Uniforms South Carolina uniforms.

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Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
I received my latest issue and there are a couple interesting articles related to the Civil War. I will have to reread Ron Fields article and see is there is any new information Mr. Field did not include in his Osprey Publishing book on the subject. Mr. Field does include color photographs of the front and back of three South Carolina issued uniforms.

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This article, Clothing the Confederate Soldiers of South Carolina 1861-1865, by Ron Field seems to mostly follow the information in Ron Field's Osprey Men-at-Arms book The Confederate Army 1861-65 (1) South Carolina & Mississippi. The color photographs showing the front and back of the uniforms worn by Cpl. James Hayne Bomar (Washington Light Infantry Volunteers) and Pvt. James Wiley Gibson (Orangenburg Artillery) are a nice addition.

So my first question if these two uniforms were made by Industrial School for Girls who had 59 women using 32 sewing machines to make clothing to include coats, trousers, shirts and underwear. To me this seems like a high percentage of sewing machines to workers. A certain number of workers would have had to cut out the uniforms and do sewing that could not be done by sewing machines, so does 32 sewing machines for 59 workers seem high?
 
Understand, sewing machines of that era were a time saver, but were't as fast as modern machines. Furthermore, the machines of that day did't have lockstitch capabilities at the beginning and end of the stitch run, so operators would have to hand tie the threads to keep them from unraveling... quite time consuming.

While I can't speak for the machine / worker ratios, keep in mind that there were probably a number of unrecorded servants there as well, who would have undoubtedly been performing a lot of hand work as well.
 
"...the machines of that day did't have lockstitch capabilities at the beginning and end of the stitch run, so operators would have to hand tie the threads to keep them from unraveling... quite time consuming..."

It is true that period machines (with the exception of some models made by the Florence Sewing Machine Company) could not sew in reverse. However, it's easy to "lock down" the ends of a line of stitching without reversing. Specifically:

- Sew a short distance, then raise the needle above the work. Raise the presser foot. Reset the needle and sew over the first few stitches

- OR -

- Leave the needle in the fabric. Raise the presser foot. Turn the work 180 degrees, lower the foot and sew back over the stitches you just made.

You can also do this with a modern machine, and IMO it does a neater job than reversing!
 
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