what is a bootie?

[johncla]

I'm reading Kent Masterson Brown's "Meade at Gettysburg", and inserted in the description of supply problems suffered by Meade's army are many references to booties. I don't know what a bootie is.

I look it up online and see it is a common item of current fashionable apparel, both male and female. Ha ha ha. Likely this is not the same item Meade is asking his quartermaster for.

Were these maybe a kind of heavy sock? Or are they just common heavy-duty footwear for infantry?

 

[Nathan Stuart]

'Booties' (or 'Bootees') might be another name for brogan footwear - standard issue ankle-high boots/shoes worn by soldiers. (See https://emergingcivilwar.com/2022/04/07/on-the-march-a-few-notes-on-shoes-boots/ ).

Believe it's an informal soldiers' word/term for a high sided laced boot or shoe - the word may have origins dating back to the 18th. century.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Additional reading with more info -

M

Thread 'use of pegged booties and boots by the Union Army.'

Aug 7, 2019

While researching other subject I found an on line article that seems to state that 40% of the shoes used by the Union Army were pegged instead of sewn. This seems a bit high to me. Were 40% of the Union booties pegged?

Facts about Original Civil War Shoes | Fugawee

Before the war, almost all army shoes were made at Susquehanna Arsenal. The pieces were cut out in the arsenal and then "farmed out" to independent workers who put them together in their homes on piecework basis It was the same system that was used for uniforms. Historically, shoe uppers always...

www.fugawee.com

I do understand that the pegging machine made pegged shoes cheaper than shoes with sewn soles. Still this web site would need to provide better documentation to get me to believe the 40%

• major bill
• Replies: 2
• Forum: Relic Hunting & Collecting

• 

M

Thread 'Brogans or Jefferson booties?'

Jan 8, 2017

I was wondering the most common term Civil War soldiers used for their foot wear. When I have read letters it seems the term shoes or Army shoes were used, I do occasionally see the term booties. Modern reenactors use the term Brogans but was this term commonly used during the Civil War?

Was the term Monticello used much? Was the term Balmoral shoe used?
I have seen books that use the term Blucher booties used.
Also tall boots without laces were called Wellington boots, and top boots.

• major bill
• Replies: 10
• Forum: Relic Hunting & Collecting