Interesting Artillery Jacket

[dclarry]

I have posted this picture of original Battery F, 1st PA Light Artillery members before, but I am posting it again to see if anyone has any information or comments on the jackets the men are wearing.

The two artillerymen, Moore and Patterson, are wearing shell jackets which can not be classified as SA or StL arsenal pattern. They have only nine buttons, not 11 or 12, and short collars with only one row of trim. They look very similar to the New York State Artillery Jacket shown in color in Don Troiani's Civil War: Cavalry & Artillery.

Men often modified their artillery jackets by having the collar shortened by a tailor. There areabout 6-8 pictures of original Battery F members in the unit history, all showing the lowered collar. A tailor may have modified the whole unit's jackets, or these could have been isued this way. The nine buttons is certainly odd. Could Pennsylvannia have issued its own style artillery jacket? I do not know.

Does anybody know anything about this style of artillery jacket?

[roundshot]

I have been puzzled by these myself. Perhaps they are "veterans jackets" or a commercially offered variant of the regulation artillery shell. With the lower collar they obviously had great appeal. The cuffs look to be non-functional as well. Nine buttoned untrimmed jackets are seen in quite a few photos of PA infantrymen, but these usually have three-button cuffs. Great photo. Thanks for posting.

[Wild Rover]

I had heard that the 126th PA Infantry was issued "state jackets" as well. If I remember right, Jerry Hornbaker had a pattern of this style jacket, which looks very simular to the photos.

Might be a connection, might not, just thought I would pass it along.

Pards,

[verg]

6th PA Cav (Rush's) wore these early on with yellow lace. Could this have been a PA issue thing?

[rgilbert]

Here is a little more background on the image. It, along with copies of other images and documents, was passed on to the battery by a Moore ancestor. The family believes LEC (Eugene) Moore may have been 17 years old when he enlisted, family lore is he always stated he was 18, however family records suggest different. An image of Moore when he first enlisted shows a very young man, much younger appearing then the one posted. Just as an aside, correspondence of Moore's indicates he and Patterson were close friends.

Moore was a corporal/ gunner at Gettysburg. There being no chevrons on the jacket in the image, suggest it was taken before Gettysburg? Perhaps this little additional info can help someone id these jackets.

[dclarry]

Well, I asked here if anybody knew anything about these short-collar 'Pennsylvannia' artillery jackets, and then posed the question to Nick ************. He, in turn, challenged me to provide documentation for their use. I shared the unit history of 1st Penn. Lt. Artillery Battery F (Rickett's Battery) with him, in which all the artillery jackets shown in all photographs have shortened collars. After more correspondence and research, Nick kindly agreed to make an artillery jacket which captures the look of the short-collar jackets with which some state volunteer units were originally provisioned, or were later modified. I am happy to say I have the first of Nick's 'Volunteer' jackets, a term, which while not period, is meant to invoke the type of unit which might have worn such jackets. You can check out the new Volunteer Jacket on Nick's new website, http://www.nj************.com .

This is not meant to be a sales pitch. I wanted to let you all know this thread has led somewhere. If you were ever tired of the high-collared SA MSJ, or wanted an early war 'Volunteer unit' look or company tailor-modified look, you should check out Nick's new Volunteer Jacket.

[marine05]

I had been told by a un-named gentleman at Gettysburg that the standard shells we wear with two strips of lace were correct for regulars, but volunteers had only 1 strip. This would probably account for the shorter collar. Now as the war progressed they wore what they were issued.

S/F

DJM

[dclarry]

I had been told by a un-named gentleman at Gettysburg that the standard shells we wear with two strips of lace were correct for regulars, but volunteers had only 1 strip. This would probably account for the shorter collar. Now as the war progressed they wore what they were issued.

S/F

DJM

Greetings from Landstuhl, Dan.

I think you are right on. I would guess that Battery F turned out at the War's start in their state/private-purchase/volunteer (whatever) short-collar jackets and as these wore out they wore whatever the by-then Federal Army issued them. The posed photos in the Battery F history are very, very likely early war. Since Battery F answered the call early on, they came wearing their own volunteer uniforms.

The short collar is seen in PA and also NY unit early war photos. What you also see is not scales, but the attachment points for scales. It's as though these artillerymen dropped their pre-war scales, but the attachment points were already sewed on so they left them. Afterall, it would take work to remove them.

For our Battery F, we should probably have a mix of short-collar MSJs (maybe with scale attachment points), standard high-collar MSJs (probably SA), and sack coats for the enlisted men. That would probably be a reasonable generic impression of Rickett's Battery. Some men would have retained their original short-collar jackets, some would have been issued SA jackets, and some would be in sack coats. In fact, that's what we will have.

Regards,

Lawrence

[roundshot]

Not just early war, late war too, as exhibited in this much discussed Petersburg photo from the LOC. This fellow might be from the 2nd PA Heavies, who wore Light Artillery shells throughout the war (except for two companies) and who garrisoned Petersburg after its fall. That is mere conjecture on my part however, although men onf the 2nd are seen in a considerable number of post siege photos.

[dclarry]

I saw the artillery jacket shown in the attached picture for sale on E-Bay. It's claimed to be original, and has only one row of collar buttons.

Interesting, and a bargain at only $2,100 . :)

I make this post only to indicate these short-collar jackets have extant examples (if we believe the E-Bay listing). I won't link to E-Bay , to avoid annoying the moderator, but the jacket is easy to find.

[rogue]

I once owned a similar jacket, one button/strap combination on the collar instead of two. The coat was marked to St. Louis in the sleeve lining.
And by the way, this eBay coat was listed at $1850.00 last week. If it does not sell, raise the price and try try again.
Steve Sullivan

[dclarry]

I once owned a similar jacket, one button/strap combination on the collar instead of two. The coat was marked to St. Louis in the sleeve lining.
And by the way, this eBay coat was listed at $1850.00 last week. If it does not sell, raise the price and try try again.
Steve Sullivan

I think I'll stick with Nick ************'s Volunteer Jacket. Not to disrespect collecting originals, but I'd be afraid to wear one.. and that $1700 or so I'd save would buy a lot of funnel cakes. ;)
http://www.nj************.com//OSCommerce/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=57&osCsid=2d69250088eb9910699c63847e2235cc)