Civil War Material Culture Studies

Sometimes as a historian, I find it’s necessary to play the role of a detective and ask “whodunit” and “what’s the motive,” when working with the mysteries of Civil War material culture. One of these mysteries is the mismatched shirt sleeves that are occasionally encountered on Civil War era men’s shirts. These occasional mismatches are not in fabric color or printed/woven designs, but rather in how many pieces of fabric were used to construct each sleeve. Was this the result of an accident, or by design?

Hundreds of thousands of garments made through organized volunteer efforts on the home front, contributed to saving the lives of U.S. soldiers who were fighting to preserve our nation and make others free. Something as simple as a wool shirt could mean the difference between life and death during a war when more men died of illness than bullets and artillery.

Red wool flannel shirts were common enough in the United States military during the Civil War that they are frequently depicted in historic artwork, written about in period narratives, and observed in tinted historic images—but there is not much evidence of them being contracted for and issued on a large scale by the United States military. That’s why it is exciting to discover red wool undergarments being specifically called for by the U.S. Sanitary Commission.