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Written by Chris Thomas Chris Thomas

It is often assumed that Civil War soldiers wore a strict uniform, in that all the members of a regiment wore similar coats, breeches, hats and so on, as was typical of later armies. In actual fact, the evidence for this is limited at best. Although there are some well known mass issues of uniform clothing, for example that to the Oxford Army in 1643, it appears that many units never received a uniform as such, although in some cases they may have been given captured civilian or military clothing items. Even when a unit had an existing uniform, there is evidence that new issues of clothing could be of different colour to that received before.

Even if we assume that a unit had a uniform, this still leads to two further questions. Firstly, how uniform was it? More modern contracts were normally to a single supplier, and often produced in a single factory. Supplies to make the items were ordered in a similar fashion, and it is possible to see from this that, for example, thousands of almost identical coats could easily be supplied.

During the Civil War, however, a contractor faced with such an order would have sub-contracted with a number of suppliers, who would have in turn sub-contracted part of the work. With probably hundreds of individual makers working on the contract there is liable to have been considerable variations in the details of the coats produced, as each carried out the work in their own way, and sought individual shortcuts to boost profits. When you add the fact that there would have been variation in the cloth used, the dye batches, and such details as buttons, etc even a "uniform" item could end up significantly different from the one next to it. In the case of the Oxford Army issue the soldiers seem to have been issued with coats and breeches of the same colour (although it is unlikely that they were actually from the same bolt of cloth, so may be significantly different in colour and texture), but in general this seems to be rare. There seems to be no evidence for soldiers being issued with uniform coloured breeches in a different colour to the coat, and indeed some contracts specifically accept variation in breeches colour, so it seems that uniform breeches were rarer than uniform coats. Other items such as hats (unless provided with a suit, as in the Oxford Army Issue) and stockings are even less likely to be uniform.

 


The second question is how long did it last? As re-enactors, we wear our kit normally for part of a weekend at most, then take it home,  dry it out and store it until the next event. A period soldier would probably normally never take his kit off from one end of the week to the next. If it got wet it stayed wet until it dried out naturally: in bad weather it may have stayed wet for weeks. From this it follows that a year of re-enactment use may cause less wear and tear than a week or so during the real war. Period dyes were significantly less colour fast than most modern dyes, and so fading would also have been a significant factor: two soldiers starting with coats of an identical cloth would probably have looked very different after a week or so if one was in a dry billet and the other sleeping rough in the rain. A soldier with an unserviceable item would have sought to obtain a replacement without concerning themselves with its uniformity - this continued to be the case even with modern industrial supply, with soldiers using what came to hand or seemed desirable, even to the extent of deliberately using enemy equipment in preference to their own issue kit.

 

When Prince Maurice Regiment re-equipped with red soldiers coats in the early 1990's it was decided to reduce the level of uniformity that was very much the norm of the time. Two batches of coats were bought from two different suppliers, so to start with there was variation in cut, colour and material. One batch was lined with grey wool, the other with a mixture of grey and unbleached linen, and this batch also had some variation in details such as buttons, wings etc. Since then individuals have bought or made their own coats, and the regiment has bought new and second hand red coats from a variety of sources, so that there is considerable variation.

Breeches are non uniform, as are hats and so on. In general we try for a sort of batch uniformity with weapons and associated equipment, so that there are a number of similar items of each type but variation between the batches. In this way we try to replicate the effect of re-supply at different times and from different sources

 

 


The following illustrations show some of the members in various types of kit, both as an illustration of what we believe was the range of period equipment, and the range, standard and style we expect from members of the regiment

This soldier wears an issue coat, in red wool lined with off-white wool, over a blue-grey wool jerkin. The coat cuffs are folded back, showing the lining material; the cuffs of his unbleached linen shirt are just visible beneath.

His headgear is a woollen montero, made of red wool with a lining of blue wool, which shows due to the way the hat is folded in an up position. The rolled brim could be pulled down to cover most of the head. His breeches are of grey wool, with cloth pockets, tied at the knee with linen ribbon. His hose are sewn from lightweight off white wool cloth. On his feet he has brown leather close sided shoes.

A natural leather belt with tinned iron fittings supports a powder bag and a hanger for the simple but functional sword. A coil of matchcord is hung from the powder bag. In addition this soldier has a linen canvas snapsack and a globular leather water bottle.

His musket is a 36” barrel matchlock, shorter than the standard matchlock and made for dragoone use.

 


This soldier wears an issue coat, in red wool lined with off-white wool, with flat pewter buttons. On his head is a knitted Monmouth cap, made of partly felted natural brown wool. His breeches are of heavy brown wool, lined with linen, fastened with pewter buttons. Two sets of linen ties hold the knee of his breeches closed and the hose up. The hose are knitted from natural grey wool, and his shoes are of  black leather, with the rough (flesh) side out. They have open sides and square toes.

His short sword, with a rapier style hilt, is supported on a wide leather baldric, and his powder is carried in a collar of bandoleers, consisting of a leather belt with turned wooden bottles for individual powder charges, a priming bottle and a small leather bag for bullets and so forth. His natural goatskin snapsack is open at the bottom, so it can be accessed from under the left arm, and he also has a flask shaped leather water bottle.

His weapon is a short 12 bore doglock (a type of flintlock) weapon, called a dragon.

 

 


This soldier wears a civilian style doublet, in red wool, lined with linen and shaped and stiffened, with buttons made of  woollen cloth. It is worn unbuttoned over a natural leather jerkin with leather ties. At the neck a bleached linen neckcloth is just visible. His headgear is a broad brimmed felt hat, with a hatband made of plaited ribbon. His issue red wool breeches, now very faded, have pewter buttons and leather pockets. He wears leather overhose, which can be pulled up when riding, and worn natural leather open sided shoes. Both breeches legs and overhose are secured with narrow linen tape.

Powder etc. is carried in a leather cartridge box on a narrow waist belt, worn over the jerkin but under the doublet. The rapier style sword is worn on a wide leather baldric.

His weapon is a small bore doglock cavalry carbine, which may be hung from the buckled carbine sling worn over the right shoulder.

 


This soldier represents a newly equipped member of the Oxford Army, who has enjoyed the benefits of a full clothing issue in the first part of 1643. He must have been first in line, as he has not only a red coat, lined in natural wool, red breeches and button fronted montero, but also a matching singlet, all with flat pewter buttons. Over the singlet, but under the coat, is a leather belt, which supports a box style cartridge pouch, a bullet bag, spare match and a sword hanger with tinned fittings for the issue pattern sword.

On his back is a leather snapsack, the dyed and sueded leather it is made from being probably initially intended for more fashionable purposes.

He has two pairs of hose, the outer pair, sewn from material of stouter construction, left loose, and closed sided shoes.

He carries a full length matchlock musket, but no rest.