In a message dated 2/16/06 11:56:53 PM GMT Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> The problem with CW uniforms, in the south especially, is that > a lot of men went to war with whatever clothing their wife sent them > with. Sorry, but that's untrue, although it's an incredibly commonly believed myth, and one of my pet hates about re-enactment. During the very, very early part of the war it would have been accurate, but only for a matter of months, until clothing supply and issue was sorted out. And during the latter part of the war, uniforms may have become ragged, but they'd still have been uniforms (I've done quite a lot of research on acw uniforms for work, helped greatly by assorted people with access to the original stuff (and state records) in the states - plus of course, there's Don Troiani's fabulous books). Both the Confederate and Union armies were issued with clothing - true, the pattern and quality varied - true, it wasn't always regulation - true, it may have been badly fitting, due to the fairly common practise of marking up the sizes by suppliers so they could get more money for using less cloth, and true, it was augmented by clothing sent from home, and by a large number of privately purchased garments, (and true, union soldiers used to jump up and down on their hats so they could wear their own), but you only have to look at original photographs to realise that the uniform supply was hugely successful, on both sides, at least until the very later stages of the war. They don't look like a 'raggle-taggle band' - they look like an army. And it wasn't until the later stages of the war that things were really cut off - for example, a number of button manufacturers in the northern states, (at least one of which is still in existence (waterbury)), made buttons for both armies, supplying the Confederacy by shipping them to England, and employing blockade runners. A couple of English companies, (eg Firmans), did the same thing. This is confirmed by the company archives. Apparently, Hainsworths in Leeds also supplied both sides with woollen fabrics in a similar manner (archives again.) Anyway - getting off the soapbox :-), the county cloth patterns are based on originals (I've never used them personally, as they're for private use only, and I cut my own anyway, but I believe they're quite straight forward). Debbie _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
