Plaid blanket

[The29thtn]

I have searched the site and the internet, but have not had much in the way of a satisfactory answer to my question. I have a 100% wool plaid blanket that my mother gave me, and I have used to some extent to keep from hurting anyone's feelings. However, I have gone back in forth in my mind on its authenticity. Some campaigners don't seem to have a problem with it, and some don't like it. I'm not an expert on weaving, but I'll show some close up pictures and hopefully someone will have an idea. I do know that the pattern in the blanket dates to the 18th century, and it is one of main plaids used by the British military up to present times. I do know that crazy plaids are a no no, but this is a pretty standard plaid that's been around well before the war. The label it originally had says Highland Tartan Tweeds of Scotland. I have been unable to find anything out about this company in particular let alone their manufacturing process. I suppose the first question is if it's a correct looking construction, if not than it sort of kills the whole thing.

[Guest]

Re: Plaid blanket

I would like to help but I am kind of confused about the question you are asking.
Are you asking:
1. Is the blanket itself authentic? Or
2. Is the weave period correct? Or
3. Is the pattern correct? Or
4. All of the above.

[Silas]

Re: Plaid blanket

First, is it a natural or modern dye? Second, what's your impression? In my second question the point is how would a soldier in your primary impression have received such a blanket. Not likely an issue item. Then you're down that slippery slope of "sent from home." If it was sent from home, how did it get there in the first place? If it's a Tennessee impression, you've got ever increasing swaths of the state which are behind Federal lines. This means that the odds of something like this being found at home are small and sent from home even smaller.

It's easier to stick with a recognized blanket along the "common, everyday, plain" school of reenacting. Stands out less that way.

[The29thtn]

Re: Plaid blanket

sort of all of the above, but I'm pretty sure the pattern is usable since it's been in continued use from the 18th century to today.

[The29thtn]

Re: Plaid blanket

First, is it a natural or modern dye? Second, what's your impression? In my second question the point is how would a soldier in your primary impression have received such a blanket. Not likely an issue item. Then you're down that slippery slope of "sent from home." If it was sent from home, how did it get there in the first place? If it's a Tennessee impression, you've got ever increasing swaths of the state which are behind Federal lines. This means that the odds of something like this being found at home are small and sent from home even smaller.

It's easier to stick with a recognized blanket along the "common, everyday, plain" school of reenacting. Stands out less that way.

It's probably modern dye, but can't tell. Yes, I do, generally, an East Tennessee impression, and it would be a civilian blanket. I also spend a lot of time doing Longstreet's Knoxville campaign of 63.

[The29thtn]

Re: Plaid blanket

I also have to ask if anything like this would be coming in on blockade runners with the British imports?

[Guest]

Re: Plaid blanket

I was basically going to say what Silas just said. If it was a "Sent from Home" blanket the materials would have to be something that their folks back home were able to get their hands on, or materials that were made locally. It would definetly work as a "Sent from home" blanket so your real only question would be, would this be something my folks back home would have been able to make, given the materials and dyes available. It would also need to be the pattern of the tartan for the blanket.

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Plaid blanket

It looks to me to probably be a Pendleton blanket, it would great on the back of your couch or on your bed. As far as an authentic soldier blanket, even a civilian one, you could do allot better not only in authenticity but also in durability and warmth. Give a look at the approved vendor list.

[Jam3853]

Re: Plaid blanket

Think outside the 21st century box with the term plaid blanket, and replace it with plaid shawl....



The photo attached is Abraham Lincoln's favorite shawl, taken from

http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/small_exhibition.cfm?key=1267&exkey=696&pagekey=710

hopefully this tidbit of information assist you in furthering your research.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Plaid blanket

Hallo!

It looks like the tartan sett of the British Army's Seaforth Highlanders, who were formed under the Childers Reforms of 1881 by combining the 72nd Highlanders and the 78th Highlanders.

IMHO, plaids are one thing and documentable to the period. But when a plaid is a particular tartan, it is not that simple.

Others mileage will vary...

Curt

[The29thtn]

Re: Plaid blanket

Thanks Justin. That opens things up some. It also gave me the idea to further expand my search terms. Looking for scotch or scottish blankets and shawls turns up even more references. Of course most famously all the reports that Lincoln had a plaid shawl and a "scotch" cap when he came to Washington, but lots more than that. Here is one I'll quote a bit from

http://books.google.com/books?id=pdAn-wjmC-4C&pg=PA155&lpg=PA155&dq=civil+war+scotch+blanket&source=bl&ots=kDPxRrV69c&sig=emI6YzPdIYaMHfFC3wAyzhApUk8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WLAPT7jFB5S4twepwdmHAg&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=civil%20war%20scotch%20blanket&f=false

Hague, Parthenia A., Hurtville, Ala:

Many of the planters in southern Alabama began to grow wool on quite a large scale, as the war went on and no woolen goods could be had. All the woolen materials that could be manufactured at the cotton mills was used to cloth our soldiers, so that all the varied kinds of woolen goods that hitherto had been used with us had now to be of home hand-make.... All kinds of woolen goods --- flannels both colored and white, plaids of bright colors, which we thought equal to the famed Scotch plaids: balmorals, which were then in fashion --- were woven, with grave or gay borders as suited our fancy. Woolen coverlets and blankets were also manufactured...

[The29thtn]

Re: Plaid blanket

Hallo!

It looks like the tartan sett of the British Army's Seaforth Highlanders, who were formed under the Childers Reforms of 1881 by combining the 72nd Highlanders and the 78th Highlanders.

IMHO, plaids are one thing and documentable to the period. But when a plaid is a particular tartan, it is not that simple.

Others mileage will vary...

Curt

It is Curt, though it was used by both, I think, the 72nd and 78th before the creation of the Seaforth Highlanders.

[Silas]

Re: Plaid blanket

I've seen this type of discussion before. You're asking other members of the forum to justify an item you possess and want to use. It appears you're going to challenge and reject any answer other than what you want to hear. Instead of attempting to justify some item kewl to you, the focus should be upon chosing items appropriate for the unit you're portraying at a particular time in a particular theater.

You state you're doing an East Tennessee impression and "spend a lot of time doing Longstreet's Knoxville campaign of 63." Although the companies which composed the 29th Tennessee are from East Tennessee, the regiment was with the AoT from its being stationed at Iuka during the Shiloh campaign through the campaigns of Perryville, Murfreesboro, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta, Nashville and Bentonville. Being an AoT regiment makes your work easier for you because there is a ton of information about AoT units at various times and locations of their service.

I don't see where it was with Longstreet during the Knoxville Campaign. The 63d Tennessee is an East Tennessee, AoT unit from Bushrod Johnson's Brigade which was with Longstreet through that campaign. Odds of a plaid blanket carried by a member of the 63d is pretty slim. Bob Johnson gave you some solid advice about this blanket : leave it at home on your couch.

[The29thtn]

Re: Plaid blanket

I think you might be misunderstanding me a bit. My comments above were in response to what I took to be a suggestion form a poster, Justin, on this thread. I was simply giving an example of some of what his suggestion turned up as thanks. I am also aware of where the 29th was, and I did not mean to imply they were with Longstreet. I only meant that I commonly am involved with events or living histories that deal with Longstreet's East Tennessee campaign.

I don't see any place I have rejected anyone's comments. I did point out that the pattern was in use before the date Curt gave, but that does not mean that the blanket is automatically authentic. However, I should say that I was wrong about part of what I said. I looked it up and saw that the 72nd never used this pattern, but the 78th was using it as far back as the late 18th century. Again, I state that it does not make the blanket authentic, but the date of the pattern itself works. I'm sorry if I have seemed unclear or anyone feels like I'm uninterested in what they have to say.

[RNMCSA]

Re: Plaid blanket

Thought this may be relavent to this thread,

A Visit to the Rebel Prisoners [Camp Douglas, Chicago].
“As it was a chilly day, many of the prisoners were out on the sunny side of their quarters, conversing amongst themselves or with visitors. Their dress was a butternut colored jean, which gave a characteristic brown hue to every group. Except in this, and that some of the Companies were clothed in Negro cloth, a coarse dirty gray stuff, they wore no uniforms. They had all kinds of hats and caps and every imaginable sort of blankets, from a fiery red to a patched quilt, tattered and torn into shreds. So far as dress and cleanliness is concerned, they were about as hard looking set of men, as can well be imagined.”
JANESVILLE, WI. DAILY GAZETTE. February 28, 1862.

Arrival of Prisoners of War [Chicago].
“Such a motley assemblage of humanity is seldom witnessed as that when those dressed and undressed prisoners were upon the principal parade ground this morning. Their uniform is the most un-uniform that can be imagined—dark gray, light gray, mixed, mottled and ragged--. Old blankets, pieces of carpeting, hearth rugs, etc. are worn in place of overcoats. The Regiments that have arrived, 20th Mississippi app. 400, 50th Tennessee, app. 1,000, 14th Mississippi, app. 500, and the 7th Texas, 333, for a total of 2,231, and [2,600 more in transit].”
JANESVILLE, WI. WEEKLY GAZETTE AND FREE PRESS. FEBRUARY 28, 1862.

“Soon after entering the Fort, we found that General Pillow had been in Command but, in company with General Floyd, had that morning made a precipitous retreat up the Cumberland River… The number of guns captured were about 146…There were also 10 to 15,000 stands of small arms, the largest part of which were shotguns, [civilian] rifles, and flint lock muskets. The troops were mainly in civilian clothes, their only insignia being black stripes on their pants. Many of the Officers wear the regular gray uniform, while others the Army blue, the only difference from the United States style being the great profusion of gold lace.”
The NEW YORK TIMES. FEBRUARY 22, 1862.

“There is some difference between whipping and being whipped, and after the fight we felt comfortable and the Rebels did not… They were generally clad in “Lindsey Woolsey”, un-uniformed, and by no means prepossessing. Most of their arms were inferior to ours…”
SUNBURY AMERICAN. March 22, 1862.

“Their appearance was grotesques in the extreme. Without uniformity in dress, few of them wore anything that could be called a uniform, unless it was a white or striped blanket, worn in the Indian fashion enveloping the whole person. Large numbers of them, instead of blankets, wore large pieces of carpeting in the form of a blanket. These I learned were the soldiers who [retreated] from Fort Henry in extreme haste and left their coats behind.”
BURLINGTON FREE PRESS. FEBRUARY 28, 1862.

My conclussion and I stress it is my opinion from my own research (I still do not have a blanket). When portraying the Confederate soldier the PEC can be somewhat peculiar. In my opinion a cookie cutter mold with matching blankets of brown with a black stripe or something of the ilk is just not period correct. This does not mean that a particular plaid Tartan with a fringe would be, but I think we should see more variety in the ranks especially with blankets or something being used as such.