A very interesting cavalry jacket showing an alteration occasionally seen in photographs, but not often found among existing examples of Civil War uniforms. This is a regulation jacket of blue wool and yellow trim, made at the Schuylkill Arsenal and bearing their "SA" stamp inside one sleeve with a numeral "1" and a single dot indicating it is a Size 1, along with a "7," which is probably the individual seamstress's number or the inspector's number. Both sleeve and body lining are plain white muslin.
In this case the wearer decided he wanted a lower collar and reduced its height down to the level of the lower row of false button holes on either side. The front trim was left in place and pokes up slightly along the collar edge at the throat opening, but the top edge trim was not replaced. The upper portion of the collar was simply trimmed off and the fabric crudely stitched over.
To make the jacket a bit nattier, the wearer also shortened the jacket at the bottom, eliminating the lowest button and button hole at the waist, and also doing away with the awkward pillow belt supports at the rear waist. He then used the material to patch together a lining along the waist. The same brown thread being used in both modifications. The sleeves were not taken in, so I suspect the waist alteration was more for fashion than necessity. Civil War trousers were very high waisted and shell jackets sometimes came down to a point well below the waistbelt.
I purchased this with some GAR uniform pieces, but there was no family history available.
I include with this a dark blue GAR vest and pair of dark blue GAR trousers. The vest is typical of the veteran's organization: multiple pockets, made to be worn with lapels open, and GAR buttons.
The cavalry jacket shows the wearer to have been small- not unusual for a cavalryman- and the GAR vest and trousers show that he did not change much over the years. The shoulder measurements of both garments seem to match, and the trousers have an internal 32-inch waist and 28 inch inseam. One stain on the interior of the cavalry jacket, otherwise very little wear and very good color to wool and trim. An excellent example of a scarce variation.
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