Another Tait Question

[nmilbury]

Hello all,
Since I can no longer use the search function :( , and I havn't been able to find anything online, can someone help me out. On Chris Daley's website and in Jensen's article on confederate coats, it states that some Tait jackets were trimmed in red, and these were issued to confederate infantry; also many 'hats and caps' were imported from Britain. My question is, did Tait Co. make headgear such as kepi's as part of uniformed sets, and would these be trimmed with red, as the jackets were?
Sincerely,
Nathan Milbury

[CJDaley]

My question is, did Tait Co. make headgear such as kepi's as part of uniformed sets, and would these be trimmed with red, as the jackets were?

While there are extant kepis, trowsers and vests made from imported English army cloth, there are no examples of those three garments actually being produced by Tait.

We know that Tait made other types of uniforms for the Confederacy besides jackets, but have no idea what the pattern or design looked like. Again, there are examples out of the same material, but none attributed to Tait. I hope this answers your questions.

[nmilbury]

Thanks Chris :D ,
I guess this is kind of like the example of Richmond Depot Type I's. We know they existed, but there are no surviving examples to examine.
Sincerely,
Nathan

[Scott Sherlock]

About Chris's comment on no existing Tait pants...

FYI--the MD Historical Society has the blue collared version of the Tait jacket on display. (8 buttons--
6 MD, 2 federal staff, blue collar) Included in the display are the same fellow's blue gray pants
--to my mind the color and cloth of the pants is identical to that of the jacket. Apparently there is documentation that the person, a soldier with the 2nd MD received the jacket and pants, as part of a
set, while detailed to a sharpshooter battalion

My instinct is if there are "Tait" pants in existence, those are them. Of course you would need to
actually look at the pants to confirm this....

Scott Sherlock

[nmilbury]

Scott,
Thanks for that. That is very interesting, I guess someone should examine these to make sure they are similar in construction and techniques to confirm if they could be Tait pants.
Sincerely,
Nathan Milbury

[CJDaley]

I guess someone should examine these to make sure they are similar in construction and techniques to confirm if they could be Tait pants.

They have been looked at by a few folks already. In fact the "Richmond Depot" pattern that is being sold by County Cloth is based off of this pair. There is no evidence that these trowsers are anything other than domestically made trowsers produced from imported fabric.

As said, there are trowsers, caps and overcoats that were made here and imported, but no one really has evidence to suggest that the trowsers in the MD Hist Soc were made abroad.

[Scott Sherlock]

Interesting issue though. The basis for the information that the jacket and pants were issued as a set is
from a book by a fellow named Hartzler(spelling is possibly wrong) writing in a book called a Photographic
Accompaniment to Marylanders in the Confederacy.

Scott Sherlock

[RyanBWeddle]

It was said earlier -

Just because they were possibly issued as a set does not automatically authenticate them as 'imported' or 'Tait'. They are most likely a domestically produced pair of trowsers made from an imported wool.

No surviving examples of a foreign produced confederate trowser exist.

Thousands upon thousands of yards of wool cloth were imported into the CS, it is well documented through the National Archives, and other sources that: Blue, Dark Blue, Royal, Blue-Grey, Grey-Blue, Gray, etc. etc. "BALES" of cloth came into the Confederacy for use in the garment depots of the south.

As to the original question of headgear, I have never run across nor heard of finished kepis being imported or made by any foreign contract. AGAIN, there are numerous examples of DOMESTICALLY made headgear from woolens of a foreign/imported origin.

These terms must be kept in mind when talking about these things, because it seems alot of the time stuff/ideas/concepts get lumped together and mislead people....

Anyways -

[Michael McComas]

No surviving examples of a foreign produced confederate trowser exist.


I would ammend that statement to specify enlisted trowser. There are several officers' garments which have foreign provenance.