Johanna Stegen, The Heroine Of Lüneburg

 "Johanna Stegen, (11 January 1793, Lüneburg - 12 January 1842, Berlin) was a German heroine of the Napoleonic Wars.
On 2 April 1813 German troops (made up of the fusiliers and volunteer Jägers of the 1st Pommerschen infantry regiment) clashed with Napoleonic troops near Lüneburg. In the course of the battle, the Prussian regiment risked running out of ammunition and so Johanna rushed ammunition to them in her apron, thus significantly contributing to the Prussian victory. She was glorified soon afterwards in the patriotic poems of Friedrich Rückert. In 1817 she married the Prussian corporal Wilhelm Hindersin in Berlin - he had recently become royal Oberdrucker in the war ministry. In her memory a young woman dresses as her once a year to clean the war monument in Lüneburg and to tell onlookers of her actions..............."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanna_Stegen

The paintings showing Johanna holding here apron in her teeth strike me as more realistic as it frees both hands to pass out cartridges.

Johanna is honored as a 30 MM tin figurine.

She has a memorial at Luneberg.

Her grave......

Dona Maria de Jesus of Brazil

THE LITERARY GAZETTE AND JOURNAL OF FOR THE YEAR 1824.
Journal of a Voyage to Brazil and Resident there during the years 1821, 2, 3 ; By Maria Graham.
p 228 (on-line publication)

"...Our last quotation relates to a military heroine the author says...

" To-day I received a visit from Dona Maria de Jesus, the young woman who has lately distinguished herself in the War of the Reconcave. Her dress is that of a soldier of one of the Emperor's battalion:, with the addition of a tartan kilt, which she told me she had adopted from a picture representing a highlander, as the most feminine military dress. What would the Gordons and Mac Donalds say to this ? The " garb of old Gaul," chosen as a womanish attire !Her father is a Portuguese, named Gonsalvez de Almeida, and possesses a farm on the Rio do Pex, in the parish of San Jose, in the Certao, about forty leagues in-hard from Cachoeira. Her mother was also a Portuguese; yet the young woman's features, especially her eyes and forehead, have the strongest characteristics of the Indians. Her father has another daughter by the same wife; since whose death he has married again, and the new wife and the young children have made home not very comfortable to Dona Maria de Jesus..."


 Tinted and plain prints by Augustus Earl  1824

"Text describes Dona Maria de Jesus, a "young woman who has lately distinguished herself in the war of the Reconcave" (p. 292). Maria Quitéria de Jesus who fought during the Bahian Recôncavo in 1822, ran away from home to join the rebellion against the Portuguese and became the first woman in Brazil's army. Earle, a watercolorist, accepted a position as artist in April 1832 with Charles Darwin's expedition on the Beagle, but increasing ill-health forced him to give up the position at Rio de Janeiro at the last moment. Date on item is: 25, March, 1824"

Dolores Rodriguez, Chilean Vivandiere..

"Some of these Chilean vivandieres showed
great nerve and enthusiasm in action. The
handsome and dashing Dolores Rodriguez
proved to be a heroine of the first order.
When she perceived her husband, who was
sergeant, slain on the field over which the
charging Chilean columns had marched,
she hurried to his side, gave him a last
parting embrace, and then, picking up his
rifle and buckling his cartridge belt around
her slender waist as best she could, she
rushed to where the contest was hottest to
avenge her fallen mate. Her life was spared,
and for her pluck, presence of mind, and
great endurance, she was given, per d'hon-
neur, the rank of her fallen husband-ser-
geant."

A Larger Image...

  Misidentified as Peruvian in this period newspaper (unknown) for sale on Ebay.

Modern Chilean drill team in the Dolores Rodriguez style  uniform...

A possible recreation of her outfit in a museum....

Even a porcelain figure and toy soldier version...

There may have been some confusion back in the 1880s with the Dolores Rodriguez images and the Irene Morales images.

The Pledge......1939

 ..everybody is doing it.




Official versions
1892
“I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

1892 to 1923
"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

1923 to 1924
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

1924 to 1954
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

1954 to Present
 "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Porky gets it right!

More Mitrailleuse. Nice Diorama Idea or Movie Scene

It might be true or it might be the imagination of the artist. A female Communard firing a Mitrailleuse in a last stand against the government troops.

Unfortunately it's a random image from the "Internets." Let's hope the soldier only captures the woman and she survives being sent to New Caledonia.

Cunnyngham Confederates. Painted.

Mannie Gentile has a nice review of Cunnyngham's plastic Confederate figures over on Toy Soldiers Forever
http://toysoldiersforever.blogspot.com/2010/05/happy-may-day-comrades.html

I tried painting a few.....

I did them as uniformly and fairly well equipped Confederate troops with 1842 Springfields ....

...and russet colored leather gear.

http://southgeorgiarelic.org/belt.htm

French Gatling Guns not Mitrailleuses

I noticed a few period images of Gatling Guns used by the French Army during the Franco Prussian War. I thought that the illustrators made a mistake, not knowing what the Mitrailleuse looked like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitrailleuse

Illustration of a Gatling Gun in action...

Canadian newspaper showing the "effect" on the Prussians of a Mitrailleuse...

Illustration of the capture of what looks like a Gatling Gun...

Interesting note that France purchased Gatling Guns

http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/g/ga/gatling_gun.htm

"....During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, several Gatling guns were purchased by Léon Gambetta on behalf of the Government of National Defense, and were used by the French armies fighting in the provinces, to replace the defective mitrailleuse...."


Nice period painting of Prussian Troops taking a French position and a Mitrailleuse..

They were two very different weapons in design.

Chilean Cantiniere Irene Morales Infante

Irene Morales Infante was a Chilean Cantiniere in the War Of The Pacific. (1879-1884)
Spanish Language links here...


"Irene Morales Infante  Sargento segundo y Cantinera del Ejército de Chile durante la Guerra del Pacífico."

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Morales


This tinted photo shows her in feathered cap and plaid skirt with plaid facings.

She was painted in the uniform as well.

There is even a modern porcelain figurine of her.

Among this group of Chileans is a woman on the right attempting Irene Morales Infante's uniform. The woman in the center is wearing another Chilean Cantiniere outfit that shows up in old images and is sometimes identified with Cantiniere Irene Morales Infante.

Some modern Uniform Plates possibly showing Her.

Charlie Chaplin's The Matrix

(Russian made with Sub Titles)

Chilean Cantiniere Candelaria Pérez Mural

Modern mural in Chile..

Detail...

http://urbatorium.blogspot.com/2010/01/un-hermoso-cuadro-casi-desconocido-de.html

(Google Translation from Spanish)
"....There is a certain sensuality in the figure of the heroine portrayed there, too. Robles Acuña his wife castrates no disguising Sergeant immaculate virgin, nor, on the other side of the diameter, as androgynous figure. On the contrary, delicately highlights her femininity in a patriarchal context such as the war. He undoes a button on his chest quietly, putting part of their female forms..."



Candelaria Pérez

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candelaria_P%C3%A9rez

Newer Images....

"Playing" The Seige Of Paris 1870-1871

There's really little in plastic for French troops of the Franco-Prussian War. I have drafted some Civil War and British Colonial Troops by Marksmen, Replicants, and Armies In Plastic with some conversion work for passable troops to "play" with. Be sure to click on the pictures for larger versions.