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PATTERN 1873 US ARMY BARRACKS BEDDING BLANKET –
KNOWN AS THE “CALIFORNIA BLANKET” - VERY NICE RARE EARLY
INDIAN WARS SPECIMEN: This is a rare specimen
of the early Indian Wars Pattern 1873 Bedding Blanket.
Described on page 112 of Randy Stephen’s The Horse
Soldier 1776-1943, Volume II, and discussed on pages
104 and 174 in Douglas McChristian’s The US Army in
the West 1870-1880, the Pattern 1873 Bedding Blanket
was adopted under General Order 76 in 1872 as a
replacement for the substandard blankets still in
surplus from the Civil War.
The army acknowledged that many of the blankets
purchased during the Civil War were simply not up to
standard, made with shoddy material and prone to
disintegrate under the most mild of conditions, much
less the use to which they were put in the field. The
army discovered that a high quality blanket was then
currently being produced by the Mission and Pacific
Woolen Mills in San Francisco and once it was adopted,
it became known in the army correspondence of the period
as the “California Blanket”.
This blanket features the correct gray tightly woven
high quality wool body with 3 ½” wide black stripes at
each end, 6” from the end of the blanket. This blanket
measures 79” long and 59” wide, very close to the
original dimensions and well within the range of
shrinkage normally encountered in these blankets as
caused by the aging of the wool and repeated washings
through the years.
This blanket is in overall very good condition.
There are some faded spots
in the general center of the blanket and almost dead
center there is a tattered spot approximately 2” in
diameter where the wool fibers have been worn away,
leaving the weft strands mostly intact. This is less of
a hole and more of a wear spot where something abraded
against the blanket material, and when the blanket is
folded or rolled, this area will not detract from your
display. When originally issued, these blankets had a
“U.S.” stenciled with ink or paint in the center of the
blanket, but as with this specimen, this marking soon
wore away with use and cleaning and is seldom found
intact. While during the 19TH Century,
blankets were normally issued with unbound ends,
industrious soldiers wanting to make their blankets more
durable, turned and whip stitched the ends of the
blankets and such is the case with this blanket.
These blankets were one of the
most basic pieces of the standard equipment issued to
each frontier soldier. As the Pattern 1873 “California”
Blankets were issued for only three years until they
were replaced by the Pattern 1876 Blankets, it stands to
reason that these blankets did not survive in great
numbers due to the limited number issued and the hard
use they experienced in service - both in the barracks
and in the field. As they passed on as surplus to the
multitude of post-army agencies, charities and retail
stores they were simply used up with little to no regard
for their historical value. This early Indian Wars
bedding blanket is a rare item, particularly when found
in this condition, and it will certainly add to your
collection, displayed with a soldier’s field kit, on a
Model 1872 Barracks Bed, or rolled up on the cantle of
an Indian War saddle.
SOLD
NOTE: THE LIGHT STREAKS SHOWING ON THE BLANKET
IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS BELOW ARE RAYS OF SUNLIGHT SHINING ON
THE BLANKET AND NOT FADING, BLEACHED AREAS, OR
DISCOLORATION IN THE MATERIAL, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED IN
THE DESCRIPTION ABOVE.
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