A Confederate general boasted that with Confederate infantry and Yankee artillery, he could “whip the world.” This is a great example of the regulation Civil War jacket for Union light artillery: those who might have had to walk alongside or ride the caissons and limbers of the horse drawn guns, and those who had their own mounts in the horse artillery, trying to keep up and support the federal cavalry in fast moving engagements.

This jacket is a mint example with wonderful deep blue color to the wool body and vivid red to the piping indicating the branch of service. All the small eagle general service enlisted man’s buttons are in place: two on each side of the collar at the false button holes, twelve down the front, and two at each cuff. The back shows the two arcs of piping in place, extending from armpit to waist and around the top and bottom of the two pillows intended to bear some of the weight of the soldier’s sword belt.

The loose-weave grayish brown lining is in place and complete, and shows no wear spots or runs, though the stitching joining it to the white sleeve linings has given way in a couple spots. No fabric is missing, however, and it would only require a few stitches to close it up. The sleeve linings are in place and complete and one shows the blurred remnant of a US inspector’s stamp along with the jacket size marking of two dots and an Arabic “2,” indicating its size according to the army’s standardized size charts. The other sleeve shows a slightly blurred blue ink inscription with a name, company and unit, but this is likely something put in by fountain pen within the past fifty years or so. Even in the 1970s reenactors were still able to purchase mint surplus jackets like this for wear, though whoever marked it luckily did not wear it much. It remains a mint example of a very showy Civil War uniform.  [sr]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS,

CLICK ON ‘CONTACT US’ AT THE TOP OF ANY PAGE ON THE SITE,

THEN ON ‘LAYAWAY POLICY’.

THANK YOU!