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Does anyone know of a pattern for a confederate sack coat, i have seen them on many photos of confederate dead, esp late war. Any idea on the materials? Let me know
...but Childs does sell a pattern for a CS four-button jacket (like the Brooke jacket in EOG), a garment which some have frequently termed a Confederate sack coat (I know, I know, the consensus is that the 4-button jacket is not a sack coat).
Ah but the Brook sack sure looks like a sack. Childs says the jacket he offers is virtually identical to it as well as other like garments from several other collections. Except that the Brooks JACKET has sleeves just as long as the body, which while that may or may not be indicative of a Sack coat, could go a ways towards ruling out the jacket description, as jackets are normally waist length. On a similar vein, I do know of at leat one of the so call Columbus jackets that has a body the same length of the sleeves. Six in one hand...... ;)
If you look at the Brooke jacket on p. 16 of A Catalogue of Uniforms In The Collection Of The Museum Of The Confederacy, the jacket is shown on a manequin, rather than laying flat as it is in EoG. There, you can see that the body is quite close fitting, not as loose as a Federal fatigue blouse. It does look like a sack coat in EoG because of the proportion of sleeve length to body length. This style of jacket does have a longer front than the Richmond Depot style. However, after looking at the other proportions and comparing them, I'd bet a cold pint of Guinness that Brooke had the sleeves shortened after he was issued the jacket. I have requested more information from the Museum of the Confederacy, so perhaps I'll be eating my words when the mail arrives, but I think Brooke just had short arms.
Michael & Clark,
One of the other JACKETS that I beleive Mr. Childs speaks of is located in the Ross County Historical Society collection. It has 4 buttons but would most likely be considered a JACKET not a sack due to the fit as was apparent on my viewing. John Stillwagon wrote a good article on this a while back that was on the SG website. This argument - jacket-sack will likely never be proven to everyone's satisfaction!!
[FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium]David Chinnis[/FONT]
Palmetto Living History Association
[url]www.morrisisland.org[/url]
[i]"We have captured one fort--Gregg--and one charnel house--Wagner--and we have built one cemetery, Morris Island. The thousand little sand-hills that in the pale moonlight are a thousand headstones, and the restless ocean waves that roll and break on the whitened beach sing an eternal requiem to the toll-worn gallant dead who sleep beside."
Hmmm. Maybe, for lack of a better term, we could use "Jack-sack" for the above item.
Regards,
Mark Jaeger
Or how about "Jacket". It is NOT sack coat. EoG identified it wrong. I saw one of the four (or was it five) existing originals in the MoC last summer, it was on a manequin and you could clearly see that it was not a sack coat. It wears like a jacket, just a little longer than the standard shell jacket.
The jacket does belong to the Ross County Historical Society. Charlie Childs came to study and photograph it to make the reproduction.
The RCHS also has many more artifacts on loan and in its collection, including a Federal sack, two Federal frocks that have been field altered, a Federal forage cap, a Federal dress hat, a Federal great coat, a Federal double bag knapsack, General Sheridan's frock, Genral Sills frock, and many other artifacts.
"Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes" - Henry David Thoreau
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country."
– George Washington , 1789
Couple clarifications here - The Ross County Jacket has only two buttons but it has four buttonholes so we can safely assume there were four at one time! I have recently found my drawing with the measurements from the RCHS jacket that Tom graciously allowed me to measure and photograph that shows some very specific details that lend itself more to a "jacket" description than a sack - piece sizes/shapes especially!
We went so far as having some cloth hand woven that is a close proximation of the RCHS jacket but volume makes it cost prohibitive and it really is terribly shoddy!! The next post would be something about that "dang jacket falling apart!"
(Alex, is Tom your dad? If so give him my regards and tell him the project is still around but on hold!)
[FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium]David Chinnis[/FONT]
Palmetto Living History Association
[url]www.morrisisland.org[/url]
[i]"We have captured one fort--Gregg--and one charnel house--Wagner--and we have built one cemetery, Morris Island. The thousand little sand-hills that in the pale moonlight are a thousand headstones, and the restless ocean waves that roll and break on the whitened beach sing an eternal requiem to the toll-worn gallant dead who sleep beside."
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