Cap is made of a dark blue wool and is in very good condition.

The exterior seams are all tight. The body of the cap has seven very small repairs scattered over its surface. These look to have been little moth bites that were sewn shut. Repairs were well done and they are spread out enough that they do not hurt the display of the cap.

The disc of the crown is in nice shape with no moth action worth mentioning. There is a small repair to the cloth covering the reed that outlines the crown. Again, this is well done.

The side buttons are two-piece general service eagle buttons with a thin leather chinstrap complete with the original sliding brass keeper and both leather keepers. The visor is strongly attached to the cap and has an unbound edge. Surface finish shows light wear around the edges.

Interior has a well-used and well-worn sweatband. It is complete but looks to have been made of two separate halves. There is a seam at back center and another at the front center and the two halves have a different color. One surface is more worn than the other and the leather has a different surface finish. The brown polished cotton lining is complete but one side has come loos along the top edge. Lining is present at the bottom of the crown and still retains its paper label reading “SIZE NO. 2, 6 7/8, US ARMY, L.J & I.P….” the very bottom edge of the tag is gone.

Lewis J. and Isaac Phillips of New York had huge army contracts for caps every year of the war, furnishing some 35,000 in 1861, 175,000 or more in 1862, 251,000 in 1863, 330,200 in 1864, and even 50,000 on a contract of January 1, 1865. If there is such a thing as a typical Union army forage cap of the Civil War, it is likely one by L.J & I Phillips.   [ad][ph:L]

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