How to lace brogans?

[SDFulks]

Hello all, I have been a reader for a while now but this is my first post so please forgive any repetition or breaches of ettiquette but feel free to critique it.

I just got my first pair of brogans (Missouri boot and shoe) and was about to lace them up to start breaking them in when I stopped and wondered, "is there any documentation on a correct way to lace our brogans?" So I searched here, nothing, so I think maybe everyone knows this but me so I google it, I found this but no more and nothing on this mass grave when I googled for it.

http://www.cwreenactors.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-19979.html

So now I am back here to ask; is there any documentation about how to, or even not to, lace your brogans?

Thanks in advance,
Stephen Fulks

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: How to lace brogans?

I have personally never seen anything in the US or CS Army regulations that indicated that there was a standardized method to lace shoes. However I have seen accounts of Western Confederates utilizing the "Rabbit comes out of the hole and around the tree." method for tying their shoes. By mid war this was picked up by many Federal units, who began to push aside the outdated "Loop swoop and pull" method.

This doesn't mean that this was used wide spread throughout both armies. Evidence shows that both methods were used all the way up to 1865. It all depends on the unit you are portraying, and when and where they are.

[SDFulks]

Re: How to lace brogans?

Very interesting! I didn't know if there was a common way to the time. Today we have many ways to lace our shoes and one "traditional" way and I was not sure if it was traditional because it was the only common way for a long time or just the only common way for a few generations. Like language was more regionalized then and has been standardized more and more with ease of comunication.

Also does that mean they had to teach quite a few men to tie their shoes? If so why?

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: How to lace brogans?

Hallo!

Many of the surviving Civil War shoes often seem to have their laces missing or in pieces. However, sometimes others are more intact.

The pair of Page Lapham of 2nd Company, Washington Artillery of New Orleans, in the Museum of the Confederacy are not to bad but have to be accepted with the caveat of whether the lacing is extant to the shoes- meaning was not redone by someone in 1880 or 1920 or the last staff person preserving them and re-lacing them as they saw fit in 1940.



Another took at our disposal to use if CW Period images to see how CW soldiers laced their shoes. ESPECIALLY so for the very high resolution images that can be enlarged to show remarkable small or even tiny detail.

Curt

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: How to lace brogans?

Well, I think Curt pretty well answered this one with a legitimate answer. Time to put this one to bed now.