reducing a dislocation or fracture—The proper medical term for putting a dislocated joint or a broken bone back in place.
Helpful People and Good Friends Whose Names I Stole
Stephen Moore—Office manager of the Outlander production offices, and a Most Capable Gentleman he is, too!
Gillebride MacIllemhaoil (translated into English spelling as “MacMillan” for convenience)—Gillebride is the talented musician/singer who played Gwyllym the Bard in season 1 (episode 3) of the Outlander TV show and generously allowed me to use him as a bear-hunter and one of Jamie’s valued tenants.
Chris Humphreys (aka C. C. Humphreys)—Chris is a wonderful historical novelist and a good friend of mine. If you’re looking for something to read after Bees, I’d advise checking him out.
Carmina Gadelica and Gaelic/Gàidhlig in This Book
Most of the Gaelic (and many of the French) expressions in this book were provided with the kind assistance of Catherine MacGregor, Ph.D.
Translated Gaelic verse forms were taken (with permission from the Carmina Gadelica Society) from the Carmina Gadelica, a compilation of oral “hymns, prayers and incantations” from the Highlands and Isles of Scotland, made in the early nineteenth century by the Reverend Alexander Carmichael. (Some editions of the Carmina Gadelica are available online, if you’d like to explore further.)
Newspapers
Newspapers of the period were printed by individuals, and their names reflected the political sympathies, ideological principles, and personalities of their proprietors, as they do today.
The Impartial Intelligencerfn1 was a real newspaper, published in North Carolina during the 1770s. Lest anyone think that Fergus and Marsali’s L’Oignon is a fanciful improbability, I mean … amid a plethora of the more staid “centinals” [sic], “gazettes,” “journals,” and “advertisers,” we also find in eighteenth-century North Carolina: The Herald of Freedom; The Post-Angel, or Universal Entertainment; The North Carolina Minerva, or Anti-Jacobin (NB: the “Anti-Jacobin”fn2 was evidently added in 1803, so is not technically an eighteenth-century paper, but still).
Sports
Golf and Golf Balls
Golf has been played in the British Isles since the fifteenth century, and therefore golf balls are quite familiar to William (section 3).
“enough spin on the question as to take the skin off Percy’s hand if he tried to catch it”—This is a reference to cricket, not baseball.
Real People and Places
Sergeant Bradford—I’m sorry that I don’t know Sergeant Bradford’s first name. He is the delightful reenactor who (in 2019, at least) took visitors to the Savannah Museum of History through a walk-on tour of the Battle of Savannah, both museum and battlefield, including the chance to fire period weapons (unloaded, alas) from the redoubt. He gave me/us a wonderfully detailed account of the battle, with side notes on many of the political and military figures involved, as well as the squashed-miter shape of his distinctive uniform cap.
Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea)—One of the most interesting personalities of the Revolutionary War period, Joseph Brant lived in two worlds, very effectively. An important military leader among the Iroquois (though he was eventually denounced as a traitor for selling lands to the British and thrown out of the Iroquois confederacy), he was also college-educated and traveled to England (upon invitation) to visit the King—who, not unreasonably, wanted to establish a cordial relationship with the Iroquois and other Native groups so that they would help in the suppression of the American rebels.
Patrick Ferguson—Definitely a real person, Major Ferguson was given the job of building a Loyalist militia in the South and using it to force the submission of local rebels. Sometimes this worked better than others …
Frederick Hambright—One of the militia commanders (actually a second-in-command to William Chronicle, who was killed early in the battle) who took part in the Battle of Kings Mountain was one Frederick Hambright, who had been a colonial officer prior and local patriot. I generally walk the battlefields I write about—often more than once. I’d walked Kings Mountain perhaps fifteen years ago but had a chance to do it again, more recently. On this occasion, I arrived late in the day and, having passed through the entrance lobby, was greeted by a park ranger whose name tag read Hambright. He told me that there was only an hour before the park closed, and I might not make it around the (circular) trail. I assured him I could—it’s less than a mile—and I did. I met him again on the way out and paused to say goodbye. We chatted for a bit and he told me that one of his ancestors had fought in the Battle of Kings Mountain. I thanked him and assured him I would mention his ancestor in the book—which I hadn’t yet begun writing. I remembered, though; I mean, “Hambright” isn’t a name you’d forget.
Benjamin Lincoln and narcolepsy—General Benjamin Lincoln was an important player in the Southern Campaign of the Revolution. He has the unfortunate distinction of having surrendered to the British four times, the last time (the Siege of Charles Town) having to surrender an entire army as prisoners. He’s also thought to have suffered from narcolepsy—an affliction wherein the sufferer frequently falls asleep without warning. This naturally can’t be documented for sure, but mention of it is common enough that I allowed him to be napping when Roger went looking for Francis Marion, just before the Battle of Savannah.
Francis Locke—The commander of the “Regiment of Militias” in North Carolina during the American Revolution. As you will have noted, reading this book, there were a lot of independent militia companies, owing to the irregular terrain and spotty distribution of people. It was Locke’s notion to bring all of these companies together so that they could work in concert— a notion that probably was better in concept than execution. The Regiment of Militias (or part of it) fought in only two small actions during the Revolution. As Jamie notes, distance and difficulties of communication made the regiment unsuitable for small emergencies and unwieldy for large occasions.
Francis Marion—aka “the Swamp Fox.” Francis Marion was a notable person in the Southern Campaign. Beginning as an independent commander of his own company (which might have been described as militia, but which also might have been described as freelance guerrilla raiders; he really did pursue and kill freed slaves who fought for the British, which—as Claire notes—is not something Disney chose to include in their show about him), he later fought in a more orthodox fashion, as part of the Continental army, where he served as a lieutenant colonel and then a brigadier general.
Casimir (Kasimierz) Pulaski—A dashing and effective Polish cavalryman who volunteered to fight with the Continental army and became a general and the army’s Commander of Horse. Pulaski was killed in a risky charge during the Battle of Savannah—save that he didn’t die immediately. And there begins a series of mysteries that endures to the present day.
Pulaski was seriously wounded by grapeshot—shot in both the head and body (you see Roger attempting to stanch the bleeding on the battlefield, before Pulaski’s men came to get him)—but didn’t die immediately. He was seen briefly by a Continental surgeon, but then, at his own request—reportedly—he was put aboard the navy cutter Wasp (which was lurking nearby) and was taken out to sea, under the care of a different doctor. He died aboard the ship a day or so later, and his body was taken ashore. Reportedly, he was buried somewhere nearby, though his (presumably his) bones were later reburied under a monument in the city of Savannah (the monument is still there).