acquiring chevrons

[billmatt04]

Hello all,
I have yet another question and want to pick your brains about it. Where was a soldier to acquire a pair of chevrons after being promoted to corporal, sergeant, etc.? Did the quartemaster have them? I have seen some that look like they were "hand-made" by the soldier himself too, so did it depend on the timing and place of promotion? Say an infantryman was field promoted, would he have made the chevrons from whatever light blue material he could find? Otherwise would he just go and draw a pair from the quartermaster? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks a lot, guys, and I'm glad that the board is back online!

Sincerely,
Matthew Cassady
104th Illinois Vol. Inf.

[JerseySkilletLicker]

Re: acquiring chevrons

Matt,
From using the "search" button here is an excellent post:

As you might imagine, uniform regulations could be unevenly enforced in the field. Here's an excerpt from The Civil War Notebook of Daniel Chisholm (W. Springer Menge and J. August Shimrak, eds., Ballantine Books, New York, 1989), that seems to indicate that chevrons were more common than the accompanying stripes:

“Saturday, Jany 14th [1864] We have special orders for every non commissioned officer to have chevrons on their arms and stripes on their pants. The quarter master hasn’t any, we have to take old blouses and make them ourselves. It is laughable to see all the boys at work with their needles. You may depend some of the stitches are long.”
__________________
Michael A. Schaffner


Regards to Mr. Schaffner for this post.

Joe