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Dear comrades,
As i'm still researching all valuable infos about 18Th LA's gear and clothes, I had from a pard a very interesting extract from Silas.T Grisamore memories.
This text seems to show that the 18th LA had some frock coats made by a tailor ; the word " coat " , used here, contrasts with the wide use of " jacket " in the other extracts of Grisamore's memories related to clothing. This text also mentions buttons in the back, and even seems to show these coats were " french fashioned ". I know that frocks were rare in 1863, but remember some photographic evidences for it ( for another unit )... and the rarity of this type of garment is a good reason to try to recreate it..
So why am I posting here ? Because even if I don't have big problems reading and understanding English, i'd like to have your opinion about this extract.
In a few words; do you think those " coats " are frock coats, and do you think we could try to make it from a known CS coat like the "5th La frock", or mostly from a " french-fashioned " model ? The goal here is to make something "authentic" in materials, sewing, etc.. and as close as possible from what this was. ( appearance, pattern, tailoring details will of course be a reconstruction, based on the closest models known )
Here is the extract ;
pages 109-110 ; ( April 1863, at Camp Bisland ) ". A bargain was made, the tailor came to our camp at Fausse Point and took the measure of the men very minutely, and, in the course of human events and rainy weather, we got some of the coats. They proved to be in the very height of fashion, and the man who was lucky enough to be off duty and had time to promenade around the camp with his new coat was universally admired by everyone who saw him. The coats were admirable fits, but somehow or other the men had forgotten how to put on fashionable clothes since they had been campaigning - and ran their arms though their sleeves up to the elbow and pulled the garnment so high up behind the neck that the buttons were right between the shoulders , and the buttons were real shining brass beauties that fairly glistened when the sun dared to shine on them.
And the tails were drawn up so high that the new patches and flags of truce in the rear were very conspicuous, forming an admirable contrast with those brass buttons.
One of the men who had not had any clean clothes since he left home was bashful, and feeling a little ashamed of himself in such a neat fitting coat, refused to appear in public with it on, but a threat of the guardhouse soon made a fashionable young man of him.
Never since our friend Macon of St. James turned himself loose at Pollard, hollering “’See what Alabama has done”, did our boys have such a jolly time in showing what our Parisian tailor of St. Martinsville had accomplished. "
Best regards from France,
As i'm still researching all valuable infos about 18Th LA's gear and clothes, I had from a pard a very interesting extract from Silas.T Grisamore memories.
This text seems to show that the 18th LA had some frock coats made by a tailor ; the word " coat " , used here, contrasts with the wide use of " jacket " in the other extracts of Grisamore's memories related to clothing. This text also mentions buttons in the back, and even seems to show these coats were " french fashioned ". I know that frocks were rare in 1863, but remember some photographic evidences for it ( for another unit )... and the rarity of this type of garment is a good reason to try to recreate it..
So why am I posting here ? Because even if I don't have big problems reading and understanding English, i'd like to have your opinion about this extract.
In a few words; do you think those " coats " are frock coats, and do you think we could try to make it from a known CS coat like the "5th La frock", or mostly from a " french-fashioned " model ? The goal here is to make something "authentic" in materials, sewing, etc.. and as close as possible from what this was. ( appearance, pattern, tailoring details will of course be a reconstruction, based on the closest models known )
Here is the extract ;
pages 109-110 ; ( April 1863, at Camp Bisland ) ". A bargain was made, the tailor came to our camp at Fausse Point and took the measure of the men very minutely, and, in the course of human events and rainy weather, we got some of the coats. They proved to be in the very height of fashion, and the man who was lucky enough to be off duty and had time to promenade around the camp with his new coat was universally admired by everyone who saw him. The coats were admirable fits, but somehow or other the men had forgotten how to put on fashionable clothes since they had been campaigning - and ran their arms though their sleeves up to the elbow and pulled the garnment so high up behind the neck that the buttons were right between the shoulders , and the buttons were real shining brass beauties that fairly glistened when the sun dared to shine on them.
And the tails were drawn up so high that the new patches and flags of truce in the rear were very conspicuous, forming an admirable contrast with those brass buttons.
One of the men who had not had any clean clothes since he left home was bashful, and feeling a little ashamed of himself in such a neat fitting coat, refused to appear in public with it on, but a threat of the guardhouse soon made a fashionable young man of him.
Never since our friend Macon of St. James turned himself loose at Pollard, hollering “’See what Alabama has done”, did our boys have such a jolly time in showing what our Parisian tailor of St. Martinsville had accomplished. "
Best regards from France,