Loyalist – A citizen of the American colonies loyal to King George III and Great Britain.
Militia – Local county and state military units. Most served locally. There were both Patriot and Loyalist militia units during the war.
Muster – The official forming of local militia units for mobilization in the war.
Neck Sock – A garment that resembled a necktie. It was made of a long piece of cloth that was wrapped around the neck and then tied in a decorative fashion in the front.
Palisades – Walls made from upright stakes or tree trunks that were often pointed on top. They were built for defense, such as in the walls of primitive forts.
Patriots – People in American who were in favor of separation from England and the formation of a separate country.
Pipe Tomahawk – A tomahawk that contained a smoking bowl on the back of the blade and a hollow tube through the length of the handle. Smokers could ignite their tobacco in the bowl and smoke it by sucking on a mouthpiece on the end of the handle. It was often used for ceremonial purposes.
Pipe Tongs – A simple metal tool, similar to tiny salad tongs, that was used to pick up a small coal from a campfire or fireplace. Smokers would use the coal in pipe tongs to light their pipes.
Pommel – The small hump on the front of a saddle.
Pucker-toed Moccasins – Typical lightweight moccasins of the Eastern Woodland Indians. Made from animal hides, each moccasin had a thread that was pulled through the leather on top which caused it to have its distinguishing “pucker.”
Queue – Pronounced “kew.” This is the word for a man’s pony tail. Men in Colonial times wore their hair long. They would often tie it in the back or braid it into a queue.
Redcoats – The derogatory name that Patriots called British soldiers.
Spectacles – The old name for eyeglasses.
Shilling – An old form of British coin money. It was worth 1/20 of a British Pound Sterling, and the equivalent of twelve pence.
Sons of Liberty – A secret society in the American colonies that was formed to protect the rights of American colonists and protest against unfair taxation by the British.
Station – Another name for a frontier fort.
Swamp Fever – The old word for the modern mosquito-borne disease known as malaria.
Tory / Tories – Another name for Loyalists.
Weskit – Also known as a waistcoat, this was the vest worn over the top of a man’s shirt and under a man’s coat. It would sometimes be worn without the outer overcoat. It was a more formal outer garment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Geoff Baggett is a small town pastor in rural Kentucky. Though his formal education and degrees are in the fields of chemistry, biology, and Christian theology, his hobbies and obsessions (according to his wife) are genealogy and Revolutionary War history. He is an active member of the Sons of the American Revolution and has discovered over twenty Patriot ancestors in his family tree from the states of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.
Geoff is an avid living historian, appearing regularly in period uniform in classrooms, reenactments, and other Revolutionary War commemorative events throughout the southeastern United States. He lives on a small piece of land in rural Trigg County, Kentucky, with his amazing wife, a daughter and grandson, and a yard full of fruit trees and perpetually hungry chickens and goats.
Little Warrior: Boy Patriot of Georgia (Patriot Kids of the American Revolution Series Book 2) Page 18