Uniform specs requested

[Trailrider]

Gentlemen:

As most of you know I started out as a captain of cavalry, c.1870's-mid-1880's.  For "field dress" I normally wore a CW officer's 4-button sack coat, and some ersatz trowsers (sic) with the 1-1/2" yellow strips down the outside seams.  This is sufficient for field duty.

However, with my "appointment" as Acting Assistant Ordnance Officer Dept. of the Platte, with the brevet rank of major, for more formal occasions I have been wearing the 1879 Officer's frock coat with major of ordnance (crimson) shoulder boards.  (Yes, I know that technically one was NOT supposed to wear bvt rank, but...).

My question is, what trowsers should I be wearing?  I thought I read somewhere that Ordnance officers wore a dark blue trowser, but should they have the stripe or not, and if so what color?  Black, crimson (dark red), or ?

Your comments would be greatly appreciated.

As an aside, it is snowing in Denver, AGAIN, for a change!    Not sure when my club's berms will ever get dug out...

Your obdt servant,

[Dr. Bob]

Howdy Trailrider,

IIRC [check on the GAF Web Site] Staff officers wore dark blue pants without any stripe on the sides.  Same color as the coat.  That's what shows on the Quartermaster shop IW Officers Uniform page.  Didn't check for the 1884 pants though.  The combat arms get the stripes.

[Trailrider]

Thank you, sir!  That's what I seem to recall, but can't recall where I saw it! 

BTW, is the GAF website up again?

[Dr. Bob]

Yes it is!!  I checked the Uniform Reg of 1872 and Staff Corps officers wear dark blue trousers with no stripe, welt or cord.

[Books OToole]

I am not sure, but I believe, that you do wear your brevet rank.  And you are adressed by your brevet rank.  You just don't get paid for your brevet rank.

Books

[Pitspitr]

I am not sure, but I believe, that you do wear your brevet rank. 

That depends on the period.

[Trailrider]

I am not sure, but I believe, that you do wear your brevet rank.  And you are adressed by your brevet rank.  You just don't get paid for your brevet rank.

Books

I haven't been paid for my permanent rank...in about 38 years!    I might be making 35 cents per hour making holsters, belts, etc.    Haven't had time to figure it out, lately.

[Grapeshot]

As an Ordnance Officer, you are part of Staff.  Therefore, your shoulder boards should have Black as it's background color and your trousers should be plain Dark Blue, to match your Coat.  Same is true for our field uniform.

It was only the Enlisted side of the Ordnance Corps that the Crimson trouser stripes on Sky Blue Trousers were authorizd.

Ref:  Special Orders No. 264, Paragraph 3, War Department Adjutant General's Office, dated December 27, 1875.

[Trailrider]

Thank you, sir!  I think I'll have to either dye the boards black, or buy some new ones! 

[Captain Lee Bishop]

I have a CW Ordnance LT impression (as I was an Ordnance officer in real life and spent a LOT of time at the museum's archives at Aberdeen researching this), and you need to know that if your impression was actually someone who was actually assigned to Ordnance, your shoulder straps should be of the Ordnance colors, they really didn't use the staff boards. Also, the Ordnance Dept did have their own buttons as well, the same ones you can get from most good CW vendors, not too tough to find. Nobody makes period Ordnance shoulder straps, though. I use Arty ones. But if you are a staff officer assigned Ordnance duties, then yes, generic staff insignia would be correct in that case. Other staff items such as trousers and the sword were pretty much correct from the 1850s until right after the turn of the century.

[River City John]

Fall Creek Sutlery custom makes shoulder boards to specification. www.fcsutler.com   Look under "CW Embroidered Insignia".

RCJ