk of the Union: The Pelvic Wound” maybe doesn’t convey what I meant lol.

[nezb1tty]

So I guess I had no pen pressure for all of them but the last one?? Anyway I did the first little batch here:) 

Left: Jaska and Fahie @bardengarde 

Top Middle: Amora @brainfartistart

Top Right: Salia @superlemonsweet

Bottom Middle: Autum @autum-the-apprentice

Bottom Right: Xori @vesuvian-sunsets

It was actually so fun to draw all of these lovely ladies!! ALSO I’m probably only going to draw those who have left tags under the reblogged post or have clear refs of their apprentice <3

[professor-zee-chamberlain]

doodling @bardengarde , shan, and i’s civil war trio as SIX characters? it’s more likely than you think

[quicksiluers]

If you're still doing the ask memes, may I request 36. And 59.?

of course I can~! 

36: which band's sound would fit your mood right now?

hmmmm...a good question, cause I don't listen to many bands...I listen to a lot of movie scores. But I think I'll go with Paramore, I'm always in a Paramore type of mood

59: what's your favorite myth?

huh! another good one, something I've never thought of asdfghjk hmmm there was a myth when I was younger about the Bunny Man bridge, it's about this bridge in VA I think that when you say "bunny man" 3 times, someone in a white bunny suit comes out and kills you? Thinking about it now seems silly but I remember when I was a kid, it freaked me the fuck out 😂

[quicksiluers]

Hello!! I hope you don't mind the random ask, but are there any facts you've been wanting to share about Grant (or anyone else if u can't think of anything) but the topic just hasn't come up yet for you to talk about it yet?

A random ask is always fine! A random topic about Grant, let me think...I can't recall if I've ever talked about this but in Ronald C. White's book about Grant, he spent a good deal of time talking about the books that Grant read at West Point. Which I LOVED cause Grant was a big reader. He loved to read more then he liked to study, which I mean same bro. and I also him maybe beig this quiet, book nerd. He'd also read to Julia almost every night, either from the newspaper or something else which is so freakin sweet, it's unreal.

another thing is that he really seemed to fall in love with Mexico while he was there during the Mexican-American war? He describes the beauty of the landscapes a lot to Julia while he's away and also talks about some of his fellow soldiers treating the people unfairly which he didn't like. And even later in life, I think he almost became part of a railroad company that was gonna try to connect the US and Mexico? I may not be remembering that 100% but I know he had friends in Mexico from his time as the president and while he was dying, they came to visit him. I always thought that was neat and depending on the biography, they'll go into detail or not