Lion skin coats

[vbetts]

I've got a new project. I'm annotating the Texas identified items in Footnote.com's "Confederate Papers," otherwise known at the National Archives as the Citizens and Business File, a huge microfilm set consisting mostly of quartermaster vouchers. It will be a long, long-term project, and Footnote.com is just over 50% finished digitizing the set. Once completed, someone should attempt a long overdue revision and expansion of _The Confederate Quartermaster in the Trans-Mississippi_, as well as reexaminations of quartermasters across the rest of the South.

I'm currently under C. A. Bulkley, selling to A. U. Wright, captain and assistant quartermaster at Jefferson, Texas, November 6, 1862. Among the overshirts, coats, wool overcoats, jeans pants, cassimer pants, jean jackets, white kersey pants, jeans pants, military coats, military pants, white kersey coats, overcoats, and yardages of white and colored jeans, I find the following:

4 Lion skin Coats $28 [each] $112.00

Now I know that Heartsill is from nearby Marshall, but "Lion skin Coats"?? Is this slang for something more ordinary and familiar?

Vicki Betts

[markj]

Re: Lion skin coats

Hi Vicki,

I did a little checking through Google Books and discovered a couple of other references to "lion-skin" coats. None other than Sam Houston reportedly wore one according to this account:

http://books.google.com/books?id=z4aTP9nYWjMC&pg=PA204&dq=%22Lion+skin+coat%22&sig=50EsGlQrLUNIOI2Y-MEGqHsaEQY

Here's an 1867 reference:

http://books.google.com/books?id=bZiJgn0GzF0C&pg=PA304&dq=%22Lion+skin+coat%22

An 1834 reference:

http://books.google.com/books?id=wiUCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA125&dq=%22Lion+skin+coat%22

"The Biography of Zadock Pratt" (1852) also describes someone wearing a "lion-skin" coat:

http://books.google.com/books?id=K9oEAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Lion+skin+coat%22&dq=%22Lion+skin+coat%22&lr=&pgis=1

Lion-skin is described as "drab" in color, so I'm guessing it was a smooth, light-brown fabric similar in appearance to the color seen on African lions.

I suspect a search through reference works on period fabrics will provide more details on this item.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[vbetts]

Re: Lion skin coats

Thanks, Mark! I checked Florence Montgomery's _Textiles in America, 1650-1870_, but it doesn't appear there. Not in the Oxford English Dictionary, either. I need to check the Dictionary of American Regional English tomorrow. If anyone here has an old textile dictionary, or some other period handbook, I'd be interested in fiber (I suspect wool), weave, and texture. Just curious, I guess.

Vicki Betts

[markj]

Re: Lion skin coats

Vicki,

I think I've got your answer. A "lion-skin coat" was a kind of blanket-coat. I think "lion skin" may actually be a corruption of "LINING skin."

See attached item and you'll see what what I mean about halfway down. What makes all this intriguing, given my articles on blanket-coats, is that it seems to provide more evidence of coats made from blanket material being furnished (albeit in limited quantities) to troops.

Regards,

Mark

[1stMaine]

Re: Lion skin coats

Mark,

FWIW, an early pioneer of Aviation, Roscoe Turner, was also known for wearing a "lion-skin coat" while flying, and indeed, there are pictures of him playing on that subject by holding a lion cub in his arms.

Being that this was the ahe of open cockpits and poorly-heated enclosed cockpits, it makes sense to have a blanket-lined or heavy blanket coat.

respects,

[vbetts]

Re: Lion skin coats

I think you've got it. I'm wondering whether in late 1862 the local quartermaster was just buying up whatever he could find that would meet the basic needs of soldiers. From the vouchers Bulkley seemed to be a major local merchant, and he might have had a few of these coats on hand from a number of possible sources in and beyond Texas. Thanks!

BTW, these vouchers almost never indicate the unit to which the supplies are going. One could guess, based on when and where the companies were forming or stationed, but then I've also seen vouchers for transportation within Texas, from Texas into the Choctaw Nation, and from Texas into Arkansas.

Vicki Betts

[Robin G-C]

Re: Lion skin coats

How curious! Isn't the cost of the "lion skin coats" rather high compared with ordinary wool coats? Does this mean that they are of feline leather, or are we actually referring to some sort of fancy, extra-cozy blanketing? Are clothing prices just inflated by this time, which means these coats are *not* anything special, and I'm just confused?


Robin Gilliam-Crawford

[vbetts]

Re: Lion skin coats

Here are the prices of all of the coats mentioned in this voucher:

Coats $22
Wool jackets (over coats) $18
Jeanes jackets $9
Military coats $25
White kersey coats $9
Over coats $25
Lion skin coats $28

Vicki Betts

[KyCavMajor]

Re: Lion skin coats

I pass through Jefferson Texas every now and again, I buy some knives off a Case Dealer there. Neat little town right along Highway 59. Lots of old depot type buidings and a Confederate monument n the courthouse lawn. Rail line runs through it as well. It isn't too difficult seeing as it was in 1862...
I will pass through there again next Tuesday in fact.

[JLH]

Re: Lion skin coats

Texans clothing was loud to say the least. One of which is Capt Samuel J Richardson 2nd Texas Cav in his Leopard Skin Trousers. So if one can have leopard trousers then why not a lion skinned coat.

[roundshot]

Re: Lion skin coats

Attached is a photo of the vest Sam Houston wore, mentioned above. I would surmise the reference to lion skin coats in the QM records really is what it is, bizarre as it may seem.

[brown]

Re: Lion skin coats

Mountain lion pelts were still selling for $2-4 each in some parts of the US at that time.