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REGULATION CIVIL WAR U.S. ARMY ISSUE BLANKET

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This is a scarce, original Civil War U.S. army issue blanket in excellent condition, formerly on display in the Texas Civil War Museum. These blankets were a basic and essential piece of army gear, often among the first things issued to a recruit, jealously guarded, and carried on campaign by veterans even when things like knapsacks might be jettisoned or left behind, serving for warmth at night, and rolled up with a few essentials inside and worn in a large horseshoe over one shoulder on the march. They were hardly of the highest quality to begin with, and were so useful in postwar civilian life that the few brought home were mostly worn out by further practical use and then simply discarded. This is completely original and a rare survivor.

This is full length, measuring 66” by 80” overall. The ends are unfinished, as it was issued, and are intact where many have unraveled or been shredded over the years. Official dimensions were to be 66” long by 84”, but surviving blankets show a good deal of variation from those specifications and from each other, due to shrinkage from use in the field, age, etc. One survey of just 18 examples- hardly representative, given the hundreds of thousands made- found widths ranging from 66 to 68 inches and lengths from 78 to 81 inches.

This has just a very few, small holes and thin stains, and still retains the large “US” in the center, stitched in yarn, as is correct, in open-top block letters 5-1/2” tall using three lines of yarn. These are consonant with other examples, officially specified as to be 4” tall, but varying considerably by the maker or the worker employed to put them in since they were applied by hand, and from stretching or shrinking in use, with six examples alone showing variations from 4-1/2 to 5-1/4” in height. The letters are also found made with a running stitch or a chain stitch and formed sometimes by three lines, as here, sometimes in two, sometimes with the tops open and sometimes closed, and the letters in block form, or contoured and occasionally even with serifs. Those with letters like these, three lines and open tops, sometimes gain preference among collectors as the same form used on the M1851 army blankets that were part of an exchange of sample military gear with Denmark in 1858, but there are quite a few acceptable wartime variations.

The blanket also shows the expected weave and color, with the twill weave producing a diagonal “wale” to the fabric and the fabric showing a sand, tan or light brown color, with brown tones to the end stripes and a slight green tinge to the yarn of the US. Specifications called for the blankets to be gray and the lettering, and likely the end stripes, black. Some scholars have posited that “grey wool” as specified not to color, but simple undyed and unprocessed wool. On the other hand, vegetable dyes can shift quite a bit from the environment and over time, and iron mordants used in logwood dyes oxidize very quickly, producing brown tones, resulting in even period references to, and paintings of, brown blankets. For reference, we refer to Fred Gaede’s 1984 article on the Danish Exchange Blanket in the CMH Journal (1984) V. 36.2, to his 2000 article in The Watchdog, and to the chapter on the Army Blanket by the redoubtable Ed Quigley in John Tobey’s extremely well done 2006 Columbia Rifles Research Compendium.

We note the letters “TD” stenciled in black near one corner, likely the owner’s initials. Another spot just above an end stripe shows what may be the remnants of smaller stenciled letters, but is too faint to make out or be certain that’s what it is.

This is a top shelf, excellent example of a basic, but scarce piece of Civil War soldiers’ gear that merits a place in any Civil War collection or display. It would be hard to equal or surpass for condition.  [sr] [ph:L]

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