Blousing of trousers

[PvtEasley]

Pards,

Under what circumstances would CW soldiers (particularly Federal) blouse their trousers (insert the cuff into their socks). Thanks,
-John Easley

[BrandonEnglish]

Re: Blousing of trousers

Try the search function, hope that helps:

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8420&highlight=blousing+trousers

[RN_PAC]

Re: Blousing of trousers

There is no real easy answer to that. It is probably easier to answer it from the perspective of when they pretty assuredly did not blouse them, such as during dress parade, guard mounting ceremony, or while on the guard in general. One thing is pretty clear to me: blousing was not particularly common, nor was it particularly uncommon. The soldiers themselves apparantly thought it was common enough to occasionally demonstrate it on monuments, post war illustrations by veterans, etc. I've even seen one studio photo of a Rhode Islander with his trousers bloused, probably the only such studio I have seen (saw it in a book in Williamsburg, VA). That was an interesting pic, because he was also wearing Hi-lows/trekkers as footwear, versus bootees. The fellow was in a short service regiment that never strayed "outside the wire" from D.C., so I figure he was trying to make himself look like a rugged veteran with that pic.

Part of the controversy about it stemmed from the 125th cycle, when everybody and his brother...including me...was doing it, sometimes even during the above functions. Then, the pendulum swung the opposite way, and the practice practically evaporated from more progressive events anyway, to the point where it seemed to me to be underrepresented.

I still do blouse them, from time to time; usually when the weather is colder, and when I want to keep my pant cuffs outta something. I may blouse and unblouse couple of times in the same day, depending on the situation. I suppose the old fellows kinda practiced it the same way.

[Andrew Kasmar]

Re: Blousing of trousers

Hi,

It would all come down to what you are portraying. When troops were on campaign, I am sure some of them bloused there trousers, others rolled them up, and other just sewed them up. But, while on garrison duty or winter camp, there is really no need to blouse your trousers or to roll them up. In any case, I would recommend you roll them up over blousing them. Only because, when you blouse your trousers, you can end up stretching the socks. Just my 2 cents.

Tom, do you happend to have the picture you talked about on your computer? If you do could you post it; I would be very interested in seeing it. Thanks

Andrew

[RN_PAC]

Re: Blousing of trousers

No, unfortunately I don't, and I have been kicking my butt ever since for not having tried to sneak a digital pic of the page with my camera at least. Every now and then I make a cursory search to see if I can find it, which I'll probably end up doing now since it came up again!

[WoodenNutmeg]

Re: Blousing of trousers

Maybe this would be a good time (or maybe it won't) to discuss gaitors and their place in all of this?

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Blousing of trousers

Folks,
I'd like to challenge y'all to post some information not already contained in John Stillwagon's article (linked above). Otherwise, this thread might as well be shut down now.

Also, "because your socks will get stretched out" is not a valid reason to adopt/not adopt this practice.
(FWIW, I bloused my trousers at Outpost III for a while and they survived just fine - Yeah, I'm a vet of the "Buck-Twenty-Five's"... Well, one of 'em anyway)

[RN_PAC]

Re: Blousing of trousers

Also, "because your socks will get stretched out" is not a valid reason to adopt/not adopt this practice.

Ironically enough, I just recently read a soldier's accounting of the practice of blousing the trousers being employed to help keep the stockings up because in his/his comrades' particular experience, their stockings were of such a poor quality that they would not stay up on their own otherwise. Gonna have to dig around the library to find that citation; did a lot of reading travelling to/from Japan and I think it's in one of those tomes. However, gotta hit the road for a barber appointment, so it'll have to wait 'till at least later to-night.

[unclefrank]

Re: Blousing of trousers

You see it allot in period drawings and woodcut prints. It must of been common enough in the field to get the artists attention. Personally, I find it kind of uncomfortable, and hard on a pair of socks.

[tomarch]

Re: Blousing of trousers

As a practical matter, I regulary pull my socks over the legs of my underdrawers just to keep the ticks out, so far it has worked and you can't tell from the outside as my trowsers cover it up.

[KarinTimour]

Re: Blousing of trousers

Gentlemen:

How many accounts or depictions of blousing are Federal vs. Confederate soldiers?

As a sock maker, blousing is something that I've always discouraged. As others have noted, it drastically shortens the life of the ribbing that hold up your socks.

But what if you're wearing socks with no ribbing in the first place? I have yet to see any evidence of ribbing in Federal Issue Stockings, and my hypothesis is that the soldiers who primarily bloused were Federals.

But if you don't have any ribbing, how do they stay up when new? As many of you know, after researching these for a while, I made a stab at reproducing them. I always ask for feedback from my customers and they tell me that blousing them over drawers works fine for keeping them up your leg. These are guys who do serious marching -- ala Banks Grand Retreat. My suspicion is that after they've been bloused over drawers for a certain number of wearings, they'll need to be bloused over pantlegs to stay up without being tied up. When they were being worn daily, they probably hit that point in a matter of weeks or months. So far I haven't gotten any field reports of any of the current crop of reproductions hitting that point.

My two cents, your milage may vary,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Sleeping Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[flattop32355]

Re: Blousing of trousers

Karin,
Since we're weekend warriors instead of doing it as a steady job, our weeks/months are more like a couple years or more. I figure we're more likey to wear out the material of the sock at the ball of the foot faster than we're likely to see blousing needed to keep up the socks. Just my guess. It may or may not have been true for them, too.

[KarinTimour]

Re: Blousing of trousers

Dear Bernard:

Well, it depends. Keeping in mind that when Uncle Sam issued you a pair of socks, he took about a days pay (25-32 cents a pair) from you, that's considerable incentive for many soldiers to be darning socks or even shipping them home for refooting so as to avoid increased costs. If someone has a pair of refooted socks, the legs might be seriously much older and much more worn than the ball of the foot.

I've only been making the Federal issue stockings about a year and a half now, so they're probably far too new in the field to have much in the way of permanent blousing distortion yet.

And it's all experiemental. When I first saw Federal Issue Stockings had no ribbing, I had an "aha! that's why they bloused!" moment. Might have been a false assumption entirely.

Sincerely,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Sleeping Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[jake.koch]

Re: Blousing of trousers

I don't know how good of a source monuments may be, but if you look at a picture of the soldier swinging his rifle like a club on the Mississippi Monument at Gettysburg, he has his socks over his trousers and it looks as if they are tied to stay up with a piece of string or twine.

[ThehosGendar]

Re: Blousing of trousers

Hi Karin!

I haven't done an extensive study of LOC images, but, obviously 99% of those images show Federal soldiers so most photographic examples would be primarily Federal. I did pull up two quick examples, one Federal and one Confederate.

The Confederate image is LC-DIG-cwpb-02541, "Dead Confederate Soldier" in the Fort Mahone series. Of the Fort Mahone images, taken in April 1865, from what I could tell, there are 14 images, though 2 images are repeats, and 2 are of the same subject at different angles, I found only 1 soldier with his socks bloused.

The Federal image is just one out of several thousand, LC-DIG-cwpb-00260, "Manassas Junction, Va. Soldiers beside damaged rolling stock of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad." Anyone with some time on their hands would have a great project for publication to take a survey of images of Federal soliders, bloused v. unbloused!

I know it's not much, but I hope it helps!

Cheers!