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  • "Fit" Question

    Friends, to begin with, might I get the formalities out in front:

    1. Search completed
    2. References of many sorts consulted, to no avail
    3. Please be gentle, no bayonets requested

    With respect to another thread dealing with fitting and "do/make do/do without" (which I think is a great, concise way to explain it) I have a question on my Confederate (Eastern) Enlisted appearance.

    I have a RDII from Ms. Nall, as well as a set of RD pants from her - they are swell. I got my pants large because it's good to have a "not so tapered/tight on the rear" appearance and well, I ordered them and later, lost weight. Jacket fits fine. What's the deal then?

    RDII jackets are shorter than modern jackets (duh) and the pants come up to the naval just fine. Problem is....a 31 waist in 34 waisted trousers creates for some excess that "leaks" out when the jacket is buttoned. Add a tightened belt with cap pouch and you can imagine that my trousers' waist pokes out in places, generally at the front button.

    Has anyone come across any photos of CS soldiers standing, which reveals the same issue? All the photos I've seen seem to show CS enlisted soldiers w/o this problem - though, it seems most of the guys are sitting.

    I make do just fine, but I am simply curious as to whether or not the "boys" had similar issues documented in photos or writing?

    Respectfully, I yield to the learned-
    -Mike Montgomery
    [FONT=Arial][B]Mike Montgomery[/B][FONT=Arial]
    [/FONT]
    [/FONT]

  • #2
    Re: "Fit" Question

    If you are at all handy with needle and thread, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to open the outside seams of the trousers and bring them in a bit. You would of course need to alter the pants waist band as well. This isn't too major an operation(made all the more possible with the RD trouser's mule ear pockets, rather than the side seam variety), and certainly Ms. Nall's garments are worth the effort.
    I think that we have all seen period photos of soldiers with trousers AT LEAST a couple of sized too big, and read accounts of soldiers "cutting their way out" of their issue uniforms,if it comes to that, anyway. Good luck.
    Last edited by Michael Semann; 02-11-2004, 07:45 PM.
    Michael Semann
    AC Staff Member Emeritus.

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    • #3
      Re: "Fit" Question

      Wear a belt to hold you trousers up, vice suspenders.

      It's common for the period, and it works.
      Brian Hicks
      Widows' Sons Mess

      Known lately to associate with the WIG and the Armory Guards

      "He's a good enough fellow... but I fear he may be another Alcibiades."

      “Every man ever got a statue made of him was one kinda sumbitch or another. It ain’t about you. It’s about what THEY need.”CAPTAIN MALCOLM REYNOLDS

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      • #4
        Re: "Fit" Question

        Here's another solution:

        Detach the waistband, cut and sew back together to fit. Next put darts at top of each rear panel, then re-attach waistband to trowsers. I believe Mr. Daley had a pair of C.S. Artillery trowsers he photographed from Gettysburg posted on the forums recently that had similar alterations/construction.

        John Sweeney

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        • #5
          Re: "Fit" Question

          It's very authentic for clothes not to fit just perfect. They were issued and you took what was given. Maybe traded around with your mates in camp until you got something closer to your actual fit. When all avenues were exhausted, there you were. What to do? Well, take the buttons off the fly and move them in.(or out, whatever the case may be) I'd do that before I started cutting and made a sow's ear out of a silk purse.

          I hope that helps.


          Mark Berrier
          North State Rifles
          combinations@northstate.net
          Mark Berrier

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          • #6
            Re: "Fit" Question

            Mark,
            Where'd you find another "tall drink of water" to trade coverings with?? :D
            [FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium]David Chinnis[/FONT]
            Palmetto Living History Association
            [url]www.morrisisland.org[/url]

            [i]"We have captured one fort--Gregg--and one charnel house--Wagner--and we have built one cemetery, Morris Island. The thousand little sand-hills that in the pale moonlight are a thousand headstones, and the restless ocean waves that roll and break on the whitened beach sing an eternal requiem to the toll-worn gallant dead who sleep beside."

            Clara Barton
            October 11, 1863[/i]

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            • #7
              Re: "Fit" Question

              David, Sergeant Peter Jones, Company I, 45th NC Troops, was only 6'5" tall.

              See him here:



              ...and, he survived the war.

              Where do you think all the terms like "long shanks" came from?

              Lincoln- 6'4".
              Heros Von Borcke- 6'4"

              There is also a whole company from North Carolina known to be over 6 feet tall.

              Also a famous drawing of two Union soldiers, brothers I believe, that were about 6'8" tall.

              Not only that, but there are several historic men that were tall.

              Peter The Great was 6'7".

              BTW, do you still have that mullett?

              Mark Berrier :)
              Mark Berrier

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              • #8
                Re: "Fit" Question

                Moving the button location works up to a point. If the trousers are 2 or 3 sizes too large or greater, you will have to start taking in some seams (or your button fly might well end up in your pocket! :tounge_sm )


                By the way Enfilade, if you want to see a real biggun, take a look at this:
                Pvt. Martin Van Buren Bates
                5th KY Inf. C.S.A.
                Almost 8 ft. tall.
                Last edited by Michael Semann; 02-15-2004, 06:35 AM.
                Michael Semann
                AC Staff Member Emeritus.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: "Fit" Question

                  Hallo Kameraden!

                  Indeed, Captain Bates lived down the road from me, although his oversized house was torn down a few years ago.

                  Accounts vary on his height- from 7' 8" or 7' 9". (His wife is credited at 7' 11", but it may have been her added hair height they measured...) ;-)



                  Curt-Heinrich Schmidt
                  Curt Schmidt
                  In gleichem Schritt und Tritt, Curt Schmidt

                  -Hard and sharp as flint...secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.
                  -Haplogroup R1b M343 (Subclade R1b1a2 M269)
                  -Pointless Folksy Wisdom Mess, Oblio Lodge #1
                  -Vastly Ignorant
                  -Often incorrect, technically, historically, factually.

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                  • #10
                    Re: "Fit" Question

                    Heck Mark,
                    I have a whole basket full of mullet! Last shell that hit that infernal ironclad skipped into the works threw a whole school into the bombproof!!
                    DC
                    Mullet? Me? :tounge_sm
                    [FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium]David Chinnis[/FONT]
                    Palmetto Living History Association
                    [url]www.morrisisland.org[/url]

                    [i]"We have captured one fort--Gregg--and one charnel house--Wagner--and we have built one cemetery, Morris Island. The thousand little sand-hills that in the pale moonlight are a thousand headstones, and the restless ocean waves that roll and break on the whitened beach sing an eternal requiem to the toll-worn gallant dead who sleep beside."

                    Clara Barton
                    October 11, 1863[/i]

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: "Fit" Question

                      Originally posted by Curt-Heinrich Schmidt
                      Hallo Kameraden!

                      Indeed, Captain Bates lived down the road from me, although his oversized house was torn down a few years ago.

                      Accounts vary on his height- from 7' 8" or 7' 9". (His wife is credited at 7' 11", but it may have been her added hair height they measured...) ;-)



                      Curt-Heinrich Schmidt
                      Right you are Curt: Here is another copy of that photo of Bates and his wife taken well after the war. This is taken from the book OFFBEAT KENTUCKIANS by Kevin McQueen. They were listed as 7' 2" and 7' 5" respectfully in his book.
                      Thank God he wasn't mortally hit on the field of battle; I would truly pity those who had to drag his "robust" frame off of the battlefield! And no quartermaster issue for this reb.
                      Attached Files
                      Last edited by Michael Semann; 02-15-2004, 06:26 PM.
                      Michael Semann
                      AC Staff Member Emeritus.

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