The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-04-04
The Clothes We Wore.

"The old blue coat that the soldier
wore " is the refrain of very stirring
war-poem, written by Bishop Burgess.
There is much that might be said in
prose on the same subject, and | will
try to say some of it. If an unin-
structed civilian were to turn to that
part of the United States army regula-
tions which prescribes the uniform, he
might well think that the principal
business of the soldier-particularl
the commissioned soldier-was to dress.
He would be fairly bewildered with all
the details of the cut, the description
and the number of military garments,
the gold lace, the gold cord and what
not, that makes military tailoring an art
by itself. But if the same civilian
could have few months experience
in the field with the soldiers he would
see that all this " fuss and feathers"
was of little account. He would dis
cover that when thirty. or forty thou
sand men in two armies are marching
about the country in all kinds of
weather, sleeping on the ground nights,
and particularly seeking an oppor-
tunity to fall to and kill each other, the
question as to how many buttons each
one has on his coat becomes of very
minor importance. Yet there were
some of the volunteer regiments that
practically knew all there was in
the regulations about dazzling uni
forms. That depended very much on
the situation. AT some of the forts
about Washington, at Fortress Monroe,
at various military headquarters where
there was permanent garrison,
whether regular or volunteer, the SOL
diers were apt to swell out in what
was known as "full fig" The appear
ance of regiment on dress parade was,
of course, made much more impressive
and picturesque by full uniform. 1t
looked pretty as picture; and while such
exhibitions did not directly help much in
putting down the rebellion, yet they were
apt to stimulate the pride of the soldier
/ suppose the theory was that anything
that keeps up mans pride ministers to
his courage and at the critical time
makes better fighter of him. But the
"full uniform of the regulations was
rare thing among the volunteers. / can
illustrate the fact no better than to say
that during almost four years of service
i did not see half dozen pair of epau-
lets. The comrades will readily recall
the changes that an active campaign
made in the appearance of the clothes
of an army. Twenty thousand men
might set out on march of two hun
dred miles, each one wearing that
ridiculous little lop-over cap that some
authority in the war department fifty
years ago thought the correct thing for
the soldier as " fatigue headgear In
two days, if you rode along the dusty
columns of that army as they pegged
along with the route step, you might
not be able to see hundred of these
little deformities, because soldiers on
active campaign will be comfortable if
it is possible to be so. 1t was often a
mystery to know where all the straw
hats came from on such time as that
The volunteers would have something
to protect their heads from the southern
sun on the march, and they got it some
where, and their officers were not foolish
enough to try to interfere with their
personal comfort in this respect. Such,
at least, was the case with those parts
of the great Union army with which
my campaigning was done. IL is not
difficult to recall times of active cam
paigning when there was very little
difference to be seen in the dress of the
officers and the enlisted men. The blue
blouse of flannel was very comfortable
in sultry weather, so many of the line
officers adopted it. Often did it hap
pen that payday had not been seen in
the particular regiment for four or six
months, and at such times it was a
positive relief to the captains and lieu
tenants to be able to supply themselves
with the coarse blue blouse and light
blue trousers of the private soldier,
drawn from the quartermaster and
duly charged to the officer on the ne xt
muster and payroll. Had it not been