RARE REVOLUTIONARY WAR PERIOD BEADLE FAMILY OFFICER’S EPAULETS WITH FAMILY NOTE

Two rare Revolutionary War period American epaulets with original family note reading: “My dear Fathers Epaulettes / worn during/ General Geo Washingtons / times - / Adeline Beadle.” Now housed in a modern shadow-box frame with brass plaque and the note, certainly from an earlier storage box, applied to the frame’s back. The note is in faded brown ink later freshened in blue and addressed to “To Marian Campbell Holmes,” through whom the epaulets more recently descended in the Guerard family of Charleston, South Carolina. These are the standard form of American epaulet in the Revolution, coming into regular use about 1779, replacing sashes and hat cockades as officers’ insignia, becoming shorter and wider not long after the war in response to changing military fashion that dictated wider coat collars. One epaulet is slightly more ornate than the other, indicating two different uniform coats or promotion of a subaltern officer, both of whom wore a single epaulet, lieutenants on the left shoulder and captains on the right. Both are woven and embroidered silver bullion, with buttonhole at the pointed end of the strap to fasten at the collar, and a flat crescent at the shoulder decorated with bullion coils and sequins, from which are suspended bullion coils backed by thinner tassels. The more ornate epaulet is slightly longer and thinner, with bullion tape along the edges of the strap with an inner line of sequins and a wider crescent embellished with more coils, and with round sunbursts of sequins and coils at the middle and ends, along with thicker, double coil twisted bullion tassels. The connection of Beadle and Holmes is unclear, but the gift would postdate the marriage of the elder Marian Cambell Holmes in 1894 or 1895, and predate the marriage of her daughter, of the same name, into the Guerard family in the 1920s. Beadle would certainly have used her maiden name in this context, but her identity and that of her father is unclear. Research while these were on loan to the Citadel Museum suggested a Virginia militia officer, but failed to find a daughter Adeline. The most likely candidate, allowing for acceptable period spelling variations, might be Adeline Beadle or Bedel (1800-1856,) daughter of Moody Bedel of New Hampshire, later a general in the War of 1812, who served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the NH militia in 1785 and 1st Lieutenant in 1786, and may have received them from his father, Timothy Bedel, who served as a Captain and Lieutenant during the war, under Stark at Bennington and reportedly on the staffs of both Schuyler and Gates at Saratoga, as well as Colonel of several regiments. Further research is certainly warranted. The provenance for at least the last century is tight and these represent a splendid opportunity. CONDTION: Excellent. Solid, intact condition. No holes, tears, fraying of cloth or unravelling of bullion. Pleasing, slightly age-toned color. Not examined out of the frame. Note fully legible with “To Marian Campbell Holmes” in blue at top and the older brown ink inscription below freshened in blue by the family, likely from a much older storage box. A strong, visually appealing presentation.

Item Dimensions: 19" x 14" x 5"

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Paperwork

The Citadel Letter