What did guys back then call "leathers"

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: What did guys back then call "leathers"

I also seem to recall at least one instance of the men being told to "Couter Up".

Was that a period reference, or...

Does "Cooter Up" mean something different?

[Rob Murray]

Re: What did guys back then call "leathers"

In his book "No More Gallant a Deed" pg. 33, James A. Wright states; "At the call,we were ready to fall in with 'all our traps and calamities,' as one of the boys from the country expressed it ( the Hamline University boys referred to them as impediments),".... He also refers to them as entrapments elsewhere in the book.

[davidf]

Re: What did guys back then call "leathers"

It seems strange that not many people have heard of this reenactorism for leathers before. I am starting to think that it may be a Wisconsin reenactorism. I was talking with someone from the 10th Tennessee about it today, and he says he has heard it used in Wisconsin before as well. I think that maybe we have covered the proper words now for this. Thank you though for your responses.

[Longbranch 1]

Re: What did guys back then call "leathers"

Hey, " youse" guys,

The pronunciations of "accoutrements" and "guy"is another interesting topic .
Particularly "guy".

Regards,
Kevin Ellis,
26th NC

[Pvt Peck]

Re: What did guys back then call "leathers"

David:

I believe that plenty of us have heard "leathers" used at events, these "guys" are just showing you period examples of what they were called, not stating that they have never heard "leathers" used to describe your "impediments". I have heard leathers used a LOT in California, and at events I have attended back "East".

Ted "in harness like a d*$#ed mule" Parrott

[Chuck A Luck]

Re: What did guys back then call "leathers"

I definitely remember reading at least one period account (I don't know the book or source off hand, but it was a first-person account, or letter) referring to putting on leathers/accouterments as "harnessing up" or putting on his harness.

[BrianHicks]

Re: What did guys back then call "leathers"

Allow me to sum up this discussion thus far.....

There have been two or three posts here in which folks have described having heard others at events, referring to their accoutrements, as 'Leathers'.

There have been several folks whom have posted period references to a number of different different means of describing accoutrements, but so far, there have been no period references listed which call them 'Leathers'.

So... without any one offering a period reference, it appears that calling your waist belt, cap pouch, Cartridge box, etc. as 'Leathers' may well be considered a 'reenactorism' and is anachronistic to the historic period we represent at our events.

In other words... calling them 'Leathers' is wrong. (Right?)

[Brian Wiswell]

Re: What did guys back then call "leathers"

Captain Jack Sparrow called them "affects"... ok just kidding. The term "leathers" could have meant much more back then becasue so much more was made with leather as compaired to now? If you would have said "leathers", that could have been realted to many different items. Just a thought.

I checked a couple of references that I had here and all of the period accounts refered to them using their proper names.

Brian Wiswell

[Kykeydet12]

Re: What did guys back then call "leathers"

Does anyone have actual hard evidence of the names for acoutrements that they could link here?

Also, how many people actually still call their acoutrements "leathers"? Is that still a major "reenactorism"?

I might be jumping in a little late on the topic but i think that that might be a regional thing. If you look at it it may depend on the region the soldiers grew-up or were trained in that designates what they called the equiptment.

a modern example might be modern military unforms; marines call them "cammies" and soldiers call them BDU's or ACU's depending on the circumstance. This is just an example of how 2 different groups have different names for the same things

some units might have called them traps while another just refered to them as accouterments. But i'm sure that in any example that you may find you will see that all soldiers found them uncompfortable and gave them "affectionate" terms.

are u following me?