Stitching with Elli

Josefina, Bridget and Lanie just got back from a trip. Since the other Dolls didn’t get to go they wanted to know ALLLL about it. Including why the three of them were wearing such interesting looking dresses.

Susan was in the back, so she had to stand on her tiptoes to see where Josefina was pointing on the map. Josefina was explaining that they had gone to a Civil war battlefield in Tennessee. She also explained that their outfits were what ladies wore during the Civil War.

A few of the dolls didn’t seem to know about the Civil war, so for their benefit (and to make sure no one felt dumb for not knowing) she gave a quick brief explanation of the Civil war.

Felicity wanted to know what was “Civil” about a war…how could you be polite and courteous while fighting each other? It wasn’t polite to fight.

Josefina had to explain that there were two meanings to the word “civil”. Basically it was a “civil” war because it was the nation fighting itself…or the civilians of the nation as opposed to another foreign country attacking America.

Susan then wanted to know if it was a “Civil war” when she disagreed with Nellie about something…because she always tried to be polite and nice even when they were disagreeing. Plus they were both civilians and not in the military.

Josefina said it wasn’t the same thing at all.

Most of the dolls were giving Josefina their complete attention. But Ruthie was hungry….she was paying a bit more attention to eating the strawberries Nellie brought than to what Josefina was saying. It is hard to concentrate if you are hungry!

After Josefina made sure everyone had a basic understanding of the Civil war…and after triple checking that no one was was thinking about starting a polite war over anything…. Lanie took over.

She told them about the battle of Fort Donelson (which is where they went on their trip). According to Lanie it was a very important battle…it was the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

Felicity and Nellie thought it was a very exciting story! There were gunboats…and captured forts….cowardly generals…and brave commanders…

General Grant with the help of naval gunboats captures Fort Henry and Heiman…then he marched on Ft. Donelson. The gunboats didn’t help him there because of the positions of the fort. At first it looked like the Confederacy was winning…but they pulled back into the fort instead of pushing their advantage. The Confederate general in charge deserted his men and escaped when it looked like they would loose and have to surrender! In the end Grant won and he called for an “unconditional surrender”. Susan made a mental note to remember that term for the next pillow fight. She thought that would make an awesome battle cry while charging Nellie in the heat of a pillow fight.

The dolls gave Lanie a big cheer when she finished. Even Ruthie (who didn’t like history much) said she did a great job telling the story and making it interesting. Lanie bobbed them a little curtsy to thank them.

Then it was Bridget’s turn. Elizabeth was curious to know what kind of  badge Bridget was wearing.

Bridget explained that it was a junior ranger badge.

“All the National parks have programs for children  to help them learn about the parks.  The booklets will include activities and questions to help learn all you can at the park and not to miss anything. We worked on it together and got a badge! ” Bridget explained.

As Bridget finished explaining Ellen asked,”Does that mean you can arrest poachers? Can I be one too?” “I always wanted to be a ranger.” she said thoughtfully as she cleaned her glasses.

Bridget hesitated, she didn’t remember poachers being mentioned in anything the ranger said. She looked at Josefina for an answer.

“I don’t think so, that would be a little dangerous.” replied Josefina “but you can look at the booklet and we will help you answer the questions, so you can be a junior ranger too.”

Ellen seemed satisfied with that answer.

Then they all went to the computer to look at the pictures from the trip.

“Oooo look! a little cabin!!” exclaimed Elizabeth looking at the picture.

“A CANNON!!!” yelled Felicity.

(Which made Bonnie and Susan jump because Felicity was right in their ears…Bonnie almost fell off the bench but caught her balance in time)

Because they commandeered my computer to look at pictures, I will have to wait to post the pictures from the fort later. Stay tuned!

Update: see part 2 here!