Is it post Civil War?

[major bill]

When the Civil War ended the U.S. Army had huge numbers of unissued uniforms. The Army did not simply discard them but issued then in the 1866--1871 period. when we are asked to ID a uniform, how do we know it is not one of these post Civil War issued uniforms? The truth is if they were left un altered we can simply not tell. For example in 1866 there were 1,388,645 sack coats in storage. That is a whole lot of sack coats. This book shows the most common post war conversions of Union frock coats, shell jackets and sack coats. Although other books discuss some of the conversions this is one of the few books that list the most common field conversions.

 

[major bill]

One example to look for is 2 or 3 button on the sleeves of the standard issue federal sack coat. The addition of these buttons is a warning sign that the sack coat is probably a post war issue with the buttons added in the field. Also if the sack coat has been shortened to make it the length of a shell jacket, you have to be suspicious.

 

[thomas aagaard]

What you are basically saying is that we need to know where a specific coat came from to know if it was actually used during the war?

Otherwise we can only "prove" that it was not used...

 

[major bill]

What I am saying is that a photograph taken in 1867 after the war will probably show a soldier wearing a Uniform made during the Civil War. I can I tell if it is a Civil War photo or a post civil War photo? In many cases I simply can not tell as the men would be wearing the exact same uniform. However adding buttons to the sleeves of the sack coat was relatively rare during the Civil War but much more common in the 1866-1872 era. A soldier in the field just found extra button and put them on his sleeves. So if a photo shows the standard issue Civil War sack coat with added buttons on the sleeve, I assume it might be post Civil War.

It was rare for a Civil War mounted man to cut his sack coat short and make it a loose mounted jacket. However cavalrymen in the west after the Civil War were often issued sack coat out of storage and it was not uncommon for them to cut the sack coat down and wear it like a loose shell jacket.

Other than these field modifications it is real hard to know if a photo is from the Civil War or from the time right after the Civil War. One thing you can do is to try to ID the back drop that used when the photo was taken.

 

[redbob]

The Army never throws anything away, they just give it to the Marine Corps.

 

[Package4]

Sack coats were in use all of the way into WWII, I can not corroborate, but heard stories from both ex POWs and guards at Ft DuPont in Delaware, that the Africa Korps prisoners held there were given surplus ACW & IW sack coats with PW in white on the back. The US Postal Service also was issued surplus sack coats from the ACW prior to their formal uniform regulations, which were published in 1868.