Constant Belcher: Father of the Tie-Died (Hunting) Shirt

The adoption of the hunting shirt was one of the first efforts to achieve a level of uniformity in the Continental Army.  Caped hunting frocks and shirts made of fringed linen were worn by the frontier rifle companies that marched from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to the siege of Boston in the summer of 1775.  Congress soon determined to furnish each soldier in New Jersey's two battalions with a hunting shirt, and surviving records from this period indicate that patterns for these garments were actively sought by officers in both regiments to clothe their men.  Hunting shirts were probably the most common garment worn by long service members of the New Jersey Line during the Monmouth Campaign in 1778 and were frequently issued to other regiments.

   Although most commonly made from natural or white colored Onsaberg linen, there were hunting shirts in other shades during the Revolution, ranging from purple (issued early in the war to the 2nd Virginia regiment) to green for the 1st Continental regiment after their wool regimentals were lost among the supplies captured when Fort Lee was taken in November of 1776. 

   Nowhere else however, do we find evidence that Continental soldiers wore more flamboyantly patterned hunting shirts than those described in the following entry in the Belcher Journal: the earliest known examples of a fashion trend that would not become popular again in America until the 1960s.

"[Febr. ^1st 1781] – This Day Colo. Barber did list ye Jersey detachments for to go

with him on Command to Virginna with Marquee Fayette / Capt. Ogden to be Senior Captain of the Jersey troops & wair he does go so also I must fallow / Ye men take it hard to be at such remove from our Support but have not ye stomach for hangings.  Those most warm for Soljers Rights are to remain behind with ye Army in Jersey [a reference to the late January mutiny of the Jersey Line: Ed].

We are to be Lights oncet, but have not our old Finery save ye red & black Plumes brot over from Frogland & divers tails of Hors for our Capps /  Capt. Ogden's Coy. did draw hunting shirts of indifferent quality & so made shift to dye them uniform / Thair not being walnut husks nor larkspur nor yet the urine of cows to make enuf dye for ye Full detachment, each Mess did add one colour to its camp kettle & dye^d them all in turn /  Did find that knottin' ye shirts helped fill ye pots & sett ye Dye most curiously in rain-bow patterns / Ye men all good humour^d in our coats of many cholers, tho' Colo. Barber look^d madder red to see 'em on parade.

Belcher the Hollow Jockey

In early Spring, 1779, Colonel Matthias Ogden of the 1^st New Jersey regiment found himself in considerable hot water.  One of his officers, Captain Isaac Morrison, brought court martial charges against him, listed as follows in General Orders:

• 1st. Neglect of duty in general. 
• 2nd. Repeated frauds against the Public and also the officers and soldiers under his command.
• 3rd. Cowardice.
• 4th. Gaming.

Washington considered these accusations to be “of a very high nature”, and a number of other officers who had served under Ogden were called to give witness.  After several weeks deliberation, a verdict was returned that acquitted the Colonel of the first three charges (the third with honor) but found him guilty of the last.  This was a violation of Washington’s standing orders against gambling, which the Commander in chief considered “the most pernicious Vice that can obtain in an Army.” 

There was a thorough scolding in General Orders, after which the chastized Colonel was returned to his duty.  After all, he was something of a favorite of Washington’s, a valuable intelligence officer and brave commander whose services would soon be needed for the planned campaign that summer against the Iroquois. 

The same cannot be said for a number of those who gave testimony at Colonel Ogden’s court martial.  Several of these men transferred from the regiment or left the army, and one – Ensign Asher Levy, the only Jewish officer known to have served in the Jersey Line – was imprisoned under suspicion of being a Loyalist and later escaped to New York. 

There was one witness, however, who was in all likelihood not hostile to the Colonel (though his testimony may have been the most damning).  This was former militia Brigadier General Matthias Williamson, who like Ogden was from a respected Elizabethtown, NJ family and part of the same social set.  I have often wondered whether it was he, a gentleman not subject to military discipline, who may have admitted at trial to playing what he considered a harmless game of chance with the Colonel, but there is no transcript available of the court martial proceedings, aside from its outcome. 

One section of Belcher Journal, however, does provide tantalizing clues about the nature of the gambling debt that the Colonel incurred, and how he managed to settle them, as well as new insight into what got Captain Morrison's breeches all in a twist.  As usual, Belcher plays a prominent, though unwitting part in what transpires.

"[Febr. 13^th 1779] – This Day Colo. Ogden dined with Gen’l Maxwell & Maj. [Aaron] Ogden at Williamson’s in Eliza. Town / did Serve at table whilst ye Gentle men convers’^d on divers matters - all agree ye Prospect of our Neighbours the British at Stataan [Island] causing Mischief most likely.

Colo. Ogden spoke exceedin’ fond of his stallion -  Major Gen’l so called - 7/8 blooded sixteen hands high & as well made as any horse in this state / Gen’l Williams’n did propose a wager ‘gainst his own Irish Horse– Skewball by name – to run 3 two mile heats ye length of Broad street to Stone Bridge & back, ye stakes to be these same Beasts / Colo. Ogden did blinch at ye High nature of the Purs but agree’^d as a man of honor / Maj. Ogden bid me ride Jockey for his brother, which I thot hard service as little Billy Shoemaker of Meeker’s Troop rides for Williamson.

[Febr. 14^th 1779] Ye terms are set, each Hors to carry 9 stone, Shoemaker did way in at under Eight & I being sumwot over wait need be strip’^t to small cloaths only & puk’^d Till  a most Hollow Jockey / A number of persons with ye Army put up side wagers tho’ gaming ‘gainst regulation.

Maj. Gen’l had ye lead thru two courses but hard by ye Bridge at ye last turn came all a crupper over  Capt. Morrison having just posted guard to that Place / this Gentle man wuz compell’d by our passage to redeploy with sum haste into ye River to his grate discomfit & Mortification.   Did spur with zeal to overtake Williamson’s nag but all for naught as Skewball come aprancin’ & adancin’ across ye Line.

[Febr. 26^th 1779] This day did hear Colo. Ogden to be charg’d at Court Martial for what I know not by sum sor-head Gentlemen of ye Battalion.

[Apr. 2^nd 1779] Gen’l Washing’n did take ye Colonel to ye Woodshed in Gen’l orders this Day for gaming – certain ‘twill fair wors for those as made fals claim at Tryal.

[Apr. 17^th 1779] To day ye papers do report Will Cover This Season at Eliza. Town ye noted hors MAJ. GEN’L Late ye property of Col. Matthias Ogden, at forty dollars ye season, or 20 the single leap, ye money to be paid at ye stable door, at the first covering of ye mare / Ye losin’ of his fine Stallion must grieve ye Colo. full Sore, but to know pimp Shomaker gets a dollar every toss, it grieves me ten times more."

Belchers Breeches

The Belcher Journal has truly revolutionized our understanding of the life of the common soldier in the Continental Army.  Thanks to Belcher, we now know that there were camp counselors at Valley Forge and that von Steuben’s “Model Company” was outfitted in wigs made from goatskin backpacks.  Those of us who glean through every scrap of available information about the material culture of the Jersey troops have been astonished to learn from Belcher that in 1777, one company of the 1^st NJ was outfitted in reverse colored regimentals thanks to a miscommunication between him and the contract tailors. 

While it is well known that New Jersey provided large numbers of buckskin breeches to its soldiers in the first years of the war, only the Belcher Journal provides crucial information about the way that these were sized and fitted to the troops.

[Jun. 13^th 1777] – To Day after the General ye men wair issued leathern breechers by Quartmast^r Periam -  Ye officers sized thair Coys & Direct^d

 Them to be breech^d  – ye men grately distemper^d as  breeches are but large size only & much vex^d as to how to fall out without thair fallin’ down – Colo. Ogden spoke warmly & order^d Battalion form colum – Did march at Quick Step into a brook wair ye ford was half fathom deep - Oncet on ye far side Colo. Ogden did order ye men ground^d & stack^d head to foot much as a snake rail fence to dry in the Sun – Lay to ‘til nooning when ourn leather breeches fit all alike as to a second skin.”

Belcher and Baseball

The origins of our national pastime are as shrouded in myth as the stories that are told about the founding of our nation.  Historians of the development of baseball have long acknowledged that the game did not emerge fully formed like Athena from the forehead of Zeus in a Cooperstown meadow as the brainchild of Abner Doubleday. 

There are numerous references to games played with bats and balls in America going back to the 18^th century.  A 1791 bylaw in Pittsfield Massachusetts, for example, reads as follows:

“At a legal Meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town of Pittsfield qualified to vote in Town Meetings, holden on Monday the fifth day of Sept. 1791 Voted

The following ByeLaw, for the Preservation of the Windows in the New Meeting House in said Town ______ viz,

Be it ordained by the said Inhabitants that no Person, an Inhabitant of said Town, shall be permitted to play at any Game called Wicket, Cricket, Baseball[emphasis added], Batball, Football, Cat, Fives or any other Game or Games with Balls within the Distance of Eighty Yards from said Meeting House __ and every such Person who shall play at any of the said Games or other Games with Balls within the Distance aforesaid, shall for any Instance thereof, forfeit the Sum of five schillings to be recovered by Action of Debt brought before any Justice of the Peace to the Use of the Person who shall sue and prosecute therefor _____

And be it further ordained that in every Instance where any Minor shall be guilty of a Breach of this Law, his Parent, Master, Mistress or Guardian shall forfeit the like Sum to be recovered in Manner and to the Use aforesaid ____”

These games of protoball were also known during the Revolution.  Members of the 3^rd New Jersey played a ball game called Whirl while on garrison duty in the Mohawk Valley in 1776, involving some of the local Indians, certain officers and even the chaplain.  

It was with great pleasure, then, that I discovered the following passages in the Belcher Journal that also make reference to the antecedents of baseball in the Jersey Brigade, and even more significantly, provide the earliest known reference to one of the greatest sports rivalries of all time.

[May 3^rd 1777] “To Day some Gentlemen of the 3^rd battalion exercised among us with great familiarity with leathern ball and washing beetle.  

[May 6^th 1777] A most diverting play at ball this day / saw ye Neue Yorckers  in stripe^d ticken overhawls contest  a considerable time with sum Easterners in red hose. 

[May 8^th 1777] Sum of ye men Play^d again at base-ball / Am more a crank than ballist, for tho’ I did catch one foul tick at short scout still muff’^d another daisy cutter & wair dead at Home point.

[May 10^th 1777] After drill this Day made 2₤ 7s 10 a-sellin’ Cracker jack & water beer at ye ball game.”