Clothing for men and women during the civil war era
Clothing for Women
Ladies during the Civil War would wear a total of 4 or 5 layers depending on if they were going to leave the house or not. The 1st layer would be drawers (pantaloons/bloomers) typically made from cotton or linen and trimmed with lace, a chemise usually made from linen, and stockings. The 2nd layer would consist of a corset and hoop skirt with 1 or 2 petticoats. Layer number 3 would be the corset cover, while layer 4 would be the bodice, skirt, belt, and slippers typically made of satin, velvet, or crotched. Finally, if they were going to leave the house, the 5th layer would be a shawl, gloves, button up boots, parasol, bonnet or hat, handkerchief, a fan made of sandalwood, and a pocket watch. Ladies almost never painted their face (wore makeup), but would sometimes carry smelling salts.
Women would sometimes have to wear a few different dresses in one day. A work dress, which would be a plain dress with an apron, a walking gown, which would be a nicer dress with a hoop skirt, parasol, gloves, and a bonnet, or a ball gown, which would the finest dress they had along with their more fine underpinnings and shoes. Women would also have to wear their hair up while little girls would wear their hair down in curls, as for teenagers during this time period, they wore the front half of their hair up and the back half down in curls since they were halfway between being a child and an adult. source: https://www.visit-gettysburg.com/civil-war-womens-clothing.html |
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Clothing for Men |
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Men would wear suit coats, dress trousers, a nice shirt, top hat, ties, and leather shoes if they were not fighting during the Civil War. Men that fought during the Civil War would wear wool uniforms that kept them warm in the winter, but hot during the summer. Union soldiers had uniforms of dark blue color until 1862 when their pants became a lighter shade. Pants were held up with suspenders and brogans would be laced up over the ankle and they often wore gaiters to help keep their feet dry. They would wear forage caps, which were made out of stiff wool that looked like a round circle towards the front of the head over a leather visor. The symbol that was placed on top of the hat would say which regiment the men belonged to.
If the soldier was apart of the cavalry they would wear the same thing except they would have higher boots. Men that were in infantry would carry a muzzle-loader gun over their left shoulder, a soldier would also carry a leather cartridge box with ammunition, and over their right shoulder, they carried a pouch of food and a canteen of water or coffee. Any extra clothing or personal items such as things used for shaving were carried in a knapsack or rolled in a blanket. Each man usually carried around 30-40 pounds of gear which included his rifle, a belt with cartridge box, bayonet, and scabbard. They also carried a haversack for rations and a canteen, a pack that held a wool blanket, shelter half, and maybe a rubber jacket, a change of socks, writing paper, envelopes, ink and pen, shaving kit, and a small coffee grinder. Sharpshooters would wear forest green to help them blend in to their surroundings, Zouave uniforms had red knickers and a fez hat, and the Iron Brigade was first known as the black hats due to their Hardee hats with the black feather in them. source: https://www.visit-gettysburg.com/civil-war-clothes.html |