Years ago, when I was a lot younger and thinner, I used to participate in Civil War living history events. The group I was with was like myself, really interested in material culture and we reproduced original items to wear. One of the items I reproduced was a Louisiana frock coat formerly in the collection of my friend and historical artist Don Troiani. I remember driving down to his house in 1994 to study and pattern the coat. Fast forward 29 years.
I had first seen the coat published in Echoes of Glory by Time-Life Books, a three-part book series with first volume on Union arms, uniforms, and equipment, the second volume on Confederate arms, uniforms, and equipment, and the third volume is an atlas of the Civil War. To us material culture freaks, the two volumes on arms and equipment were amazing. I personally have worn through a few sets of these books since they first came out!
In the years between then and now, the coat was sold to another collector, and recently I got a call to come pick it up along with other great Civil War items on consignment for auction. After a quick road trip, I walked into the owner’s collection room and immediately spied the coat. It really brought back memories of my youth and the feeling I had when I originally visited it 29 years previous. How cool it was to handle it, to see how it was made, what was used in production, and how I was going to replicate that. I tweaked the pattern to fit me and reproduced the coat. In digging through some old photographs, I could only find one image of my reproduction worn by another friend. I ended up only wearing it once and selling it as I stopped doing Civil War living history not long after… but now I have the original to catalog, photograph, and sell to the next owner!
The coat is made from what is now a gray/green color jean cloth, a twill woven cloth with a cotton warp and a woolen weft. It has black very finely woven woolen twill tape around the collar, fronts, cuffs, and back pocket flaps. It has Louisiana buttons up the front, and cuff-size eagle dragoon buttons on the epaulets, and cuffs. It is unlined with the exception of the sleeves. While the cloth it is made from wasn’t the best quality during the period, it has a great cut and looks very martial.
With the coat came a pair of cotton gloves, a Daguerreotype of a man in civilian clothing, and a small hand sewn padded case that held the image. There was also a name written on a piece of paper in the pocket which stated: “Confederate Uniform/Chas. Stebbins/New Orleans/1861.”
It’s interesting that after all of this time, I ended up with this fantastic frock coat that I once admired in a book. One of the best parts of my job is the ability to handle this and other absolutely fantastic pieces of history!
