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EXTREMELY RARE CIVIL WAR ARMY ISSUE CAVALRY BOOT

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Boots of the Civil War period are not that uncommon, but U.S. army issue cavalry boots from the Civil War certainly are. This is one of the inelegant patterns replaced in 1872 by similar, but taller (15” front and 14” side-seam) boots with contoured but slightly larger tops to better allow trousers to be tucked into them, using more robust brass-screwed soles, and pull tabs that were set slightly lower, and half inside and half outside the boot. Both patterns used a side seam, replaced with a back seam and other changes in 1884 that made them more impressive. The toe is rather square and the soles are pegged, reinforced with four round-head iron tacks on either side of the instep in front of the heel, which consists of five layers nailed in place on the bottom of the sole. The side seam is about 9 ½” and the fronts, with a very slight point stand about 10 ½ above the sole. The pull tab is missing on the left, but in place on the right and is correctly sewn to the inside of the boot, about 4 ½” long, with about 2” standing above the edge of the boot. The tabs are smooth side out. The boots themselves, like army issue shoes, are rough-side-out.

The boots are solid, and rather stiff, so they keep their shape. The leg shows some creases from wear. The only holes are a 1 1/2” opening of the side seam at the left ankle and 1” slits on either side of the vamp, about 3 ½” back from the toe, that have opened slightly, perhaps from the toe area being pressed down slightly after they had been discarded and the leather hardened, but these are not obtrusive. The leather shows as a dusty black with some white and gray stains. The soles and uppers are firmly attached and the boot both displays well and can be handled. The boot was likely discarded because of wear to the outer sole, creating a hole about 3 by 3 ½ inches on most of the ball of the foot that has disclosed the underside of the inner sole. The edges of the outer sole bordering this wear spot show rounding, indicating the trooper kept wearing it for some time regardless. We see one small touch of personalization. There is a row of small holes along the upper edge of the front of the boot, with a few more just slightly below the center, indicating the trooper sewed on a narrow border, likely a thin leather and perhaps colored as a decorative touch that would be visible only when his trousers were tucked into his boots, whereas at the time the tendency was to wear them under the trousers. (See McChristian on this point.)

The condition of this boot is so good that on its own it would be taken as a barn or attic-find, but in fact was excavated at Fort Pembina, North Dakota, where anaerobic soil conditions have yielded both cloth and leather in remarkable states of preservation. (Excavations were done on private property with the owner’s permission.) The fort was situated in the Red River Valley in North Dakota near the Canadian border. Trading posts existed earlier in the area as part of the fur trade, and the first U.S. military post there was temporary- manned by a detachment of Minnesota troops in 1863-1864 following the 1862 Sioux uprising. In March 1870 a new fort was established south of the Pembina River and about 200 yards west of the Red River, completed by July and named in honor of Gen. George H. Thomas. The name was changed to Fort Pembina in September and the initial garrison consisted of two companies of the 20^th US Infantry. As was typical of the army at this period, the troops were uniformed and equipped from government stocks left over from the Civil War. Only in 1872 did patterns start to change and even then the army made an effort to use up old material to save expense and storage space.

The main purpose of the fort was to provide security for settlers worried about Sioux returning south from Canada, but much of their duty involved escorting boundary surveys along the Canadian border and preventing Fenian raids heading north into Canada. The post included enlistedmen’s barracks, officers’ quarters, guard house, ordnance storehouse, company kitchen, root house, laundress’s quarters, quarters for civilian employees, hospital and hospital servant’s house, a barn for the “hospital cow,” quartermaster and commissary offices and storehouse, stables, wagon shed, etc. The garrison reached peak strength in 1878 of 200, but the average was about 125 enlisted men and 8 officers. An October 1885 return listed 97 men, 2 field pieces, 1 mountain howitzer, 100 rifles, 19 pistols, 23 mules, and 9 wagons. By 1890 the post had just 23 men, and after an 1895 fire destroyed some 19 buildings it was decided to abandon the fort rather than rebuild. The last detachment left in September, the property was turned over to the Interior Department, and later sold in 1902.

Real Civil War army-issue boots are extremely scarce. They had been intended to be worn under the trousers as practical protection for the trooper’s lower leg, were hardly the romantic boots of a cavalier, the sort of thing to be preserved by a soldier for sentimental reasons, or treasured by a family in honor of the veteran’s service. Nevertheless, they were an essential piece of gear and this one would merit a place in a Civil War cavalry collection and display or one devoted the frontier army of the early Indian War.  [sr] [ph:L]

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