Point made about the unbuttoned coat of high-ranking officers in the field. Thanks.
Not sure it would be inspirational to rankers during field maneuvers though, where those commanders were trying to instill order and discipline in their charges. In other words, what effect would a senior officer exercising field leadership with his uniform coat unbuttoned and left widely open, have on common soldiers organized in battle formation?
Seemed to work for Zack Taylor in Florida and Mexico...
In the assault upon Mexico City, General Shields led his brigade in his shirt-sleeves without too much trouble...
And for Major-General Barlow too in the 1860s:
Major-General Hancock, and Barlow and the others, probably put on their coats for the photographer in the group image shown above. A war correspondent noted in summer '64 Hancock was generally found in his shirt-sleeves...
or from a Surgeon:
Hancock and his division commanders were considered by many, second to none in inspiring the fighting qualities of their troops... even without coats on.
Theodore Lyman, Meade's Headquarters, p. 107.
Discipline in the field didn't come from uniforms...
He was in his shirt-sleeves at Spotsylvania... and his division and the Second Corps did some of the best day's work yet seen by the Army of the Potomac;
Officers frequently dressed for the weather. General A.A. Humphreys, USA, noted wearing his uniform coat in the winter, and a thin summer blouse in the summer "encounters..."
Certainly General Grant generally at least switched to a non-regulation summer sack coat, with its rank insignia, for hot weather in 1864-65. But previously he was not unknown in his shirt-sleeves in the deep south, or a common sack coat. Major Hogane of the CS Engineers noted him entering Vicksburg, with his son in shirt-sleeves...
Grant was generally described in an unbuttoned sack coat...
And occasionally in his shirt-sleeves...
Grant occasionally saw generals do good work in their shirt-sleeves, like General Lawler's charge at the Battle of Big Black River bridge, May 17, 1863:
General Sheridan, 1864-5:
A correspondent notes of General Grant's views on fancy uniforms, etc. in the field...
Portsmouth Journal, Portsmouth, NH, 5-21-1864.
In the assault on the Vicksburg mine on June 25, the assault troops were in their shirt-sleeves...
Boston Post, 7-9-1863.
Wearing uniforms, in a parade manner, was best attended to in camp or garrison, and not in the field. The veterans of the 58th Indiana lamented their colonel blasted them after a long march in the summer heat for the sake of show...
Homer Calkins with the 12th Illinois Cavalry at Antietam, with the headquarters, Army of the Potomac, noted the tendency to strip in extreme heat, especially in battle...
"Why are our soldiers in battle represented as on parade or in marching order? Why, at Antietam, as was the custom generally in regularly set engagements, the men divested themselves of pretty much everything "that was loose." So many threw the old hat or cap high in the air on their first charge. In the morning the knapsacks, blankets and with most their jackets were piled up in the rear with a regimental guard over them. Sometimes, of course, they never saw them again, as was the case in so many instances during the seven days. Many regiments lost all such impedimenta the first of those days at Mechanicsville. But they would prefer to lose them than be so incumbered in battle. Of those men in the cornfield [at Antietam] probably not many had a coat or cap on, most assuredly not one with a ponderous blanket hanging around his neck. The artillerymen that day were stripped almost to the buff, and looked more like devils than men working in the battery smoke. So, Mr. Editor, if you desire to convey an idea to the generations that have and are growing up since those days, please forbear loading down American soldiers with all their supposed belongings in such engagements as was Antietam, especially on so warm a day as was that 17th of September, 1862." [
National Tribune, 10-22-1908.]
Despite Mr. Calkins' artistic criticism, the trend perhaps continues.
General Sherman, just returned from the Meridian campaign: a soiled vest, suggesting little in the way of coat buttoning...
G.W. Childs recalled after the war...
Grant was right. During the Atlanta campaign, General Sherman was described generally in a gray flannel shirt, with or without a faded blouse. The latter evidently unbuttoned...
In 1881, while General-in-chief of the Army, General Sherman approved the famous US Army standard blue flannel shirts for fatigue wear without the blouse...
General Meade was evidently slightly more fastidious....
Here's a notice of General Meagher leading the Irish Brigade into action in the Peninsula in 1862:
His men similarly undressed...
In Lee's army, the generals customarily wore only shirts in warm weather, from General Hagood:
General Jackson's shirt-sleeves were no impediment to drill at least...
And General A.P. Hill did a good bit of fighting in his shirt-sleeves...
According to Colonel Fremantle, neither Generals Lee nor Bragg cared particularly how their troops dressed, as long as their guns were clean and they did their duty.
Supposedly, as an amusing anecdote goes, even President Lincoln appreciated men of practical sagacity in warm weather...
Bringing the