Event Recap: Garrison of the Presidio

This past Saturday La Compania de Bejar put on it's "Garrison of the Presidio" event at Presidio La Bahia in Goliad, TX. Although  Saturday started out with rain, participants stayed and made the most of the event with drill, school of instruction and revelry. A good time was had by all and assurances were made to continue reviewing drill for the upcoming season.

Product Review: Spanish Colonial Strike a light

Often times the interpretation of life in Spanish Colonial ,and later early Mexican era Republic is focused solely on items of a military nature, or weaponry. While these are important for developing personas, it's also important to continue to raise levels of authenticity for the "non military" facets of the daily life of both Spanish colonial, and later Mexican, soldados. In the realm of these more "mundane" items comes the simple nature of starting a camp fire. Prior to the widespread use of friction matches, the most common method was the use of a steel striker and piece of flint rock. It is therefore quite common to include such a fire starting kit with one's impression. Reproductions though vary wildly from the fanciful to the fantasy. When I decided to incorporate this piece in my overall quest to develop a more campaign oriented soldado impression, I decide to try and find a steel striker more aligned to what was available in Colonial and Republic era Mexico. This actually turned out to be more difficult then I originally thought, there is currently no known striker documented to be found at Tex. Rev. sites. There are however several types found ant Colonial Mexican sites. A great reference was Southwestern Colonial Ironwork: The Spanish Blacksmithing Tradition by Simmons & Turley. If you have any interest in learning more about the nature of iron work in Spanish America, BUY THIS BOOK ! Simmons &  Turley gave me a great starting point and pictures of actual artifacts. See Below:

 

In terms of a reproduction though, vendors were limited. In fact, outside of finding a custom blacksmith, finding one that matched these was few. Eventually, I did find one priced at $20 from Black Bear Forge. Pictured below:

 

Listed as a "Spanish Colonial Striker" this piece was very solid. Much higher quality then a typical striker, this piece showers sparks beautifully. Visually, it does resemble many of the Spanish "2 curl" styles found at archeological sites. Some of the drawbacks I found were the Makers mark ( a bear paw) and maker's name (Switzer) stamped on the other side. These are really just cosmetic though, and can be filed. For $20 this is an excellent piece for interpretive work and I recommend it to anyone wanting to focus not just on the weaponry of a soldado, but also on the bigger picture of how they lived their daily lives.

 

Accuracy: 9/10 Outside of the maker's marks, this piece is pretty spot on.

Use: 10/10 You'll get a lot of mileage out of this striker, this piece is vastly superior to a lot of sutler row mass produced strikers.

Purchase: For $20, this is an excellent investment.

 

 

 

 

Garrison of the Presidio: November 7th-8th Presidio La Bahia, Goliad, Texas

On November 7th 8am-5pm Compania de Bejar (unit of the San Antonio Living History Association) in support of Presidio La Bahia historic site will be hosting a garrison of the Presidio event. Focus will be on drill both Mexican Army, and Texians volunteers, period skills, and enhancing authenticity. Desired impressions include Mexican Soldados, Texians Colonists/Volunteers, Tejano citizens, Soldadera camp followers. Food will be provided however participants are asked to pre-register however attendance is free. Join us as we accurately portray a day in the life of Un Soldado de Mejico and  a Volunteer for Texas.

Product Review: Mexican Officers Shoulder Buckle

Like so much involving Mexican military items from the 1820's-1840's, quality reproductions are few and far between. That's why it was exciting when Corps Sutler, based out of New Zealand who previously produced Napoleonic & other era items stepped in to fill a void amongst Mexican Soldado living historians.  The idea of readily available Mexican reproductions such as buckles and shako plates proved tempting as multiple Tex. Rev reenactors began purchasing shako plates, as well as Cross belt buckles.

The Cross belt buckle is the first item I will be reviewing in a series of product reviews for individuals interested in making purchases.
To start let's look at the original piece, currently housed at the Bob Bullock Museum in Austin.

Listed as a "Mexican Staff Officer's Belt Buckle" This piece is on loan from the Texas Museum of Military History. Some specifics, this buckle is solid cast, appears to be brass, possibly silver. This is not a "stamped" piece, it is cast.

I recently purchased the Corps Sutler version, this is the picture from their website.

Although it's difficult to see, the piece is stamped, with the hook and studs attached via sodering. The hook is pretty bendable, and I actually wonder how breakable it is. The thickness is substantially different, the repro is stamped of a thin brass, I assume. It's actually difficult to tell because the entire piece is covered in this really bright goldish finish. The Eagle itself is pretty true to the original, it's a unique piece and the likeness and size matches, but the weight of the original seems so much more solid it's striking. I've seen one more repro of this plate, a solid brass casting from the 2004 Alamo movie, again, being solid brass makes it much truer to the original.

Accuracy: 6/10 (Likeness is good, but the weight, color, metal are totally different.

Use: 7/10 (Great if you're an officer using an over the shoulder belt, but this is not for line troops, it's too fanciful and is very different from dug original Crossbelt plates.

Purchase: If you're portraying an officer and using a British 1796, this buckle is passable, however I would love to see one of the more established Brass casters take a swing at this piece and make something a little more solid. I bought mine for $30 and it was a sale. For that price this buckle is ok, but again, the impression determines it use, I would not want to see this worn by line troops, but line officers and staff might find it useful.

Bienvenidos!

 Welcome to the home of "La Compania de Bejar" a Mexican Soldado Living History unit of the San Antonio Living History Association. Based in San Antonio, TX, the Company is proud to represent the common Mexican Soldado of the 1820's and 1830's. With a focus on the Texas Campaign of 1835-1836, La Compania de Bejar prides itself on research based impressions focused on accuracy and attention to detail. If you are interested in joining the company please contact us at salivinghistoryevents@gmail.com for more information.