Evening star., 1898-06-04
PROVIDING UNIFORMS
A Big Undertaking at the Begin
ming of a War.
CLOTHES FOR THE ARMY and NAVY
Letting the Contracts and Arrang-
ing for Distribution.
S E RVICE REG GULATIONS S
Written for The Evening Star.

1 Written for The Evening Star.
Clothing the army and navy is one of the
| most important problems presented to the
| War and Navy Departments for solution
| The quartermaster general performs the
task for the army and the paymaster gem
eral for the navy. In time of peace the
DUTY involves considerable labor. In time
| OF war, ana especially at the beginning Of
| Eestihues, when the public are crying for
a million men to be enlisted, clothed and
| put at the front in 4 minute. the task as
sumes the proportions of mountain in
| fog.
Take the quartermaster general, for in
| stance. 1t is his duty to see that the big
| army which the President has called to
| give battle to the Spanish is clothed at the
very earliest p1ssible mon ent His usual
| sources of supply are quickly exhausted
| Others must be found. New clothing must
be made The. first thing the arlermaster
genera! does IS to ascertain, as nearly as
| pt ssibie the exact number of suits re,,uir-
| ed, the kind of suits, the number of shoes
and urderclothing. also hats. The exact
KIND KIN is then specified in detail. and man
| u1acturers and jobbers in that line Of
| business are invited to submit bids for the
| Whole or part of the clothing needed Ac-
compar ying every bid is a check to guaran-
| tee that the terms of the contract will be
carried out to the letter
Inese bids are submitted, together with
! samples or the goods required. The bids
are carefully examined and compared and
the lowest bidder Qhe quality of goods be-
Ing satisfactory gets the contract The
| goods contracted for must be ready on
| time and delivered to the government.
w. wren they are delivered they are inspected
py government officials and. If all right ac-
| cepted: Then they are forwarded TO the
store house Of the army at philadelphia
to await orders
/ When ;e
| into the United States service the captain
OF each company makes out a renuisition
| Ior the number of uniforms needed ard
ior"aras as the requisition to the quartermas-
| Ter OF the regiment. The colonel approves
OF the 1equisition, and then it is forwarded
| 10 the brigade quartermaster who, f he
Las not the clothes required on hand.
| makes requistion on the corus ouartar
| Taster. The latter, when uniforms are
| reeded makes a requistion on the quarter
| master general. who draws the supplies
needed from the depot at Philadelphia.
Distributing the Uniforms.
Upon the delivery of the clothing to the
lesimeh'ai quartermaster. the captains of
| the several companies are notified. The
| captains march their men to headouarte-s
ana there they receive the clothing amor
toned to them and for which the canaan
| gives receipt to the regimental quarter
master who keeps it for mis- voucher The
same formula for the issuing of clothypg ;s
followed in the navy.
The army and navy uniforms are made
IN nearly every large city of the Union. and
the cost of those for the privates is about
h;it ~, ana 90 those Tor men before the mast is
aoout IS per man. The officers, uniforms
range IN price from $50 to SD bullet
VIII, however, pierce the one as quickly as
the other. The uniform of the general
Cf1lcerS of the army is a double breasted
blouse of dark blue cloth or serge with
Tour outside patch pockets with fans a
roliing collar, with two rows of buttons
grouped ,. according to rank. of the same
kind as those worn on the dress coat For
all other officers a single-breasted blouse
Is worn, of dark blue cloth or serge with
tour outside pockets with flaps falling
co,rar' eo WI nve buttons in front of the
same kind as those worn on the dress
coat. The skirt of the dress coat extends
from one-third to one-haf the distance
from the hip joint to the knee
Substantial Footwear.
Quite as important as the clothes are the
shoes. For Cuban service the men will
wear dark brown canvas clothes but the
shoes will be the same as worn at home
Ihey are common brogans these shoes
stout of upper and mighty of sole and heel
In fact, the army shoe is not thing of
beauty, but on the march 1t is a ioy for
ever as every veteran knows. They are
made OF cowhide. and If possible of the
hide or very tough COW at that They
are exceedingly broad of sole and heel
and are made with the double view of Sc
,uiiiS ana comfort.
AT the beginning Of the civil war shoes
were considered feminine and were but
little worn. Boots were the fashion, and
they were made to fit like a kid glove The
volunteers for some months after the war
began clung to boots. not fancyine the nm
ccuth shoe; but after a while necessity
forced men to accept the shoes (pontoons
they were called by the soldiers), and after
being worn for a few days they were voted
luxury next to milk in coffee. The ser
vice shoe is made by contract and aver
ages in cost IS cents per pair.
The regulation sock is made of wool and
so coarse TO give promise that II will
last through this war Then there is the
wooden undershiTt. 1t is very inportant
part of the soldiers clothing. He is given
one of these underShirtS, which is made
of wool. He must wash it himself. wiring,
it out, and let 1t dry on his body if he is
on the march. This method of cleanliness
applies also to The drawers and is possibly
accountable for a soldiers walk suggesting
that his thoughts are busy with something
else than the much-talked-of romance of
war. This wouldn't happen were the SOL
dier to receive two suits of underclothes
But economy, and disinclnation to in
crease the weight the soldier has to carry
on his back when marching, have induced
the government to restrict it's warriors
bold In the ranks to one suit of under
Clothes apiece. The warrior in the ranks
may not like it, but it is noticed that when
he comes home frcm the war his vocabu- |
larry is the richer.
In the Navy.
The sailor men fare better in the mat
ter of clothes than the soldier boys on |
land The sailors have one pair of blue !
and two pairs of white trousers, one white |
and one blue blouse one suit of oilskins.
two suits of white canvas working clothes
Cne blue cap one white cover for cap one /
oflskin sou'wester. two pairs of shoes, and |
last, but, in the language of soldier, mot |
least by hanged sight," two suits of un- |
derclothes. !
The troops of the country might be |
clothed more cheaply were the pattern and |
quality of uniforms worn by the troops of |
several foreign countries followed here
But this government insists that its SOL
diers and sailors must look well, and it is |
a Mell-knoMn fact that members of the din