Zwaanendael Museum

Happy Juneteenth, Delaware!

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, declaring all enslaved people to be freed in accordance with the Emancipation Proclamation signed 2 years before.

This holiday marks the effective end of slavery in the United States.

Today, come visit the Merman table at the New Castle Court House Museum! Today from 10 to 4.

School’s out✅
Nice weather✅
Merman ✅
New Castle Court House Museum open✅
The Separation Day celebration continues today! We are open 10-4 with a special Cryptids and Civics program and then come back at 7pm to learn about the grievances in the Declaration of Independence.

Image Description: cut out of Merman from Zwaanendael in front of the New Castle Court House Museum.

Where are those pesky Tories?!

Last week we introduced you to one of the units of the 1st Battalion of the Kent County Militia. This week meet the Kent County Militia's 2nd Battalion.

The 2nd Battalion was organized in 1775. It had an unknown number of regular infantry companies and a light infantry company. During the war, the 2nd Battalion was primarily used to keep an eye on the loyalists and Tories of Delaware. In April 1778, a loyalist uprising led by Cheney Clow of Kenton, DE, took place on the Maryland/Delaware border of Kent County. Clow and his men raided homes and built a wooden fort along the state line. The 2nd Battalion and other Delaware militiamen quickly put down the uprising. Clow's fort was burnt and he would later be captured and tried for treason and murder. Clow was found guilty of murder of a sheriff's deputy during his arrest and hung in 1783. He is the only known Delaware loyalist executed by the state of Delaware during the war. As the war went on many of the men in the 2nd Battalion would go on to serve in several units of the Continental Army.

Illustrated here are two privates of the 2nd Battalion wearing their prescribed uniforms. The private on the left belongs to light infantry company. He wears a shortened blue coat with white facings and pewter buttons. His cap is a light infantry cap. The private on the right belongs to a regular infantry company. He wears a brown coat with white facings and pewter buttons. The regular infantry companies wore black round hats. Both uniforms include white waistcoats, breeches, stockings and black gaiters or spatterdashes.

Download the uncolored version to use as a coloring page to enjoy at home or stop by the Zwaanendael Museum and grab a copy!


ZM32

The Loyalist return this Saturday, June 6th! Visit the encampment on the lawn of the museum and learn more about Lewes's many connections to the Revolutionary War.

A special historic paint making demonstration will be on- going throughout the day. Historic Interpreter and Volunteer Coordinator Jen B., will have historic pigments and tools that were used to to make, and store paint just like they did in the 18th century.