Lined vs. Unlined

[civilwar1966]

What is the benefit of lining a jacket vs. unlined? Historical accuracy?

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

A combination of historical accuracy, comfort, and longevity. If you're talking Federal fatigue blouses (sack coats) they were issued 4 to 1 lined versus unlined. If you're talking CS jackets, the vast majority were lined, particularly those made of wool jean or satinette, as they fray tremendously if not lined. The jacket would fall apart much faster without lining. Plus, a cotton or linen lining is an added comfort to getting the itchy material next to you. One other fact to look at , believe it or not, it takes longer to sew an unlined garment if flat-felling all the seams, so from a production standpoint, both governments looked at saving time and money, and lining a coat or jacket did both

[dogcompanylt]

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but I believe I read somewhere that the US depots issued Unlined Bouses in the summer months. Though they were not made in great quantities as Ross stated.

[civilwar1966]

The jacket in question is a New York state issued. Thanks for your input-

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but I believe I read somewhere that the US depots issued Unlined Bouses in the summer months. Though they were not made in great quantities as Ross stated.

That isn't an absolute. There were several units and commanders who requested them in the summer months, and the system offered what they had at the time. The original intent was to issue unlined coats to recruits and lined coats to the rest. That didn't always happen either. The gyst is, depending upon what QM reports you read (and I hope Mike Shaffner or someone else will pipe in), it was either 3-1 or 4-1 lined versus unlined for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Now as to a NY state jacket, I'm not an authority on those, so I'll withhold judgement. I'll leave that for Rachel Kelly or other authorities on NY garments.

[zouavennc]

When it comes to New York State Jackets the lining on the orginals are in the front and sleeves. Polished cotton in the front and muslin in the sleeves. In 1861 the 38th NYSV felt that even that was too much and ripped out the cotton lining and the jackets began to fall apart (read shoddy workmanship). In Colonel J. Hobart Ward's papers, New York Public Library, he has an order to cease that practice and he had an order put in for unlined fatigue blouses to be issued to the regiment for the hot summer months.
Michael Zatarga
9th NYSV

[Pvt Schnapps]

The ORs (Series III, Vol. 5, p. 285) report total purchases of 3,685,755 lined sack coats, 1,809,270 unlined, and 530,144 knit. This gives us 6,025,169 overall, of which 61% were lined, 30% unlined, and about 9% knit.

Just to complicate matters, elsewhere in the Volume the sack coats issued by the Steubenville depot are described as "lined", although a surviving example examined in the journal of the Company of Military Historians is only lined in the sleeves. This raises the possibility that other sacks described as "lined" were similarly only partially lined.

I don't know of any general rule by which unlined sacks were mostly drawn in the summer months, but there might be some correspondence out there.

As far as knit, I have no idea when they would have been most comfortable or what it was like to wear one in the field.

[RJSamp]

If you're talking Federal fatigue blouses (sack coats) they were issued 4 to 1 lined versus unlined.

Having fun with 5th grade math? 3.9 million linned vs 1.9 million unlinned fatigue blouses does NOT = a 4:1 ratio. Even calling 600 thousand knit blouses unlinned doesn't bring it to a 4:1 ratio.

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Having fun with 5th grade math? 3.9 million linned vs 1.9 million unlinned fatigue blouses does NOT = a 4:1 ratio. Even calling 600 thousand knit blouses unlinned doesn't bring it to a 4:1 ratio.

Hey RJ - I was going from a general memory and I did not have the exact figures at hand. Please take note that in another post above I stated "3-1 or 4-1". With the unlined knit coats, it is pretty close to 3-1. The point was that there were definitely more lined coats than unlined. Your pompousness gets annoying sometimes....

[FloridaHoosier]

Moderator note: Lets get this thread back to something positive and only post if you have something constructive, not destructive. As an aside, to show that I actually practice what I preach, I gave myself an infraction.....