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Federal Issue Shirt
By Stephen E. Osman
This article will identify the most widely issued pattern of Federal enlisted shirt, and further propose that that pattern was little changed of the years between 1821 and 1874. In doing so it will dispute the claims in both some secondary sources on Civil War uniforms and in most replica dealers’ catalogs that there was an issue shirt which could be called the "Pattern" or "model" of 1851, 1864 or various other dates. It will not dispute the fact that soldiers wore a wide variety of privately procured shirts, though the carnival assortment of fabrics and styles represented in many sutlers’ stocks can be questioned. Nor will it dispute that the government issued several types of flannel shirts during the Civil War. However by far the most common issue shirt was of one distinct pattern and material.
Until around 1851 enlisted soldiers were allotted 4 shirts per year, 2 of cotton and 2 of flannel. Issued in one large size only, these shirts can be examined only through the records carefully kept by Commissary General of Purchases Callendar Irvine and his successors in the Quartermasters Department. [1] Proud of the economy he brought to his department, Irvine documented the materials and labor costs in production of clothing over many years and uniform regulations changes. Each list is nearly identical:Flannel shirts required 3 yards of 7/8 flannel, 3 shirt buttons and 2 or 3 skeins of WB linen thread, while cottons shirts used 3 yards of 7/8 unbleached shirting, 3 shirt buttons and 2 or 3 skeins of thread. [2] Labor costs did fluctuate, but proportionally with labor costs on other clothing items over the years. Further supporting the premise of pattern continuity is the lack of mention of any shirt pattern changes in correspondence discussing changes in other uniform items.
In the new clothing regulations of 1851, issue of the cotton shirt was eliminated and the flannel continued with the statement "Flannel Shirt"the same as now furnished." [3] Uniform regulations of 1857 and 1861 repeated the same statement. Relative consistency in labor costs and materials required, support this official statement that the same pattern shirt was retained despite changes in other articles of uniform. While some items in the new regulations say "according to pattern", the shirt is clearly stated to be the same as previously issued. Enlisted men were now allotted 3 of these flannel shirts per year.
In determining what this enlisted shirt looked like we are fortunate to have a well documented regular army example to examine. In 1858 the War Department exchanged sets of current military clothing and equipment with the Danish government. Still Carefully preserved in the Royal Arsenal Museum in Copenhagen are uniforms,drawers, stockings, blankets and shirts as worn by the U.S. Regular Army just prior to the Civil War. The army flannel shirt is off white or cream color flannel (wool on a cotton warp) with reinforced slit front opening, squared collar closed by a single stamped sheet iron button at the base, tapered sleeves with internally faced cuffs formed as part of the sleeve and closed by single buttons, reinforcing strap across the top of each shoulder and a very full cut in the body. With minor variations, this was to be the most widely issued Federal shirt into the mid 1870’s.
In further documenting this issue shirt, we can turn to 3 sources of information: original specimens, photographs, and government specifications. The National Museum of American History has in its collections 2 identical examples of the issue shirt. Of unbleached or off white flannel, they conform quite closely to the 1858 Danish shirt. Differences include separately attached cuffs and the lack of reinforcement under the front slit opening. A third example of the issue shirt, privately owned, is well marked with contractor and inspector stamps. Nearly identical to the other shirts, it has the internally faced cuffs of the 1858 Danish shirts but no front slit reinforcement. [4] All of the extant issue shirts examined are completely hand sewn with relatively wide stitches.
Numerous photographs of soldiers wearing the issue shirt can be found in the several photographic histories of the Civil War, once one knows the pattern to look for. A more precise identification is found, however, in a series of photographs taken in 1875 to accompany a report requested by the Surgeon General from the Quartermaster General. Showing the "shirt, drawers and stocking, old pattern, prior to 1872", the photos are of a model wearing a shirt of the same pattern as the Danish and other specimens. While the shirt does not appear to have cuffs, it indeed is of off white flannel with slit front and squared collar. The "new pattern, subsequent to 1872" shirt,incidentally, is a gray flannel placket front model with distinct cuffs. This new shirt was adopted in 1874 and issued until its replacement by a similar blue shirt in 1881. [5]
As with other uniform items, shirts were purchased ready-made, and were contracted for based upon Quartermaster Department sealed samples, and were sewn from government supplied flannel by the thousand of women employed as piecework seamstresses by the clothing depots. In addition to the standard pattern issue shirt, coarse woolen knit shirts and coarse bluish-gray flannel shirts were procured. Among the over 11,000,000 shirts purchased ready-made may well have been numerous other patterns. But the most widely used pattern was that specified in detail by the Quartermaster Department in 1865. [6]
The issue shirt required 2 7/8 yards of white cotton and wool domet flannel, 3 shirt buttons of white metal, and 3 1/2 skeins of W.B. linen thread, No. 35. All seams were to be felled. The major measurements included: length of shirt 34", of sleeve 21" and of collar 16"-17"; width of shirt 26", of sleeve at top 20", of sleeve at cuff 10" and of collar 3 1/2" length of slit in sleeve at wrist 5", at bottom of shirt 9", and in breast 12"; length and width of shoulder straps 9" by 3" and of underarm gussets 5" by 3". This description seems to match the photographs and extant specimens mentioned in the previous paragraph.
For the purist Federal reenactor this may be unwelcome news. The idea of a crudely constructed, simple shirt of coarse, scratchy wool flannel could try the most hardcore authentic mentality. But there is ample evidence that most Federal soldiers did receive and wear this shirt. Even after the 3 hot July days at Gettysburg, Federal burials could later be distinguished from those of their foes: "the underclothing was the next part examined. The Rebel cotton undershirt gave proof of the army to which he belonged." [7] Federals were in wool.
The final demise of the venerable issue flannel shirt, old pattern, was welcomed by the Surgeon General in 1875: "Those which have been furnished shrink very much and are found to irritate the skin. The men purchase many shirts from civilians; the present allowance is insufficient.
There should be two qualities, each of flannel, for cold and warm weather." [8] Two decades after dropping the cotton shirt the army was beginning to think of a more comfortable summer shirt, though still of wool flannel, and only after years of suffering by the men in the ranks.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Callendar Irvine and other Quartermaster Department papers are found in the National Archives and Records service, Records Group 92 (Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General), Entries 2117 and 2118.
[2] Fabric listed as 7/8 means that its width was 7/8 of a yard or about 31". Thread was supplied in skeins, not spools, prior to and during the Civil War. WB thread is "whited brown", a natural undyed shade.
[3] US War Department, Adjutant General's Office, General Order No. 31, Uniform and Dress of the Army of the United States, Washington, 12 June 1851.
[4] For a clear photograph of this shirt see Robertson, James I. Jr., Tenting Tonight, The Soldiers' Life, Alexandria: Time-Life Books, 1984, p. 76.
[5] Kloster, Donald, "Uniforms of the Army Prior and Subsequent to 1872, Part II, Military Collector & Historian, Vol XV No. 1, Spring 1963, pp. 6-14.
[6] Quartermaster Manual, 1865. Unpublished Manuscript. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, National Archives.
[7] Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Report Of The Select committee Relating To The Soldiers' National Cemetary, Harrisburg: Singerly & Myers, 1864, p.41.
[8] US Surgion General, Circular No. ? Areport on the Hygiene of the U.S. Army with Descriptions of Military Posts. Washington: War Department Surgeon Generals Office, 1 May 1875, p. xlix.
[edit. This article was originally posted on the Bully Boys website and is posted here with their permission. - PC]