Marking my blanket for Identification

[A Baltimore Confederate]

A few of us in my battery have gotten the same blanket, easily explainable to spectators as having an issue request filled (blankets came from same batch, etc). So how do I properly and authentically mark my blanket as mine? I would rather sew/embroider than use ink or "paint". And which is more authentic: a last name only? initials? 2-letter initials, or 3-letter initials? Should I include unit identification (and make my old Operational Security Officer pass a brick), or not? And where should the marking go? Lower left or right? Near a side? Across the middle?

I would appreciate an answer with some "documentary" evidence, a picture, reference by book and page number, or other published source, etc...

Thank you.

[PogueMahone]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

If they are all the same blanket, does it really matter? As long as you go home with one at the end of the event ...

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

The blanket, as clothing, belongs to you, so you have some discretion in how to mark it. The first example that comes to mind is from Si Klegg, p. 184, who embroidered a "K" on his blanket -- "His 'housewife' furnished the necessary materials." This didn't help; the man who stole it claimed to have the same initial.

A more somber example comes from Documents of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, Issue 96, 1870, p. 467:

The work is now going on; some fifty bodies have already been removed, and in one or two weeks it will be completed. The bodies are taken up, and a record is made of everything which will help friends to recognize them. I select a few names from the record, to illustrate:

Unknown soldier—brown hair, full beard, cavalryman, shot in side by shell, five feet eight inches high, aged about twenty-two; buried to the left of Hillsboro' pike, near I. Compton's; body covered with tent cloth. A gum blanket, near grave, was marked "W. Hall, [or Hale,] 100th 0. V. I." No. of grave, 12,274.

I've marked my gum blankets with pen and ink but haven't yet done anything with the wool blanket.

I'm sure other examples are out there.

[OldKingCrow]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

A few of us in my battery have gotten the same blanket, easily explainable to spectators as having an issue request filled (blankets came from same batch, etc). So how do I properly and authentically mark my blanket as mine? I would rather sew/embroider than use ink or "paint". And which is more authentic: a last name only? initials? 2-letter initials, or 3-letter initials? Should I include unit identification (and make my old Operational Security Officer pass a brick), or not? And where should the marking go? Lower left or right? Near a side? Across the middle?

I would appreciate an answer with some "documentary" evidence, a picture, reference by book and page number, or other published source, etc...

Thank you.

There are various photos in the EOG series that show names handpainted and stenciled on various equipment. There is a nice example of a Fed issue blanket on page 214 of the union volume showing Lt. J.R. Royers blanket. I attached photos as well. I am sure others can expand more on the details and documentation but to answer your question shortly YES. Some soldiers personaized their gear to prevent theft or ease of identification. You have to remember though, this equipment was issued to them and property of the US government so not evrything was or should have your name on it.

[CJDaley]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

Thanks Chris, you beat me to the punch on this.

Corp Klegg just stitched his name in the corner....any of us regardless of sewing talent can do that.

I chain stitch a script "D" into the corner of each of my blankets. In the middle of the night, I can still find my blankie!

[Secesh]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

I've used a Federal blanket for the past 20 years, identical to many of the blankets in my unit, and have never had it confused with the others....

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

Some soldiers personaized their gear to prevent theft or ease of identification. You have to remember though, this equipment was issued to them and property of the US government so not evrything was or should have your name on it.

Excellent point that bears repeating.

For both US and CS, our uniform, shoes, and blankets (rubber and wool) come out of our clothing allowance and belong to us. This is stuff we can legitimately mark with our name.

Our knapsacks, canteens, and haversacks belong to the company, and instructions for marking them are in the Regs. But it's not an invariable rule -- in the CS service, I think knapsacks at one point were provided by Ordnance. Also, there seems to have been a tradition of counting the knapsack and haversack as personal property on inventories of effects.

All leather belts, cartridge and cap boxes, and plates pertaining to them are ordnance, belong to the captain, and should not be defaced with our names or initials. Despite this, folks who collect relics have found plenty of examples of personalized ordnance, some of which they can date to the war.

Oddly enough, while our caps and uniform hats belong to us, any brass on them belongs to the company.

But I'm sure practice varied.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

Hallo!

Not me, I prefer my own stink to that of others.

;) :)

"The afternoon was spent...sewing our names on the blankets."

John Mead Gould, 1st Maine Infantry, 1861

The Wartime Journals of John Mead Gould edited by William B. Jordan

Curt

[OldKingCrow]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

I've used a Federal blanket for the past 20 years, identical to many of the blankets in my unit, and have never had it confused with the others....

If your equating that to reenacting I agree, where everything is relatively controlled, deliberate and hopefully theft-free.

But it terms of the true period experience...you're among thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of men, dropping packs / rolls, using comunal shelter and blankets, combined with those intent on theft it makes complete sense.

[Silas]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

I thought about Si Klegg's blanket, too. The veteran thief retained Si's the blanket as I recall.

Repaired burn holes in my blanket set my blanket apart from other Julius Jones blankets I've seen. Some of the holes were about larger than fist size before I stitched some jeancloth to the edges of the fabric.

The repairs add a little character to the blanket. A blazing fire at a snowy bivouac in the mountains caused some of the holes. It was one of those, "what's that smell" moments shortly after bedding down for the night with feet to the flames. An unattended candle and subsequent ground fire caused the others.

[hta1970]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

From the collection of the MOC (the number is the accession number):

0985.13.1322 "Capt. J. C. Haselett / Zainesville Guards" stitched in red.

0985.13.1323 "Henry T. Wight / Powhatan Artillery" cross stitched in red.

For more information, please join the museum and support their preservation. http://www.moc.org

[roundshot]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

I marked my own blanket with a cross stitching based upon the Powhatan Artillery blanket in the MOC as cited above. While I no longer have a picture copy of the original (It used to be on the Powhatan CWRT site) , here's my own rendition of it. The markings on the Powhatan blanket are much more extensive than mine, but you get the drift.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

Hallo!

Is it a "RAW" wool blanket then?

Just a-funnin'...

Curt
Whose grandmother always hated her monograph, "ASS"

[roundshot]

Re: Marking my blanket for Identification

By God, I believe it is! Makes me feel kinda sheepish that I didn't know that sooner. Pretty b-a-a-a-d.