The strangely-worded phrase “Fifth Michigan Fire Zouave Lancers” first makes an appearance in The House with a Clock in Its Walls [24] when ten-year-old Lewis Barnavelt learns a few things about the Barnavelt side of his family: first, he needeth not have been “worried” about his Uncle Jonathan as much as his “two maiden aunts” has let on; and second, his uncle’s grandfather (or his own great-grandfather) had fought in the American Civil War.

When Lewis later asks who the Lancers were, Mrs. Zimmermann quips without missing a beat that they were "idiots." Later Jonathan explains that, in olden days, lancers carried long spears that were used to run through enemy soldiers. The problem in the Civil War was that they were up against soldiers that used cannons and muskets and other weaponry that made lancers pointless. He admits his grandfather probably only joined the unit because he was attracted to their “flapping pennants and bright-colored uniforms.” The Lancers were defeated at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, with only two New Zebedee boys (Grampa Barnavelt and Walter Finzer) surviving the battle because they never got involved [20-2].

The name Zouave comes from the Zouaoua tribe in Algeria, some of whom volunteered for the French colonial army in 1830. In later years the word designated Frenchmen who wore the native dress of the Algerians – brightly colored jackets and vests, baggy trousers, sashes, fezzes, and turbans. The colorful outfits and strict discipline of the original Zouaves inspired overseas imitators during the American Civil War: there were supposedly over 70 volunteer Zouave regiments fighting for the Union and around 25 known regiments for the Confederacy.

According to the Online Zouave Database a group identified as the "Marshall Zouaves" formed in 1861. Coincidently our research shows there was also a "Brother Jonathan Zouaves" group out of Detroit, but we doubt there is any relation to Jonathan Barnavelt.

Perhaps the best known group in the state was the Jackson Michigan Zouave Drill Team, who we were told used to march in Marshall-area parades back in the 50’s. The group was quite popular and showcased on The Ed Sullivan Show and featured in the film, The Court Jester (1955), alongside Danny Kaye.

Lancers were horse-mounted soldiers that fought with a lance, or pole-based weapon, similar to a spear. There was a group of lancers from Michigan that were organized in 1861 as the 1st United States Lancers Regiment, but the group disbanded in February 1862 – just over three months from their formation.

Bellairs was writing these stories of Lewis while living in Massachusetts and he may have seen reenactments performed by National Lancers, a volunteer militia group stationed about an hour south of Haverhill in Framingham. The National Lancers were organized in 1836 to provide a mounted escort for the governor, as well as to enforce the law and defend the state from invasion and insurrection. During the Civil War, the Lancers organized portions of the First Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry.

Finally, Al Myers notes that during his and John’s days at college he remembers "browsing with [John] in a bookstore and encountering The Fatal Lozenge, one of the little books of Edward Gorey -- as coincidence would have it." The book was an illustration of the alphabet with an accompanying four-line verse for each of the 26 letters. Myers says that Bellairs was naturally particularly fond of Z, which was illustrated with a Zouave hoisting an impaled baby on a bayonet and the accompanying verse:

The ZOUAVE used to war and battle
Would sooner take a life than not:
It scarcely has begun to prattle
When he impales a hapless tot.