Uniforms Is this A Schuylkill Arsenal Jacket?

[CyleKostello]

Been staring at this ruby ambrotype (photo 1) for a while, trying to ID the jacket but I think I've got it figured out. Wanted to run it by our experts.

I *think* he's wearing a Schuylkill Arsenal jacket based on the number of buttons, and single collar button. What throws me is the fact that he's missing cuff buttons. While researching I found one CDV (photo 2) of a (possible) Ohio soldier with the same style collar, and this photo (3) of a SA jacket that sold at a dealer a little while back.

So what say y'all Schuylkill Arsenal or something else?

 

[RedRover]

Whether the jackets worn came from Schuylkill arsenal or not is debatable. The army regulations did not specify an untrimmed single-breasted jacket for any branch. The regulation jackets for officers, and mounted service enlisted men called for jackets...

Schuylkill produced the army's basic clothing, including:

and during the war vast numbers of these jackets were also produced by contractors.

I have yet to see any evidence the federal facility at Schuylkill produced plain jackets, without cavalry or artillery trim, other than the above regulation types, in any quantity.

Anyways,
Union soldiers in the light artillery and cavalry, both regular army and volunteer, were issued such jackets, trimmed with red and yellow; and not infrequently modified them by removing the colored trim, and lowering the collars, etc. This was evidently done personally, as no regulation required it.

Here's a Colorado Cavalryman with a mounted service jacket, with the colored trim removed:

From Troiani's "Regiments and Uniforms of the Civil War" p. 180:

the modifications were various. Some removed the colored trim entirely. Others kept some. Some kept a single fales buttonhole loop of lace on the collar, and others removed both.

I suspect in the images you have posted, some of the chaps have removed the lace on the shortened collar, but left a single button, or with a loop, etc.

Michael Cunningham's article, " Federal Soldier Modifications of Civil War issue Uniforms, Pasrt2: Is the Federal Issue Infantry Uniform Jacket a Civil War Myth," in Military Collector & Historian, vol. 72, no. 4, Winter 2020 regards this subject in some detail.

Some discussion of this practice here:
Signal Corps/Schuylkill Arsenal Jackets: CivilWarTalk

 

[Package4]

Whether the jackets worn came from Schuylkill arsenal or not is debatable. The army regulations did not specify an untrimmed single-breasted jacket for any branch. The regulation jackets for officers, and mounted service enlisted men called for jackets...

Schuylkill produced the army's basic clothing, including:

View attachment 472932
View attachment 472933

and during the war vast numbers of these jackets were also produced by contractors.
View attachment 472938

I have yet to see any evidence the federal facility at Schuylkill produced plain jackets, without cavalry or artillery trim, other than the above regulation types, in any quantity.

Anyways,
Union soldiers in the light artillery and cavalry, both regular army and volunteer, were issued such jackets, trimmed with red and yellow; and not infrequently modified them by removing the colored trim, and lowering the collars, etc. This was evidently done personally, as no regulation required it.

Here's a Colorado Cavalryman with a mounted service jacket, with the colored trim removed:
View attachment 472935

From Troiani's "Regiments and Uniforms of the Civil War" p. 180:

View attachment 472936

the modifications were various. Some removed the colored trim entirely. Others kept some. Some kept a single fales buttonhole loop of lace on the collar, and others removed both.

View attachment 472937

I suspect in the images you have posted, some of the chaps have removed the lace on the shortened collar, but left a single button, or with a loop, etc.

Michael Cunningham's article, " Federal Soldier Modifications of Civil War issue Uniforms, Pasrt2: Is the Federal Issue Infantry Uniform Jacket a Civil War Myth," in Military Collector & Historian, vol. 72, no. 4, Winter 2020 regards this subject in some detail.

Some discussion of this practice here:
Signal Corps/Schuylkill Arsenal Jackets: CivilWarTalk

As I recall this started with an existing piece and it might even have been in Dr. Mike's collection? The piece was a Schuylkill Arsenal jacket with no trim and was thought to be made that way, later it was determined the trim had been removed. We can ask @Dr.Mike and get the answer right from the source. I know that the signal corp had jackets made to this pattern with no trim.

 

[RedRover]

As I recall this started with an existing piece and it might even have been in Dr. Mike's collection? The piece was a Schuylkill Arsenal jacket with no trim and was thought to be made that way, later it was determined the trim had been removed. We can ask @Dr.Mike and get the answer right from the source. I know that the signal corp had jackets made to this pattern with no trim.

The Signal Corps men, 1863-65, were detailed from other units, principally volunteer units:

A historian of the Signal Corps, veteran Joseph Willard Brown, noted that unlike any Union Army regiment in the war, which had a "uniform" etc., the Signal Corps was composed of detachments...

And in Signal Corps service, in the field, were mounted.

Finally, as was noted in a history of the Signal Corps during the War by Mr. Brown, he noted the enlisted men "quite" commonly did not bother to draw army clothing allowances, but dressed better by private purchases... (at least in garrison etc.)

He notes that at Fort Monroe earlier in the war, before the distinctive cross-flags insignia for enlisted men was adopted in late 1864, the Signal Corps privates, in their fancy duds, frequently passed sentrys who assumed they were officers...

I have yet to see proof of a distinctive regulation "uniform" for signal corps in the period, beyond their common sleeve insignia of crossed flags on the detailed men. Like volunteer troops generally, they appear to have dressed as they pleased within limits, and as noted above frequently better than enlisted Union soldiers generally. And being generally mounted, that they dressed something like the cavalry is not odd. Their jackets could be procured from sutlers, military tailors (regulations allowed mounted officers to wear untrimmed blue jackets), or they might draw a regulation artillery or cavalry jacket and have it modified or tailored as they preferred, (trim removed, etc.)... In the latter case, they might be Schuylkill arsenal produced jackets so modified.

At City Point, VA, in late 1864, there were clothing shops for the officers and soldiers, besides the vast quartermaster stores...

 

[Package4]