Military Doublet question

[knot]

Greetings:

I have a question for the tartan hive mind:

I am interested in making or acquiring an American Civil War kilt jacket pattern like the ones worn by the 79th NY Infantry (Cameron Highlanders). The Quartermaster Shop sells a nice one, but I don’t want to spend the $500

Does anyone here know where one might be bought, or a pattern acquired?

TIA

-knot

[OC Richard]

I really went down the 79th New York rabbithole a number of years ago, did a lot of research, and put together that uniform.

The 79th NY never wore doublets, that's the first thing to get out of the way.

A major thing to be aware of, when speaking of 79th NY uniforms, is that they're divided into three distinct time-periods, each with quite different uniforms:

1858-1861.

The prewar militia unit, originally just four companies, had two distinct uniforms.

Full Dress, consisting of a unique Glengarry with two-row red/white/blue dicing, a unique tunic, a unique sporran, machine-sewn kilt neither pleated to the tartan nor the stripe, red/white diced full hose with marl turnover cuff, and 18th century style buckled shoes.

Service Dress, consisting of an ordinary plain dark blue US Army Kepi, the same tunic worn in Full Dress (but with the elaborate epaulettes removed), tartan trousers, and ordinary shoes.

1861-1865.

When the regiment was called up for war service additional companies were raised, these were only issued Service Dress. The regiment fought in Service Dress at First Bull Run, and continued to wear it until the clothing wore out, at which time it was replaced by ordinary Union Army sky blue trousers and dark blue sack coats.

However during an operation on the Carolina coast the regiment captured a warehouse which had hundreds of white lightweight trousers, which became the unofficial uniform and a mark of pride of the soldiers who had "been there".

1865-1870s.

The regiment continued to exist after the war. An entirely new Full Dress uniform was created, not a single item of which was the same as the prewar Full Dress uniform.

The biggest mistakes people make are

1) showing the 79th wearing Full Dress in combat.

2) showing the postwar Full Dress being worn during the war.

[OC Richard]

About the tunics, there was a place in Pakistan or India making pretty good replicas.

It might have been the firm called Replicaters (sic).

Be sure when you search that you spell their name like that, yes it's misspelt.

Here's the Quartermaster Shop one, they say it's made in the USA. It looks really good!

https://www.quartermastershop.com/CW..._new_york.html

[knot]

Thank you for this detailed info. I am interested in doing this for living history purposes, but also am not terribly excited to drop the money for Quartermaster’s shop. I will do the deep dive into replicaters

Trying to decide how close the new york jacket is to the 79’s dress tunic, and whether one can be modified for the purpose (adding collars, cuffs and fancy epaulettes and cutting away the front

[OC Richard]

Everything about the 79th's prewar uniform was quirky, not lining up with the uniform of the British Highland regiments.

The tunic, for example. The British army had cutway tunics for their Highland troops, the lower front panels having a rounded cut to curve away from the centreline to accomodate the sporran.

The 79th New York's tunics weren't like that. They were cut to somewhat mimic the shape of the Inverness tashes which extended below the waist on Highland doublets.

If you're handy with a needle and thread it wouldn't be all that complicated to modify an ordinary Union Army frock coat to make a 79th NY tunic. The frock coat has the right stand collar and 9-button front. The problem would be the pointed cuffs on the Union Army frock coats. If you could get one with plain cuffs it would be much easier.