Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

[rpierson]

What is known about the production numbers & the issuance of the infantry jacket?

They strike me as kind of an elusive beast. They pop up in photos sporadically, but I have yet to see a photo of an entire company wearing them. They have been referred to as the "signal corps" jacket or the "veteran volunteer" jacket but I have yet to read anything that would support either of those titles as fact.

Also, Schuylkill arsenal gets credit for these jackets, but a J.T. Martin example popped up on one of the high end auction sites recently. This particular jacket had staff buttons added to it, but appeared to be a standard infantry jacket in all other aspects.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone would be willing to shed some light on the subject.



Cheers,
Randall Pierson

[Lewis Robinson]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

http://www.wwandcompany.com/index.php/us-items/sa-jackets

[Dbackfed]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

It seems like this type of jacket gets lumped into the "State Jacket" catagory too much and is never allowed for mid/late war events. Look at pictures from Lookout Mountain and Atlanta and you'll see them all over.

[rpierson]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone would be willing to shed some light on the subject.

Let me rephrase that. If anyone has real research/ photos they'd be willing to share, I'd be very interested to see it.

A casual search of late war images in the LoC collection yields many photos of soldiers sporting them. I don't doubt that they were used, I'd just be interested to find out in what numbers & in what capacity. You'll commonly see entire companies in blouses, frocks or state jackets. I have only found a couple images in which more than 1 person is wearing the Infantry jacket.

-Randall Pierson

[jwoodli]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

Don't know if you've already come across this characteristically helpful article from the Lazy Jacks Mess on the subject of Federal shell jackets of many types, including the SA infantry jacket, but I found it useful in a recent project.

http://www.lazyjacks.org.uk/shelljk1.htm

[Huck]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

If you go to http://www.cjdaley.com/1864QMreport.htm " Excerpts from the Quartermaster General's annual report for the year ending June 30, 1864 "
and look at the tables you will see "Uniform jackets" as well as the term Uniform jackets: Infantry . In the second table, you will seem more jackets were issued that coats , unknown if this is all three branches or just infantry jackets.

[M.T. Moses]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

Playing devil's advocate for a moment. One must remember that when looking at reports of stock, for any given clothing and equipment depot, these are the items on hand at the depot NOT items issued to soldiers in the field.

Just my .02, which isn't worth much!

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

I feel that they may have been an attempt at a cheeper more stylish replacement for the dress coat. That is just my gut feeling others milage may vary.

[GreencoatCross]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

Also interesting is that some infantrymen turned their blouses and frocks into jackets, or drew mounted jackets. I don't know if this was done because infantry jackets were not available at the time, or because they simply weren't aware of the option.

[rpierson]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

Yeah, it really seems that though they were produced in numbers large enough to make an impact, they don't appear as often as you might think based on some of the #'s from Daley's site. 300,000 (+ or -) jackets in '64 is not a TON when compared to the #'s of blouses etc. produced, but you'd think that would be enough to pop up in photos more often. Perhaps there is an Inf. unit's clothing report that says something like ..."200 jackets, untrimmed" or something. Of course, finding info like that would be a stroke of luck. They were certainly out there, but is it safe to say they were kinda-sorta "rare"?

Randall Pierson

[Huck]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

My whole point in pointing that was was to show the productions numbers. Like everything else tons more research is required.

[Ian M.]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

Is anyone making a good SA Infantry Jacket today?

[Pvt. Shattuck]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

Andrew Kasmar, Beauregards Tailor

[csuniforms]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

If you look at Todd's American Military Equippage or find the photo of the 17th Illinois Infantry wearing jackets-- in the 17th's clothing book is a request to buy "infantry" jackets if desired-- these cost a little more--

Tom Arliskas
CSuniforms

[cjc]

Re: Schuylkill Arsenal infantry jacket.

I saw in some artical a while back (can't remember were for the life of me) that some soldiers cut the skirt off of their frocks. This might explain why a photo of a whole group of them wearing infantry jackets is rare. The frock coat skirt does seem likely to get in the way somtimes. Mabey most of the photos are of cut down frocks, and not jackets made that way? Just an idea.