New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

[Dan Wambaugh]

Gents,

We have just returned from our trip to the Family Heirloom Weavers mill and are able to offer you some very exciting new products straight from their looms!


We are pleased to announce that we are now carrying NEW blue-gray kersey wool blankets. These blankets are made from an outstanding Family Heirloom Weavers kersey that has been sponged and decaded, but not fulled and pressed, with the result being a very visible weave and an extra wide width!

The lightweight blankets are over 6 feet long and 60 inches wide. Each comes with a small skein of logwood thread to sew up the ends if you so choose. Or for an additional $15.00 we will sew up the ends for you!

Quantities are VERY limited (FHW is not making this material anymore) so jump on it quick!

Blue gray kersey CS/Civilian blanket $80.00 kit or $95.00 with hand sewn ends.



(The pictures make this material appear much bluer than it is. It is very much predominantly gray.)


CS Striped Tape Cantee Slings $22.00
Made from an exclusive striped Family Heirloom Weavers red, white, and black tape, our striped CS canteen slings have ORIGINAL buckles, (please specify if you want japanned or non-japanned buckles when ordering.)




Act now! Supplies are very limited and once they're gone that is all there is ever going to be! As always shipping is included in all of our prices!

[GreencoatCross]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

Deleted! Sorry, used the forum for personal communication.

Brian White
Wambaugh, White, & Co.

[Rebbeh]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

Dan,

I just received your blanket (and haversack) in the mail. The blanket, although scratchy (but that'll change with as little as 1 events use ;) ) is awesome. Your pictures don't do it justice. It is a very well weaved material, and will be a great summerweight blanket. Can't wait to bring it to the field. Another thumbs up for you. Thanks for the great product, and service. The shipment was extremely fast.

[C.R. Henderson]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

Ty,
I concur! And the turnaround time on my blanket kit totally blew my mind (since I caught Dan right before he left for the post office!) I've already got it stitched up and am rearing to take it with me to the Kennesaw LH at the end of this month. It kept the icy chill from my air conditioner off as I worked on the ends! ;) WW&Co. will continue to recv. my business!

[Rebbeh]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

i'm not the greatest seamster out there, so i'm leaving mine unbound. the ends are already fuzzy (quick dip soaked in cold water, then stuck in my dryer with no heat for 10 minutes, just because it's new material and i got sensitive skin), and it won't be unravelling anytime soon. got it all nice and squared away into a blanketroll, which i can't wait to bring out to my next event. i ordered it Wednesday, and it arrived today (Saturday). That is excellent turn around time! :) Dan is definately one of the best to deal with.

[Citizen_Soldier]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

Greetings,
Would anyone be willing share documentation of Blue/Gray Kersey being used as blanket material by confederates or blankets of this type being common among the citizen population?

Thank you,
Darrek Orwig

[Dan Wambaugh]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

Darrek,

The material is a simple twilled woolen good, a kersey that because of it being half finished (sponged and decaded but not napped or pressed) is unfortunately unsuitable for the production of garments, just the kind of woolen good that is used to make blankets.

I know of a handful of British import blankets in a similar blue-gray color with indigo-dyed end stripes, but those are much more heavily finished than this material. Additionally, this past weekend I was able to examine a blue-gray federal issue blanket with brown end stripes and a PAINTED "US" in the middle. This particular animal I never even thought existed before I pulled it out of a drawer and it slapped me in the face.

I am personally unaware of any existing original blankets of this precise configuration surviving today, but I know of (and own) several original blankets of the same appearance, (one piece bodies with hand sewn ends and made of rough twill woven material) and know that blue-gray yarns were available to and used for blankets by both sides during the war, so I figured this is a good use for an otherwise unusable material.

Hope this helps!


Best Regards,

[Citizen_Soldier]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

Greetings,
I don't know if I would really be comfortable claiming that the piece is a CS/Civilian blanket. With no known extant originals or civilian examples with provenance from the Rebellion period or before, how can this be identified as a good purchase for those wishing to authentically portray a soldier/civilian during the mid 19th century?

With being an "approved vendor" I feel there comes a great responsibility of offering true reproductions of documented artifacts. Many customers have never had an opportunity to handle original material culture and they are trusting that the product purchased with thier hard earned money is a true reproduction of a historical artifact, not a fantasy creation based on conjecture.

This isn't meant to be a personal attack, but I'm just extremely disapointed that an offering like this from an "approved vendor" would be acceptable on this forum of all places.

For roughly the same price, an individual could actually purchase a good reproduction civilian coverlet or a documented reproduction of a confederate blanket.

Darrek Orwig

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

Mr. Orwig, at risk of jumping into the flame here, if you do any research at all on Confederate material culture, you will find a myriad of materials used for blanketing, up to and including wool kersey. To indict this offering as not being "documented" or authentic is being unreasonable, and I venture to add, just wrong. Several states, to include North Carolina and Florida, just two that I've done much research on, issued "cloth blankets" from whatever odd lots they had. Through speaking to Ben Tart, he relayed that the NC blankets would have been from whatever odd lots of wool or flannel that could be paneled together, and Florida produced blankets from the Monticello mills and others that were made of heavy osnaburgs, kerseys, etc. I can vouch for the veracity of Mr White and Mr Wambaugh, and they wouldn't offer a product that didn't come with tons of research and only the right materials.

[Chad Teasley]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

Mr. Orwig,

Like Mr. Lamoreaux, I have no desire to engage in any flame-throwing here, but I've had the pleasure of doing business with Mr. Wambaugh on several different occasions, and was delighted with the result every time. Therefore, I hope you won't think me rude in suggesting that concerns such as the ones you directed at him may be more appropriately handled via Private Message or e-mail, vice publicly aired on the forum.

No offense intended; just a recommendation.

[Citizen_Soldier]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

Ross,
I agree with you that there was an enormous variety of blankets used by the Confederate army, but could you provide documentaion to the widespread issue of those being produced from half finished Blue/Gray wool uniform cloth yardage?

I don't quite agree that the following written by Dan is what I would term "tons of research":

"I know of a handful of British import blankets in a similar blue-gray color with indigo-dyed end stripes, but those are much more heavily finished than this material. Additionally, this past weekend I was able to examine a blue-gray federal issue blanket with brown end stripes and a PAINTED "US" in the middle. This particular animal I never even thought existed before I pulled it out of a drawer and it slapped me in the face. I am personally unaware of any existing original blankets of this precise configuration surviving today, but I know of (and own) several original blankets of the same appearance, (one piece bodies with hand sewn ends and made of rough twill woven material) and know that blue-gray yarns were available to and used for blankets by both sides during the war, so I figured this is a good use for an otherwise unusable material."

It would be the same as me arguing that since some Confederate jackets were made from english kersey and since the "Columbus Depot" pattern jacket was around during the war...it would be completely acceptable to offer a reproduction Columbus Depot in english kersey, even though no originals of this configuration exist.

With so many other options out there, why would anyone go with something based on conjecture?

Darrek Orwig

[coastaltrash]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

This forum was created for the exchange of ideas in the advancement of our side of the hobby. Further, any reenactor can question a maker and by doing so is simply not falling into the category of accepting something is authentic because maker A said so. Now that is not saying anything against Dan or the products he and Brian sell, but to attack someone for asking a question or some documentation that some of us have looked over is just ridiculous.

[Dan Wambaugh]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

Darrek,

I think you bring up a very valid point. In a nutshell, I am personally not a person that agrees with the idea that every garment and item available today needs to be specifically documented. Taking blankets as a good and obvious example, how many T.V. Brookes can we have out there carrying the excellent Waterside Woolens reproduction? We know there is a surviving example of this blanket, Brooke was kind enough to save all of his final issue items and donate them to the MoC after the war, but how appropriate is this blanket for someone who is not portraying someone in the ANV at the very end of the war, or even someone portraying Brooke himself? We know he carried a blanket of this exact manufacture, but did anyone else? The very idea that anyone other than Brooke carried that exact blanket in anything but the last campaign of the ANV is conjecture in itself.

For me personally, the more I study original artifacts the more I come to understand that it is impossible to pigeon-hole items into what is correct or incorrect based on what survives today. The unfortunate truth is that the overwhelming amount of surviving goods available today are from the last year of the war, and can give us an idea of what the armies looked like then only. To get a more accurate picture of their appearance in, say, the 2nd Bull Run campaign we must delve deeper into the written record of contemporaries because unfortunately surviving examples of the soldiers of the ANV at that specific time are almost non-existent today.

There is a certain amount of conjecture involved in reproducing any and every item for this hobby. Even well documented and perfectly reproduced items may have to have their use stretched to make them appropriate for a specific impression. Many of us have cringed when we flung off our sack coat after a long march and had that "Oct '64 J.T. Martin" stamp stare back at us, or had to do a bit of double talk when we decided to go CS to a living history but only had US leather goods to wear. Would these quality items be incorrect to wear at any time? Absolutely not. But are they always appropriate for every impression during every period of the war? Well of course not.

We each have to make our own decisions on what will be appropriate for a given impression, and more often than not event sponsors are kind enough to lay this out for us in the form of guidelines they themselves have researched and this makes our decision process very easy. Just the same, we shouldn't carry Corporal Brooke's blanket to Shiloh, but in the absence of surviving originals representing the various and sundry units that were present at the battle we must inevitably go to sources of information other than surviving originals to create an accurate picture of what the soldiers looked like at that particular time. We can't all portray Corporal Brooke, or Private Gilmore, or Private Schumpert (I would hate to see a Chickamauga living history where everyone shows up in ticking frock coats.)

It is a difficult line to walk between reproductions only of specific originals and the dreaded phrase "if they'd had it they would have used it!" The only way to stay away from either extreme is to research and study as many originals as possible, and go a step further into the paper documentation such as quartermaster returns and original diaries and letters to get an accurate picture of what was common at the time, and then work to represent these common items in reproductions.

My opinion certainly may not meet with your personal standards and beliefs in how you put together your impression, and no amount of words from me may change your mind, and I can certainly respect your different point of view. All I can suggest is that if a product does not meet your personal standards, don't purchase it. If you want to wear only reproductions based off of specific originals please do, we offer some of those too.

I always try to welcome discussion of my products and business practices, and if you have any further questions feel free to email me or call and I will be happy to discuss any and all concerns you may have.


Best Regards,

[Dan Wambaugh]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

All,

Wow, lots of posts since I began composing my last response, (I am admittedly slow to get my thoughts out.) Just to be clear I don't consider this a personal attack at all, instead it is simply the questioning of a potential customer of one of my products (whether or not Darrek ever purchases something from me, I feel everyone in the community is a potential customer and deserving of honest answers.)

I don't think that the analogy of the Columbus Depot jacket is quite fair, however. In the case of these jackets we know that thousands were produced, and we are fortunate enough to have over a half dozen examples surviving today all from different periods and areas of operation. This gives us an accurate sampling of what, where, and when a particular type of jacket would have been worn and by whom. There is no room for conjecture in terms of Columbus Depot jackets, because this is one of the few garments or items that we are fortunate enough to have a large knowledge base on which to draw. Most other items, including many federal goods, we are not lucky enough to have several examples from which to choose, and on those goods a different level of standards must apply.

In regard to the simple Richmond Depot "type II" jacket there are several surviving examples, all made from a myriad of different types of materials and with different construction techniques. Yet it is the standard in the hobby for living historians to make and wear RD "type II" jackets out of practically any jean, satinette, cassimere, or kersey material they can get their hands on. This is a widely accepted and permitted behavior. And why? Because the surviving originals show a myriad of materials used, and the photographic evidence supports the necessity for variety, and the scant remaining paper documentation further cements that a dizzying amount of different materials were used to produce these garments. Should we therefore limit ourselves to representing only the few of these jackets that by chance or luck managed to survive the post war period? Personally I feel that doing so would give us a very wrong impression of what the ANV looked like at any particular time.

To me, there is a large difference between garments and items that we have a wide pool off of which to base our reproductions, and others from which we only have a small number of examples that represent many different periods, theaters, and conditions during the war. I make a distinction between these categories of items, perhaps others do not.


Best,

[Private Longshanks]

Re: New CS/Civilian Blanket and CS Canteen Slings IN STOCK!

This MAY help:


This was posted by Ryan B. Weddle on the A/C Forum in 2003 regarding British Import blankets coming into NC in 1863:

Here is some of the info I dug out of the National Archives: Record Group 109 Chap. 5 Vol. 218:

Blankets Received by the Richmond Depot

From England: brought through blockade on steam Beauregard to Wilmington on November 26, 1863. Shipped to Richmond via Railroad:

#Bales Total Quantity Color Dimensions Weight (each)
3 142 Gray 68" x 85" Not noted
4 200 Blue Gray 56" X 80" Not noted
4 200 Blue Gray 56" x 85" Not noted
4 200 Blue Gray 58" x 82" Not noted
4 200 Brown Gray 58" x 82" Not noted
2 200 Gray Mackinaw 56" x 82" Not noted
2 300 Single Gray 56" x 84" 6 lbs
2 200 Brown Gray 56" x 78" 5 lbs
1 100 White Mackinaw 60" x 80" 5 lbs
1 100 White Mackinaw 56" x 84" 7 lbs
1 100 White mixed Mackinaw 56" x 78" 8 lbs
1 100 White mixed Mackinaw 56" x 78" 5.5 lbs
1 99 White mixed Mackinaw 56" x 78" 5.5 lbs
1 99 White mixed Mackinaw 60" x 80" 6.5 lbs
2 200 Blue Gray Mackinaw 56" x 78" 6 lbs
2 200 Blue Gray 56" x 78" 6 lbs

Total this shipment: 1,498 blankets

Also from one of Brian Koenig's previous posts:

Neill Rose discovered a perviously unknown blanket ID'd to Lt. Ebeneazer Stenhouse, Co. C, 2d SCVI. This blanket is in remarkable condition given its age. Lt. Stenhouse served up until March 13, 1862 when forced to resign due to lung complications from pneumonia. The blanket is of medium weight with dark indigo end stripes! on each side. The blanket is also one solid textile indicating it was machine woven. The yarn fibers conform to what is known as "cadet grey" or "English Army Cloth". Very, very close in color to the kersey examples. There are several holes along with moderate wear and soiling indicating some, yet limited, field use.