Presentation of colors to the 1st Michigan Infantry in Detroit, May 11, 1861

chubachus

First Sergeant
Joined
Nov 27, 2014
Location
Virginia
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"View of soldiers in formation with crowd of spectators on street and in buildings in background. Presentation of colors to the 1st Michigan Infantry on their departure, May 11, 1861, ceremony on the Campus Martius, H.R. Andrew's Rail-Road Hotel in the center background (site of the later Detroit Opera House)."

Source.
https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora:145359
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Source.

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Source.

All taken by Jex Bardwell.
 
Imagine checking in to H R Anderson's Rail Road Hotel in 1862. Dipping a pen into the inkwell to sign the big register book at the front desk. The "boy" carrying your valise or trunk up the dark flights of stairs and handing you a long brass key with the room number attached. How much would it cost for the night? 50 cents? You might have to share the room or even your bed! Peeling cabbage rose wallpaper, worn persian rug on the wood floor. No sink, no running water, no electricity, no toilet, just a bowl, pitcher of cold water, and chamber pot. Maybe a clean towel, soap might be extra.
Oil lamp or candle by the bedside, maybe a small stove or fireplace for heat, coal or firewood, extra. Was there a tin bath tub at the end of the hall filled with steaming kettles of hot water carried up the stairs, also extra?
The bed linens were probably laundered every week or so, no matter how many different guests slept in the bed. Respectable ladies did not travel alone or stay in commercial hotels if they did, so it was an all male clientele. Was full board available in the dining room?
Maybe stroll over to the Oddfellows Hall in the evening for whiskey and cigars.
 
Missed this earlier- these images really are treasures. There's a LOT here-
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Central stage office, J.S.Jenness, Henry something family groveries, a lamp shop, the RR Hotel-
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A Melodeon factory, how cool is that? Livery, John Hull , Odd Fellows Hall!!

So the action is blurred but there- flag . The 1st Michigan was originally 3 mos., morphed into regular service retaining a good core of men who volunteered first for 3 months. That the men we see here include some who didn't make it back from Gaines Mill, Chancellorsville , Gettysburg, Spotsylvania and the Wilderness ( and a much longer list ) should give us chills. What that flag saw.

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And what they saw-
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The uniforms worn by the First Michigan Three Month Volunteer Infantry Regiment:

Dark blue nine-button roundabout jackets with standing collars, matching cloth shoulder straps. The jackets a a slit pocket on the right side between the 6th and 7th buttons. Michigan buttons on the front but no buttons on the sleeve cuffs. Dark blue miner shirts. Dark blue overcoats with capes, not worn in these images. Dark blue trousers. NCOs did not have stripes on their trousers. Dark blue forage cap, probably with company number on the front. They received white Havelocks but not before the left Detroit. White gloves. Blue cravats like those worn by French soldiers (also referred to as scarves). Red white and blue cockades. Coarse Army style shoes. Standard infantry equipment, their canteens had red covers, white haversacks but no packs. Officers wore dark blue frock coats.
 
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