Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

[Bryan_C]

Hello,

I'm helping a friend put together an impression of Lew Wallace for a small event. His kit will be based on this photograph (see attached). Just wondering, can anyone tell if this is a officer's sack coat with staff muffin top buttons or a enlisted sack with muffin buttons?

Thanks.

[RobertDickson_18thMO]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

http://www.ushist.com/american_civil_war/union_us_military/uniforms/q-0404_cw_junior_officers_shell-jacket-us.shtml

The attached link shows a Junior officers coat, if you look the collar is stiff and does not bend over.
It can then be assumed that the one he is wearing in your photo is a sack coat with muffin buttons. I am no expert however so if someone else with wider knowledge could say then it might clarify it better.

- Robert Dickson

[CompanyWag]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

Unfortunately it is a heavily retouched photo, so some details have been obscured as well as the texture of the cloth. That said, I feel pretty certain he is wearing an officer-quality private purchase blouse, AKA "commercial blouse" with staff buttons. The cut of the collar does not look like an enlisted blouse to me. It probably has some outside pockets and would hang longer on the body than an enlisted sack coat.

[RobertDickson_18thMO]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

I agree, forgot to mention it could be a private purchase blouse.
This is the problem with these photos.

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

I'll add another vote for the private purchase sack. It is a pretty safe bet.

[CompanyWag]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

On a somewhat related note, it has often been written that Grant wore a "private's blouse" at Appomatox with shoulder straps, but physical evidence points to a commercial blouse being worn instead. I think that "private's blouse" simply meant a sack coat rather than an officer's frock. Whether a sack coat was bought from quartermaster stocks intended for the rank and file or privately purchased from a military goods dealer was of secondary importance to observers during the period. I also think the term "commercial blouse" or "commercial sack coat" is a modern term to help clarify details important to collectors and reenactors obsessed with such things.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

Grant himself stated in his Memoirs that he "wore a soldier's blouse for a coat" and, as a one-time quartermaster, he probably meant what he said. That doesn't mean he didn't wear a commercial sack coat on other occasions, and the tone he uses suggests that he might have put something nicer on had he realized how near the end was.

There are several photos on the LOC site that show officers, including generals, wearing what are either issue blouses or pretty shabby versions of commercial sacks, though often with the top button or two undone and the front folded back like lapels.

Here's Humphreys on the Peninsula in 1862, for example:

https://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003004740/PP/

And here's Heintzelman and his staff at about the same time:

https://www.loc.gov/item/99472317/

In this one from 1863 or later General Griffin wears an odd looking sack with two external pockets -- it looks like an issue blouse with room to hold a couple of Bren magazines. His staff includes one man in a jacket, four commercial sacks, a couple of wht appear to be issue blouses, and something that could be a frock or another jacket:

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.34087/

Finally, there's this shot of General Bartlett and his staff, probably at the end of the war, just kicking it. Nothing that looks issue here, but a nice variety of commercial items, including straw hats and civilian trousers:

https://www.loc.gov/item/cwp2003006361/PP/

All that aside, I agree with the recommendations concerning a commercial sack for the aspiring General Wallace. All those other fellows knew what they could get away with as real generals -- an impersonator ought to try a little harder... :)

[CompanyWag]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

Great photo references. Thanks for posting them.

That Grant owned a commercial sack coat is evidenced by the wartime one passed down through the Hillyer family and now residing in Texas. Whether it is the one he wore at Appomattox is entirely open to speculation. The owner states that since Julia Dent Grant had his other wartime uniforms cut up for souvenirs, that this existing example may have had a special significance. It may be wishful thinking on his behalf. I certainly don't know, but this is the physical evidence (not proof) I was alluding to.

That Grant in his own words referred to wearing a "private's blouse" does not strike me as absolute proof it was a government issue blouse. Even privates purchased commercial sack coats late in the war, but I have yet to see a period reference to them buying "officer's blouses". Its kind of akin to asking a WW2 Marine if he wore P41 or P44 utilities. More often than not they'd respond "I dunno, we wore dungarees".

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

Need to dig through my reference material...
But I recall a reference of an order for “more comfortable” blouses being ordered for grant and his staff. I think it also referenced velvet collars.

[CompanyWag]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

Could you be thinking of Horace Porter's memoir "Campaigning with Grant"? In it, he writes:

The weather had become so warm that the general and most of the staff had ordered thin, dark-blue flannel blouses to be sent to them to take the place of the heavy uniform coats which they had been wearing. The summer clothing had arrived, and was now tried on. The general's blouse, like the others, was of plain material, single-breasted, and had four regulation brass buttons in front. It was substantially the coat of a private soldier, with nothing to indicate the rank of an officer except the three gold stars of a lieutentant-general on the shoulder straps. He wore at this time a turndown white linen collar and a small black "butterfly" cravat, which was hooked on to his front collar-button. The general, when he put on the blouse, did not take the pains to see whether it fitted him or to notice how it looked, but thought only of the comfort it afforded, and said, "Well, this is a relief," and then added: "I have never taken as much satisfaction as some people in making frequent changes in my outer clothing. I like to put on a suit of clothes when I get up in the morning, and wear it until I go to bed, unless I have to make a change in my dress to meet company. I have been in the habit of getting one coat at a time, putting it on and wearing it every day as long as it looked respectable, instead of using a best and second best. I know that is not the right way to manage, but a comfortable coat seems like an old friend, and I don't like to change it."

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

Bingo!
Thanks, Paul!

[RobertDickson_18thMO]

Re: Questions on Federal Senior Officer's Sack Coats

I'm sure Officers did most things to be more 'comfortable'. Privately made jackets, sabers from England...etc.