Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1892 — “The Blue Hen’s Chickens.” [ARTICLE]

“The Blue Hen’s Chickens.”

Everybody knows that natives of Delaware aro called the "Blue Hen’s Chickens,” but not ono in a hundred can tell you why they are so called. The epithet is said to have had its origin in the following. One of Delaware s most gallant fighters in the VVur of the Revolution was a Captain Caldwell, who was notorious for his fondness for cock-fighting. He drilled his men admirably, tiiey being known throughout ,the nrmy as “ Caldwell’s gaftie-cocks.” This same Caldwell held to the peculiar theory that no cock was really game unless its mother was a blue hen. As the months wore away Caldwell’s men became known us the “Blue Hen’s Chickens,” a title which only incresed their respect for the old game-cock Captain. The nickname became famous, and after the close of the war was applied indiscriminately to all natives of the “Diamond State.” St. Louis Republic.