A Private Looks at Drawers but don't want to!

[Rob Weaver]

Schnapps: Traditional Guatemalan men's clothing consists of a pair of short trousers, or breeches, worn over longer pants that show through beneath them. There is a similar Mexican style in which the outer trousers are unbuttoned below the knee, showing the legs of the drawers. You can see this in any number of James Walker's Mexico and California paintings. But these are both Spanish colonial styles which have next to nothing to do with the largely Anglo manpower force that fought the Civil War.
When I started reenacting, my Rev War unit used the axiom that it's better to do without than to use the wrong one. I carried this into Civil War. I didn't have civil war drawers; they were exotic and elusive. So, se rule #1 above. There I was at 125th Gettysburg. 4 days in the dust, heat and wool with nothing between me and my kerseys. By Pickett's Charge I walked like an old dragoon. After day 2, those trousers might as well been sandpaper. All I'm sayin' is that sometimes the axiom stated above needs to be mitigated with a little good common sense.

[Jim Mayo]

What does common sense tell you? Boys of 186x were not short on common sense. And, anyone here, ever been in a military camp where the men hung around in their underwear (off duty) when it was hot? Thought so.

I've been in several camps where the off duty uniform was skivves! 100 degrees in the shade with 100% humidity will get you stripped down to the essentials pretty quick. During the rainy season it was not uncommon to see fellows in their b-day suits grabbing a quick shower in front of their hootch. Of course that was back in the late 60s (1960s) before women were allowed at most places. However there are pictures of Federal soldiers standing naked in the James River taking a bath.

[Tom Scoufalos]

I've been in several camps where the off duty uniform was skivves! 100 degrees in the shade with 100% humidity will get you stripped down to the essentials pretty quick. During the rainy season it was not uncommon to see fellows in their b-day suits grabbing a quick shower in front of their hootch. Of course that was back in the late 60s (1960s) before women were allowed at most places. However there are pictures of Federal soldiers standing naked in the James River taking a bath.

Not to mention the Fredericksburg hospital images during the Overland Campaign...there's one poor soul on crutches in a bottom shirt and what appears to be federal issue drawers right in the middle of the grouping, with his right thigh and knee awkwardly held across his "crotchal region" (as Ron Bergandy would say) almost certainly to conceal his "bits and pieces" from the lens. I don't have a copy but maybe someone does; it's the one with the possible Native American soldiers just behind the man in question.

[Rob Weaver]

I'm not sure if that feller in the photo previous is wearing spats or not. He's certainly dressed up enough for them. They could be his white socks too. I'm not settled that those are his drawers.

[SackCoat]

Without photo or written documentation sometimes you have to include the "logic" factor.

In this case, is there any advantage to "showing off the undies" in some way? Does it help you stay cooler in hot weather for example. Would you "chunk" these outright or pack them away if they got too hot? If on the move, would rolling up the legs be a "quick fix" versus dropping out of ranks just to get to them?

People are creatures of comfort even in situations where that is not the easiest thing to come by.

Joe Musgrove

[doughboy]

Galen,
To address hiking drawers up over shirt, I do that often and it isn't to show off drawers. It is to keep them from sliding down the hips and being a total nuisance while riding and it actually works quite well. Are there photos of men in the field doing it? I have never done a survey. I plan on adding buttons and buttonholes along the waistband to button them inside the trowsers but have not had time but I frankly couldn't care less about people seeing my period drawers when I am on the march.

[gwagner]

The buttons on the trouser waist, and holes on the drawers waist is a good idea. May try that myself.

[SMOKEHOUSE]

It appears that the soldier in the lower left may have exposed drawers in a studio image from this auction site :

http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?s...39#42334233183

Would these drawers show if he was standing up? Maybe not, but the fact that he (and a few others in the photo) have their pant leg rolled certainly increases the chances. Unless, the others are like their sergeant-who may have his drawers tucked in his socks. (Something I often practice in the field.) Then of course there is the rear rank center guy with his trousers bloused by his socks. Lots of nice details in this photograph. While provenance on the photograph and men are lacking, the appearance of these soldiers strongly suggest they had been in the field prior to their photograph being taken.

This is in no way an endorsement or defense of the practice among reenactors, but rather a simple observation I noted while browsing some photographs. Something for the file.