【傳統服飾】18世紀英軍擲彈兵軍裝的穿戴過程

Hi, I'm Craig, and I'm here at Colonial Mishwa Mackinac in Mackinac City. Now, when you come to visit Mishwa Mackinac in the summertime, you'll see a lot of different historical interpreters outside, including a couple of people who are representing British soldiers. So today, I'd like to walk us through what those soldiers are wearing, how those men back in the 1770s would have gotten dressed for duty every day. Now, the soldiers here were members of the 8th Regiment of Foot. They got here in 1774, and they stayed here until about 1780. And this is essentially their underwear. This is probably what they would be sleeping in. And right now, I've got on a linen shirt. This, again, is essentially the universal underwear for Europeans at this point in time. Everyone has some sort of linen garment right there against your skin. You can see that it's quite long. It goes pretty much down to my knees. So not only is it an undershirt, it's also an underwear on my lower half. Now, since it is a little bit colder, maybe I've just gotten out of bed. I do have knit stockings on as well that come up above my knees. So again, this is the first layer. This is what goes against my skin. We can now start to build on top of that with other pieces of the uniform. So the first thing that I'm going to put on are a pair of cloth breeches. And cloth is what we today would refer to as wool. I'll just step into these. And as I mentioned, this shirt does serve as your underwear. So you just end up essentially tucking it around in between your legs. Once that's all in place, you can button up the fly in the front. So once I've got those buttons at the top fastened, I can start to button up the cuffs that come down near my knee. These typically have a series of buttons running down and then a small strap that attaches at the bottom. My button clothes, these could also have a small buckle on them to button that knee band snugly around your breeches. You will notice that the breeches do fit very snugly. That's very much the style at the time. All right, so I have my breeches on. And now to further secure my stockings, I'm going to put a pair of leather garters on. These could have gone on before the breeches, but sometimes it is a little bit harder to pull the breeches on over them once they're on. Now my legs are just about ready to go, but if I want to go outside, I obviously need to put on some shoes. Now soldiers would be issued shoes on a pretty regular basis, perhaps two pair a year, one every six months, because shoes wear out just like they still do today. And as an infantry soldier, this is something that you are going to be using very, very often. So these are just a pretty common straight-last shoe. They don't necessarily have a designated right and left shoe. As you wear them, they will form to your feet, however. So I'll step into these, buckle them on. And now I can turn my attention to my upper half. So I'm first going to attach the cuffs on my sleeves with some simple cuff buttons. They're similar to what we would refer to as cufflinks today. Now once that's done, I can put on some neckwear. Now today I'm going to be putting on what is essentially a full dress uniform, perhaps what the soldiers would wear if they were assigned to guard duty or if there were some sort of special event going on. And so my neckwear is actually going to be a horsehair stock. I know it looks like plastic, but it is actually woven horsehair over a leather core with a linen back on it. And you can see that it does also have a brass clasp in the back. So this is going to go around my neck. I'll button my shirt. So once my shirt collar is buttoned and turned down, I'll be able to clasp the stock around my neck. And these stocks could take a few different forms. Some would actually be lined with red velvet for especially fancy occasions. Some would actually have detachable linen collars that would go right around the top so you could just create the illusion of a bit of the shirt popping over the top. But I've got mine on now, so I can now move on to the next layer, which is a waistcoat. Again, made out of cloth or wool. Again, this will be quite well fitted. Once I get it buttoned on, you can potentially see the buttons on the waistcoat are regimentally marked. As I mentioned, the soldiers stationed here were members of the 8th Regiment of Foot, so each one of these buttons does have a number 8 on it. It also has the letters K and S. The 8th Regiment is also known as the King's Regiment. So once the waistcoat is on, I can add my next layer on my feet, which are a pair of short gaiters or what they may have called spatterdashes. Now, the true full-dress uniform for the British military at this time includes knee-length gaiters, and they did still wear those on occasion, but on a much more common basis, on a daily basis for everyday routine, they would wear these half gaiters or these short gaiters. These are going to go on just over my shoes. They button on, and they essentially turn that low shoe into a boot. All right, so I have my spatterdashes on. That would take a little while because there are several horn buttons on the outside of each of them, but once those are on, I can start to get the rest of my uniform on. Now, the next piece that I'm going to add is a little bit different. It's something that you might not often see because I'm actually going to get dressed as a type of soldier called a grenadier. Half of the soldiers here at Mishel Mackinac in the 1770s were grenadiers. They were essentially the best soldiers in each regiment, so they would try and group them together, and they would use them for specialized tasks. Because those soldiers had specialized duties, they also got a little bit of a different uniform to set them apart from the rest of the enlisted men. Now, their uniforms do have a lot in common with what everyone else is wearing, but in terms of the weapons that they carry and some of their accoutrements, there would be some difference. So I'm going to put on a waist belt, and again, I'm getting dressed essentially in parade order, so this is if there's some sort of special event. This is not necessarily something that you'd be wearing every day, and the fact that I'm wearing a waist belt does speak to that. That is technically what is supposed to be worn with the uniform, but we can see from period images and from written accounts that as the 1770s go on, more and more, the soldiers actually would start taking these waist belts, modifying them, and wearing them over their right shoulder. It's a little bit more comfortable that way. But again, I'm getting dressed for some sort of special occasion, so I'm going to wear mine around my waist, and as a grenadier, not only am I authorized to carry a bayonet, something that goes on the end of your musket, but I'm also authorized to carry a short sword called a hanger. Now, it is a real weapon. It is sharp. It could hurt you if I wanted to hurt someone with it, but more often than not, this is used purely for decoration. It is just something that is there to mark me as a grenadier. So that hangs there in this double frog belt, so it means that there are two places for things to hang from that belt, and now I'm ready to add probably the most distinctive part of this uniform, which is the regimental coat. So again, this is properly called a regimental coat because it does identify which regiment a soldier is serving within. As we talked about with the waistcoat buttons, you can see that each of these larger buttons on the outside of the coat is also marked with the letters K and S and 8. Again, that stands for the 8th Regiment or the King's Regiment. You can also see that each one of these buttons is surrounded by some buttonhole lace. Now, that lace would also be unique to individual regiments. The 8th Regiment has this square shape and it's got one blue and one yellow stripe on it. That lace could be folded in different shapes. There might be different colored stripes on it. The buttons could be arranged differently, all of which would help identify a soldier's unit. Now, you'll also notice that this lapel here, as well as the cuff, as well as the collar, those are all royal blue. That's yet another way to identify a soldier's unit, because these colors could vary as well. Now, the 8th Regiment is entitled to wear royal blue thanks to some honors that they were awarded in 1715 by George I. But these facings could just as easily be black, yellow, orange, buff, a few different shades of green, depending on which regiment a soldier belonged to. So, I'm going to slip this on. And again, although all those buttons on the regimental coat are functional, in many instances, they're there simply for decoration, because it actually hooks closed up here at the top, again, following a pretty common civilian style of being tight through the chest and then falling away as you move down your torso towards your waist. Now, because I am being dressed as a grenadier, my regimental coat is just slightly different than many of the other enlisted men. I have these additional bits of regimental lace here on my shoulder, these small wings. Now, as I turn around, something on my turnbacks here, this further identifies me as a grenadier. This is not a seven-legged octopus, as some people like to say. Instead, if you look at it right side up, it may start to look like a flaming bomb. And indeed, that's what grenadiers used to use. That's what they used to fight with. At a certain point in time, they were actually given hand grenades. And if you imagine a Wile E. Coyote hand grenade from the cartoon, so a small cannonball with a little fuse on the top, that's what grenadiers would be fighting with. They would have to get right up close to an enemy position, light those grenades, and then toss them in where they would explode. They'd be full of gunpowder. They're not carrying grenades anymore by the 1770s, but they still wear a lot of elements of that older uniform, again, to mark them as a slightly different type of soldier. Now, I'm getting close to the end. I'm going to put on some more of my accoutrement, including a cartridge pouch. So this is the cartridge pouch. This is where you would store the ammunition for your musket. You can see it's got a wood block in there where the paper cartridges are stored. And then on part of the pouch strap, this actually goes on my back, I've got some more decorative elements that indicate that I'm a grenadier. You can see you've got some brass grenades. I've got two of them, and then stretched in between them is a length of match cord. That's a rope that's been soaked in potassium nitrate or salt peter, so it makes it burn steadily but slowly. We actually see this in a series of original drawings in the 1770s of grenadiers, and so it's something that we're able to actually add to our interpretation today. So that's going to go onto my left shoulder. We'll be able to button that down so it doesn't go anywhere. There. And now those hand grenades that I mentioned would need an ignition source, and I don't really have matches on me. I don't have a lighter or anything like that, and so the grenadiers, when they were still fighting with hand grenades, would be carrying a lit piece of match. Remember on the back of that pouch strap there was some white rope wrapped up? That rope has actually been soaked in salt peter, potassium nitrate. It makes it burn steadily but very slowly. Now,I'm not just going to run around with a piece of lit rope, and so grenadiers, on their cartridge pouch strap, would wear one of these. This is a match case. This would have a length of that burning slow match inside it, so you're wearing something that's lit right there on the front of your chest, and these could be attached to your pouch strap with some brass clasps, which is what I have right here, and again,by the 1770s, grenadiers are not carrying hand grenades. I don't have hand grenades right now. They didn't have hand grenades 250 years ago, but they still wore these elements of their uniforms for full dress, again,to mark them as grenadiers. Now,the last thing that we're going to add before I go out for duty is a bearskin cap. So these bearskin caps, you can see, have a nice embossed tinned plate on the front, and again,they are,in fact, winter bearskin, very similar to what certain regiments of the British military still wear today. If you think about the ceremonial guards outside Buckingham Palace and at the changing of the guard, it's very similar to this, just a little bit bigger. In the back, there are some decorative cords. The placement of these cords could vary from regiment to regiment. And then there's also a small cast grenade engraved with the regimental number 8 right there. So we'll put that on. Again,it makes me look about a foot taller than I actually am. And now I am dressed and ready for duty here at Mishlam Achenau. Again,this is maybe not something that you're going to see every day when you come visit us this summer. It's also probably not something you would have seen every day if you were at Mishlam Achenau back in the 1770s. But if you were lucky enough to be here for some sort of special event, you may have seen the grenadiers turned out just like I am along with the other company of soldiers who would have been dressed pretty similarly without the bearskin cap and the sword and the match case, but otherwise they would have looked quite the same. On a day-to-day basis, the grenadiers would have ditched the swords, they would have ditched the match cases, they would have ditched the caps, the caps especially because they're quite expensive and you want to save those. And in their place, they most likely would have been wearing just a belt-top hat like the rest of the soldiers. These are pretty cheap and easy to procure. But that's just a quick look at how one of these soldiers in the grenadier company of the 8th Regiment may have gotten dressed in the morning here at Mishlam Achenau. We do hope that you'll come visit us later this summer. You can come and talk to any of our interpreters. I'm on site sometimes, so if you want to learn more about the grenadiers, you can come talk to me. If you want to know anything more about really any of the people who lived here historically, please do ask any of our interpreters. That's why we're here. If you'd like more information about the site or an opportunity to buy tickets, you can visit our website matt.barber.com. And we hope to see you later this summer.