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Blue hen,

A cant or popular name for the State of Delaware. Captain Caldwell, of the 1st Delaware Regiment in the Revolution, was a brave and very popular officer, and noted for his fondness for cock-fighting. When officers were sent to his State to get recruits for the regiment, it was a common remark that they had gone for more of Captain Caldwell's gamecocks. The captain insisted that no cock could be truly game unless the mother was a blue hen; and the expression “Blue hen's chickens” was substituted for game-cocks, and finally applied to the whole Delaware line.

Harper and Brothers Publishers. . New York. 1902.

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Delaware (Delaware, United States) (1)

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Henry C. Caldwell (2)
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