Size: 21mm (7/8th inch)

This medium-weight, American Colonial-style button was excavated in Charleston, South Carolina. With its modest and timeless design, it offers a unique glimpse into the past. Ideal for collectors of historical artifacts or those restoring period-specific attire, this button is a standout example of Colonial craftsmanship.

Key Features:

• Size: 21mm (7/8th inch)
• Material: Silver Britannia
• Design: Simple yet elegant, representing Colonial-era fashion
• Condition: Authentic and aged, perfect for antique enthusiasts

  You will feel the nervousness of youth as Leo sets out to get a job on the sailing vessel, Abner L. Bowdoin, and again later, as he experiences his first love. The readers will brush against the fears and tempers of men, feel the anger of tossing waves and blowing winds, and learn the economics of greed and fortune upon the sea. They will feel the pain of loss and enjoy the thrills of adventure. Mystery and intrigue will chase them through the pages; madmen, murder, and mayhem will entice them unabashedly onward.

Below is the Biography of my late Father. He was as salty as they come, Been around the world so many times he lost count. that was my old man. But the real hero is my mother who got this book published and stayed on the strand and raised two fine boys.

Alex Ayotte

Fugawee’s Civil War Artillery Boots Sometimes called Ankle Boots. See Uniform Regs 1851/1861. Also see :

..Dress regulations throughout the period … mention only the “ankle boot” and the “Jefferson boot.”   Both types were prescribed for officers and the mounted service….It can be concluded that the ankle boot was a medium height riding boot without lacing and otherwise called a ‘half boot..’ “Since the mounted man’s boot (if he wore such instead of bootees) were, by regulation, covered by his trousers………they must have been of the Wellington pattern.”

From: American Military Equipage 1851-1872 The Company of Military Historians-Providence, R.I.…..

These fine boots are made to Fugawee’s specifications by one of the few bootmakers in the world that still produces the antique molded front piece. I don’t think that any other two-piece CW boot made in America has the accurate molded shape.  Without it, the boots tend to wrinkle in the front and cause blisters on the instep.

We sent the master bootmaker an actual, unworn original model 1859 Ankle Boot made in 1865.  In that year it was placed on a mannequin of the Drummer Boy of Shiloh and so was preserved in a museum exhibit until 1968. Our boot maker copied it exactly. Look at the original on the right in the picture and the Fugawee model on the left.

We made two changes. We bought the originals when the museum broke up.  They were machine pegged, nine pegs to the inch. We used stitching because we haven’t found a machine and no craftsman today can duplicate the work of a 1860s pegging machine. For your comfort, we lined the boot with leather from top to toe. Sizes from 7ee through 15ee. The 1861 short boot price $219.99.

We have been producing this boot for twenty-six or twenty-seven years.  The other day we received a letter in which Mr. R. Midkim complained that our boots are not “authentic” because they have no welt in the side seams.  We have sold thousands of pairs of the Artillery Boot and this is the second time that we have had this complaint. Or maybe it was one man complaining two times.  Be advised that we have no side-seam welts.  Today’s sewing machines don’t rely on them the way that 1865 chain-stitch machines did.

Members of World War One groups are buying this boot for German and Austrian impressions.

Note: Many re-enactors have been influenced by the Cinema and television and think that the issued Civil War cavalry boot came to the knee with a flap or knee guard in the front.   We have plenty of antique photos of CW cavalry with their trousers worn outside the Ankle Boot as per regulations.  Both sides dressed this way but some officers bought their own flamboyant Jeb Stuart type of Cavalier boots.  No, we don’t plan on carrying them.

     In or out? Up or down? What’s that little flap on the front of the boot?  The flap or rise is to keep your pants cuffs out of the manure.  When you are going to stables or when the wheels of the Parrot gun churn up a muddy slop, you raise the front of your trouser leg and place it behind the flap. About 1870 the flap became more pointed.

It’s the same principle as the modern cowboy boot with its front and back notches to hold the bottoms of your pants out of the mud and manure in the corral.

 By the way, only forty percent of the shoes or boots issued during the entire Civil War were pegged.  Pegs didn’t meet military specs and bootees made with pegs were purchased from the contractors for about seventy cents a pair less ($1.95 versus $1.25) than sewed boots or booties.

The leather in our boot is a semi-rough cowhide especially selected by the master bootmaker after studying our original boot.  The finish will take a shine after a few polishings or it will take Lexol for a “field-worn” look. The boot is lined with calfskin from top to toe. It has a sewn sole with a roundish shank pegged into place, the only place where we use pegs. This boot has a comfortable square toe, a tight-gripping heel, and bedroom slipper comfort.

 This boot covers an amazing time period.  It is ideal for many impressions from just after 1800 through 1900 and beyond. It is suitable for reunions of  the Grand Army of the Republic, the 1800s miner, teamster, cattleman, farmer, Indian Wars, Cowboy Shootist, etc..    I have seen mail order catalogs printed in the 1890s that show a wide assortment of prices and qualities in styles just like the 1871 model

Sizes 7EE to 15EE   The top of the boot is about 12″ from the ground, depending on the size. The image shows the original on the right and our product on the left.  But consider that the original was on a Model from 1861 of the drummer boy.

 Over the course of the War for Independence, the British Government Leased 30,067 Hessian Mercenaries for just the American Revolution. It worked so well that they were used by lots of different countries. Sometimes the Hessians were on both sides of a war at the same time.

 Fugawee’s Hessian boot is another well made long lasting leather boot, Steel shank construction. Stacked leather heel, fully lined here are some of the works we used. 

References to Hessian boots:  Direct copy from their boots, no editing by me.

“If the shoe fits” by Bill Severn   pg. 119

Hungarians introduced the hussar boot for military wear.  When it first appeared in London in 1770’s on the feet of the Hessian mercenaries hired by George 111 to fighting the American colonies, it was called the Austrian boot.  Later, the English took to calling it the Hessian boot, the name by which it also became known in America.  In France, a version of the same boot was named the Sonvaroff, after a Russian general.  Whatever name was used, the basic style was a knee-high boot, usually of shiny black leather topped with gold or silver braid.  The center rose to a peak at the front that frequently was decorated with a free- swinging silk tassel.  Worn over tight pantaloons, the boots were first ridiculed by conservative gentlemen who didn’t intend to trade their handsome top boots for them, but they were the height of fashion by the century’s end.

“The Mode in Footwear” by R. Turner Wilcox.  Page 120 [most of this is like the description from Bill Severn’s book.]

It was at this time that the hussar boot entered the mode.  It was introduced to the European armies in the seventeenth century by the Hungarian hussars.  When the boot appeared in London in 1770’s on the legs of the Hessian mercenaries hired by George 111 to fight the American colonists, it was first called the Austrian boot, but eventually, it became the Hessian boot to the English and the Americans.  To the French, it was the hussar or Souvaroff, so named after the great Russian general of the period. (1729-1800).

The boot was first looked upon with derision, in comparison with the handsome top boot; but as happens time and time again, the scoffed at newcomer became the very height of fashion by the end of the century.  Hessians were worn over the tight-fitting pantaloons, of shiny black leather, the top finished with gold and silver braid, and a silk tassel jauntily swinging from the up-peaking center front.

{this next bit is a good description of the polish that was used}

In general, boot legs were polished to a dull finish with viscid dressing composed of the white of an egg and lamp soot, this English cream much in demand all over Europe.  Bootblacks or, by the French name, “artist polishers” opened small shops for the purpose.  In London, where they were especially necessary because of the ill-paved streets and lack of drainage, there were bootblacks or “boot” stationed at most street corners. Ready to clean the footwear of gentlemen and beaux.

“Fashion in Costume 1200-2000” by Joan Nunn

Jack boots, by 1725 worn only by postillions, coachmen, etc., were succeeded by a clos-fitting boot shaped to the leg and cut away behind the knee, and by jockey tops or half jack boots which ended below the knee with a turn-down top of softer, lighter coloured leather; after 1780 they were called top boots. Spatterdashes were still worn by the country, as were gaiters, introduced for the infantry around 1710-20 and worn civilians during the 1770s but considered unfashionable after 1790.  Hessians – short riding boots, calf-length behind and generally curving to a point in front below the kneecap and decorated with a tassel – appeared after 1790 but are more a feature early 19^th-century dress.  Boots were not worn indoors by men of fashion during this century until after 1780 when they became suitable for all occasions.

Page 110

From 1800 to 1820, high boots were general wear in both town and country.  Some were adapted from military styles and named after military leaders.  After 1830, high or ‘over’ boots were confined to country or sporting wear, but the short boot, worn under trousers, remained in fashion in various forms into the next century. Hessians (1790- 1850) and hussar (1800-20) were both calf-length behind, rising to a point in front just below the knee, low-heeled, and of black leather.  Hessians occasionally had a narrow border contrasting coloured leather around the top and were always trimmed with a tassel at the point.  Hussars might have a turn-over top.  Wellingtons from 1817, were like 18-century top boots without the turnover: the name was later to be used for rubber boots in the 20^th-century.

“Costumes of the 17 & 18^th Century” by Phillis Cunnington   page 76

Hessians were short riding boots rising to a point in front to below the knee and generally decorated with a tassel (Introduced in the 1790’s)

“History of Men’s Costume” by Marion Sichel   page 42

Hussar boots, popular towards the end of the century were also called hessian boots, originating from the German Principality of Hess.  These were short riding boots to just below the knees, higher in the front with a tassel decoration.  These were mainly black, with a coloured border on the top.

“Shoes” by June Swan

{several pages listed, but I could only find a  true reference in the following}

Page 33

Brummel’s other choice was the hessian, cut with a V-dip at center front with tassel; according to Rees it was ‘brought into this country from Germany in the beginning of this war about 1794 or 5, – though one of the MPs in the painting of Pitt’s Address to the Commons in the previous year also wore them, in black with red top binding.  Rees also referred  to them as ‘the Hessian or

Austrian boot:  lately, they were of a gradual sweep in front and with a peak behind; now(1813) they are square in front without a peak behind.’ The walking attire of John Horseman in 1804 was ‘hessian boots with immense tassels’(and see fig.27).  By 1830 the “Whole Art of Dress” by a Cavalry Officer says that they were ‘only worn with tight pantaloons’, and by 1861 Whyte Melville’s “Good for Nothing “says: There are no hessian boots now’ – though they did survive for military wear.

The Hessians were ousted by the wellington.

Page 39  short mention

The 1858 Dunkley account book has ‘best calf screw clump sole wellingtons at 21 shillings.’ American army boots in 1872 were brass screwed Hessians or bluchers.

Page 43

The predominant footwear, as the British set out to conquer the world, was naturally boots.  “The Whole Art of Dress “1830, reports: ‘the hessian is a boot only worn with tight pantaloons.  The top boot is almost entirely a sporting fashion.  Although they are worn by noblemen and gentlemen in hunting, they are in general use among the lower orders, such as jockeys, grooms, butlers.  The Wellington…the only boot in general wear’. The hessian survived longer in the United States.  The 1858 patent for a brass toe bit is on a machine-sewn hessian with pegged sole, and the photograph, c 1879 of Billy the Kid, shows him in medium high-heeled Hessians with front dip, but no tassel, the straps hanging outside. 

We saw that this button lends itself to painting you can see it in a cornflower blue. We have all the colors needed to make the variations.  all colors are made to order so it will be an additional 5 days because of drying times.  you need to put that in the special noes your color choice in the checkout section. are sold in ten packs just call or email for custom quantities.

We placed two sturdy pull tabs inside each boot.  If you do not have boot hooks, It’s easy enough to carry a couple of leather laces in your pocket. Run a leather lace or sturdy cord through each tab and use them to pull the boot upward. 

The “pass line” where your foot is going through the curve is the tightest part of the boot but a shake of talcum powder and a pair of sturdy leather laces will get the boot on. 

Paul Revere’s boot has a natural color cuff of heavy, supple glove leather.  When the boot comes off the bench, the cuff is turned all the way down.  There is plenty of leather cuff for you to easily roll up the cuff to whatever height you desire.

The object is to avoid any gap below your breeches or any show of breeches cuff or stocking.  The functional cuff also may be turned up to protect a rider’s knees and prevent the entrance of rainwater, etc.

“By 1727 the riding bootleg had become softer and closer-fitting……(the) jockey in close-fitting boots with brown tops…..the top was turned down below the knee for greater mobility, showing the brown lining.  It was soon adapted for fashionable wear.  .. … These are the boots with brown top featured in caricatures of John Bull, ……The top boots were worn by Thomas Jefferson, now in the Smithsonian are of this type. Quotes from June Swann’s “Shoes”    ISBN 0 7134 09428

Full and half sizes 5EE to 15EE.  Ladies should take 1 1/2 size smaller.

ALL SALES FINAL – NO RETURNS

So get yours today don’t chance cutting your lip off.