In total about 1250 photos of the jackets were accumulated for use in the study. At this point, I have studied 11 jackets personally and obtained pictures from other researchers of 4 others. Also, differences or anomalies between the construction techniques used began to suggest possible insights into the methods and operation of the Clothing Bureau itself. As the study progressed, by combining the service histories of the soldiers who owned them with common characteristics of certain groupings, some attempt to refine the dating criteria was believed to be possible. The original idea was to study as many Richmond jackets as possible to understand what made them similar and where they were different. This study started during the summer of 2014. There were also variations the collars and pockets. Variation between the types was that only type I jackets had “Branch of Service” trim and type III jackets did not have epaulettes and belt loops. No type I jackets are known to exist but the basic pattern for all “RD” jackets is believed to have been the same. He suggested a classification of RD jackets based upon similar characteristics and roughly aligned to a chronological sequence: type I (‘61-’62), type II (‘62-’64), and type III (‘64-’65). “Richmond Depot” jackets were first identified by Les Jensen in his landmark two-part paper, “A Survey of Confederate Central Government Quartermaster Issue Jackets”, Military Collector and Historian, Fall and Winter issues, 1989. My hope is to encourage a dialog between experts and enthusiasts that may further the “state of knowledge” about the RCB and the products it produced. These are based upon my analysis of the source material (both the artifacts themselves and the documents) that I have examined but are not necessarily provable facts. In the summary slides, specific conclusions are often presented that probably can more precisely be termed “educated speculation”. However, no effort has been made to note all the specific sources for these references nor to do so in standard endnote formats although in some cases they are suggested if not fully defined. Much of the factual material presented is based upon primary sources from the period or more recent studies by noted researchers. The intent is to explore the significance of such factors to provide understanding of how the RCB “manufactured” garments in the context of its known methods, its procurement activities, and the constraints it faced in war time Richmond. The third part takes a “deep dive” into many aspects of the production of jackets by the RCB from the fabrics used, to buttons, thread, and sewing techniques, and, finally, significant construction variations seen between the pieces compared in the study. Finally, a few common myths associated with this type of jacket are examined in the context of the real examples studied. The intent is to describe the characteristics that define the “Richmond Depot” jacket using the original pieces themselves as well as present some variations or “anomalies” which are found among them. The second part provides a detailed discussion of the characteristics of the examples compared in this study. Also, the Richmond Clothing Bureau or RCB, the CS QM operational entity that was responsible for production of uniforms (including the jackets in the study) and other clothing issued to enlisted men is described. The known history or provenance of each piece is presented as well as salient characteristics each displays. The first part presents a catalog of the 15 individual original examples examined and compared in the study along with ten additional jackets also believed to be products of the “Richmond Depot”. Taken together, the three pieces represent a compendium of material that discusses uniform jackets produced through the operations of the Confederate Quartermaster (CS QM) in Richmond during the American Civil War. This presentation is structured in three distinct parts: “the Study”, “the Devil is in the details”, and “down in the weeds”.
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