- Joined
- Aug 25, 2012
My Winter 2020 issue of the Military Collector & Historian 'Journal of the Company of Military Historians' arrived today. The most interesting looking article is Federal Soldier Modifications of Civil War issue Uniforms, Pasrt2: Is the Federal Issue Infantry Uniform Jacket a Civil War Myth by Michael R. Cunningham, Ph.D. The article is 22 pages long and has many photographs of soldiers wearing jackets as well as surviving jackets usually front, back, and interior. Dr. Cunningham breaks these in to 6 types with the types broken down in to sub types. I look forward to seeing what Dr. Cunningham has to say and can certainly use his chart to help know what kind of jacket an infantry man is wearing in period photographs.
So even before I read the article I was wondering what the current view of the modified of issued coats and jackets. How common were these modifications? Some soldiers privately purchased jackets from tailors and there are articles about these 'veteran jackets'. With tailors making whatever a soldier was willing to pay for, there must be a huge number of variants. A second issue would be if company tailors modified issued uniforms, there must be untold variants based on the skill of the company tailor and how much work he was willing to do.
So even before I read the article I was wondering what the current view of the modified of issued coats and jackets. How common were these modifications? Some soldiers privately purchased jackets from tailors and there are articles about these 'veteran jackets'. With tailors making whatever a soldier was willing to pay for, there must be a huge number of variants. A second issue would be if company tailors modified issued uniforms, there must be untold variants based on the skill of the company tailor and how much work he was willing to do.