DASHING UNION CAPTAIN’S SHORT JACKET AND VEST

DASHING UNION CAPTAIN’S SHORT JACKET AND VEST

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$9,500.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1314-02

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A very good example of short, non-regulation style popular among officers, both foot and mounted, for comfort and for style, for which the officer who wore this one had a flair. (“Shades of Custer,” we might say.) The jacket is dark blue with short, 1” tall, collar faced with black velvet piped along the lower edge with 1/8” flat gold braid. He dispensed with shoulder straps and decided to use more elegant sleeve knots of the sort seen in black on some cloak coats, but made of 3/16” flat gold braid arranged in five loops, two small and two large, with the braid then rising much higher in a pointed oblong reaching 14-1/4” above the cuff edge, with the sleeves showing a fashionable 9-1/2” width at the elbow.  The front is closed by nine large general staff buttons and the non-functional cuffs are each fitted with three small ones. The large buttons have Extra Quality backmarks. The smaller have unmarked tin backs. The interior is lined in a greenish-brown material, densely quilted in lines and curves in the chest, sides and shoulders. The interior is fitted with a single, horizontal pocket in the lower left, the opening level with fourth buttonhole from the bottom.

The condition is very good. The colors are strong, with the gold braid is slightly muted by age. We see one moth hole about ¼” by 3/8” in the lower back, just right of center, 6” above the waist with a pencil-point nip about 1-1/2” to its lower left. The gold braid has pulled its stitches and loosened in a few places. From the center of the back of the collar it is loose for about 6” on the wearer’s right, but still sewn for the last couple of inches to the front and when the jacket it laid out or on a form, it is held in place by the curvature of the cloth. On the left sleeve the lower row, circling the back of the cuff has become detached for 6” or 7” but none is missing. On the right sleeve 2” of the outer row in the middle of the forward edge of the tall loop lack their stitching and on the back of right cuff the upper row of braid is missing just a 1” piece where it meets the sleeve seam, the only place where a piece is actually missing.

This is accompanied by the officer’s vest, which has a dark blue front and typical brown polished cotton back fitted a two-piece adjusting belt of the same material and two-prong frame buckle. The short, 7/8” standing collar is blue all around, and the vest buttons up to the throat with 9 small general staff buttons with unmarked tin backs. It is fitted with two exterior pockets at the waist and one at the left breast, in line with the bottom of the arm hole. The interior is lined in white. The condition is very good, though on either side there is a 3” tear along the side seam joining the front and back. We see no stains, holes or moth damage.

We note in passing that this jacket and vest seem to be the ones pictured in “Army Blue”
(Vol. 1, p. 137,) where the jacket is somewhat ignominiously described as a “stable jacket,” and erroneously identified as belonging to “First Lieutenant Abraham Ryerson, Fifth New York Independent Battery.” After enlisting as a private in the 4th NY Independent Battery in October 1861 and a meteoric rise to corporal in September 1863, Ryerson transferred to the 5th Independent Battery in December 1863, where he made sergeant on October 13, 1864, a week before mustering out on October 21, 1864. Nor does his pension index card indicate he served in any other unit or at any higher rank. Two other Abraham Ryersons were likewise only enlisted men; an Abraham G. Ryerson did serve in the field and staff of the 22nd NJ, but as a Chaplain. Several Ryersons with other first names appear in the volunteer register of officers, but that would seem to be reaching, since we do not know the basis for the identification in the first place.

We also note the photo caption for the jacket in “Army Blue” seems confused on the rank indicated by the two rows of braid, likening the knots to those used on Confederate uniforms, and noting parenthetically, “although two loops were used by the South for first lieutenants.” By “loops” the writer clearly means rows of braid, and likely he also meant to say the two rows in Confederate service (as on US officer overcoat cuffs) indicated a Captain, where Ryerson, he thought, was a First Lieutenant. The greater problem, of course, is that Ryerson was neither.

Regardless of an identification, the uniform in any case is impressive and eye-catching, as the original owner undoubtedly intended. It would be the centerpiece of almost any uniform display and perfectly suited to a cavalry officer’s display, especially if  supplemented by a sash and sword belt. Not to put too fine a point on it, this shows off like gangbusters. [sr][ph:L]

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