Happy Holidays!
 Winter finally arrives this Thursday, and the holidays come right along with it. Here's wishing your days are merry and bright!

As another reenacting season draws to a close I want to once again thank all my pards in the hobby for your friendship. The best to you this holiday season and good luck in the New Year.   
        -Chris Daley

Save big with our Christmas Sale!

   10% off our entire inventory
Just type "noel" into the coupon code when ordering and your discount will be applied to your purchase.  The sale lasts through the end of the year. Thanks for your patronage and I'll see you in 2007.

Gift Certificates
Don't have a clue what your pard needs for Christmas? Want to reward your unit president for a job well done? Why not pick up a gift certificate? This holiday season we will be using our printing press to issue gift certificates! Gift certificates may be used as credit towards the purchase of any item we sell. We also offer gift certificates in any denomination.

Inventory from the Richmond Depot!
Recently, Scott & Fenny Hanes of the Richmond Depot sent us a pile of jackets, sacks, trowsers and caps to offer in our Gettysburg store. All items in our inventory are offered at the same low prices as as if purchased directly from Scott himself.

For those of you who can't get to our store, here is a link to what we currently have on hand: Richmond Depot Inventory

Confederate Blankets Back In Stock This 100% wool blanket was based on the original blanket carried by T.V. Brooke of the Richmond Howitzers. The original is currently housed at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. Dimensions are 66" x 72".
 $110.00 postage paid   

Uniform Study:
Francis Goulding's Tait Vest

click on any photo to enlarge

So you bought a Tait jacket for Lee's Final Retreat and haven't worn it once. Why not do what one of the Boys of '61 did and convert it into a vest?

The owner of the vest is id'd as Francis Goulding of the Jeff Davis Legion. Goulding enlisted as a private on September 17, 1861, and was promoted to 4th Corporal in June 1862. He later resigned as corporal. He was from Darien, Georgia. It's not clear who did the alterations to the original garment or when, but it is clear to me that the vest was originally a jacket imported from P. Tait.

The fabric for the vest is made from English army kersey. It is lined in linen, has an 8 button front, has a French blue wool collar and machine stitching down the front -- all features that are consistent with original Tait jackets I've examined. The lining and hem are also consistent with how Tait jackets were assembled.

Considerable effort was made in this conversion. All that remains of the original vest is the front panels. The sleeves were removed, as were the side and rear panels. The rear panels were replaced with cotton osnaburg. There are two French blue pocket facings that match the color of the collar, and while they could have been cut from epaulettes, I believe they were cut from the collar, as the rear of the collar is much lower than the front.

There are no original Tait buttons left on the coat; instead there are 5 cuff-sized New York State buttons from the Civil War. While the stitching is crude throughout the converted vest, I think it shows remarkable ingenuity and creativity on the part of this soldier.

Copyright © 2006 CJ Daley Historical Reproductions, Inc. All rights reserved.