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ca. 1880’s INDIAN WARS FIVE
BUTTON BLOUSE OR UNIFORM COAT – EXCELLENT CONDITION:
This original 1880’s Five Button Enlisted Man’s Blouse
is a remarkably nice specimen. Due to the environments
in which they were worn, and that the relatively few
which did survive being poorly stored, finding any of
the Indian Wars era blouses in decent condition is
notable. In the case of this blouse, while obviously
issued and worn, it could not have been worn heavily,
perhaps one the soldier held back to wear on special
occasions or for special assignments. This specimen
definitely rates as genuinely one of the cream of the
crop when compared to available Indian War era blouses.
Due to the several changes in pattern and features to
which the standard blouse was subjected during the
Indian Wars era, several features ordered in earlier
patterns such as button or pocket placement bled over
into subsequent patterns. This was the result of the
Quartermaster’s efforts to exhaust the quantities of
existing stocks of clothing before producing a newer
pattern. Where possible, the new changes ordered for
the blouses were incorporated in those currently in the
manufacturing pipeline or those which had not yet been
issued.
In the best of circumstances, there were no distinct
lines of demarcation in the issue or use of any of the
clothing, weapons, or equipment during the Indian War
era, as is documented in period photographs. Driven by
limited finances and huge stocks of material left over
from the Civil War, the army made every effort to use up
the existing inventory prior to even manufacturing new
material, much less issuing it. So when the army came
to the point of manufacturing new uniforms such as these
five button blouses, and the patterns changed as often
as they did, it is no surprise that some combinations of
features of the different patterns is often encountered
in surviving examples of these Indian War period
uniforms.
Further fogging the identification of distinct patterns,
there were issues of uniforms provided to the soldiers
in kit form, which would be assembled by local company
level tailors. In the process of assembling the
uniforms, a certain level of custom tailoring by the
soldiers was not only tolerated by their company and
regimental officers, but based on period photographs,
this practice may very well have been encouraged to a
point, as the soldiers sought to make their uniforms
more stylish or functional. The practice of local unit
assembly and the allowance for custom tailoring combined
to allow considerable latitude which resulted in
combining features of different regulation patterns.
These characteristics are well documented and described
in John Langellier’s More Army Blue – The Uniform of
Uncle Sam’s Regulars 1874-1887 (both of these
volumes are highly recommended).
This blouse closely follows the general patterns for the
Unlined Blouses adopted by the Quartermaster Department
during the 1880’s. This blouse most closely follows the
general pattern adopted by the Quartermaster Department
in the mid-1880’s with the square corners at the bottom
of the front opening and the single interior breast
pocket.
The blouse features the collar style and five button
front that is consistent with the patterns adopted
starting in the mid-1870’s and continued through the
1880’s.
The bottom of the blouse and the
sleeve cuffs are hemmed and nicely finished. These hems
are not always featured on these blouses - some blouses
having these cloth edges being left unfinished, and
possibly an indicator of the skill of the post tailor.
The body is lined with black polished cotton cloth which
is fully intact and showing almost no evidence of wear.
The sleeves are lined with an unbleached beige cotton
cloth, finished at the cuffs with a black gross grain
band. Like the body lining, the lining is fully intact
in both sleeves, including at the arm holes and at the
cuffs – two areas which are commonly found heavily worn
or tattered.
The five original General Service buttons are intact
down the front of the blouse. There are no buttons at
the cuffs and from what I can determine, there were
never any buttons originally sewn to this blouse.
This blouse shows some indications of gentle use and
wear, but has survived in overall excellent condition as
a very respectable specimen of genuine Indian War era
uniforming worn on the frontier. The wool is very solid
with no weak points, and no open seams. There are a
couple of very minor moth nips, so small that I gave up
trying to photograph them. As noted above, both the
body lining and the sleeve lining is intact, showing
very little wear. The hems at the bottom of the blouse
and sleeves are in excellent condition, unusual to find
on these original uniforms.
Overall, this is a very nice specimen of an Indian War
era uniform blouse which would never need to be
upgraded, and one that would be an attractive addition
to your collection. (0118) $875
NOTE: To say that photographing
dark blue wool is a challenge is an understatement. In
normal lighting, it appears black and none of the finer
features or condition details can be seen clearly. In
order to highlight the features, the even dark blue wool
appears to have faded or discolored. This coat has an
even dark blue color as is seen in the overall full
views, the odd coloring coming out when the smaller
details of the coat are photographed so as to be
visible.
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