"Rebs and Yanks - What type of coats did they wear?" Topic

Frock coats, sack coats, shell jackets…which side's soldiers predominately wore each type? I've got a bunch of Perry plastic soldiers to assemble. Thanks for your help.
Clay

Federals mainly wore sack coats

Rebels mainly in shell jackets

Though of course there were exceptions. Certain units on both sides had frock coats at certain points in the war, and a northern state or two issued shell jackets to state troops early on.

Mix and match. Western theater will be a bit different than eastern theater, but there would be more consistence in the Union army as a general rule. Lots of good book and web pages with this information

What rvandusen said in the first place. Yankees: sacks. Rebels: shells. Gamers put far too many sack coats on Confederates.

Look at the contemporary art, photos, overwhelmingly blue sacks and grey shells.

Yes, there were exceptions, especially early war. If you're building an 1861 army, have fun putting your Confederates into frock coats, your Ohio and Indiana volunteers into grey shells. New York issued shell jackets to volunteers throughout the war. But once a regiment wore out their first issue and started drawing replacement clothing from the depots, it was sacks and shells.

The Perry plastics are a frustrating mix of coat styles. I'm going to mix just a couple of sack-coated figures into my Rebs, and just a couple of shells (as cut-down frock coats) into my Yanks. But just a couple.

As noted, shell jackets for the Rebs, frock coats/sack coats for the Yanks

I agree with the Perry plastics – I bought a couple of boxes so I could match up the figs for Union units

The thing about the Perry plastic ACW is…half the figures are marching, half the figures are skirmishing, half of each type are in sacks vs. shells. So if you want a set of figures with a theme – Confederates marching, or Federals skirmishing, f'rinstance, only a quarter of the figures in the box meet the criteria. Worse, only three poses meet the criteria for each category, so you can't get as much variety as you'd like.

I was sorely tempted to mix the poses and disregard the coat styles. But in the end, like Frederick, I bought a couple more boxes…

I have heard that the first Perry ACW infantry set the sculpts were not so hot. Same for the cavalry but the rebs in shell jackets far better along with the Zouaves. I heard somewhere the Perrys are going to rework the first two ACW sets. If anyone has the first two ACW sets I would like to know your opinion on the sculpts. OK, I am finished hijacking this thread.

I am starting with 4 boxes of their ACW infantry, so hopefully I can group enough like poses together to get them to look OK.

I have several boxes of the first infantry set. Other than the criticism I have made above, I like the sculpts just fine. They show good, realistic anatomy and poses, good uniform and equipment detail. Good detail over-all, without being exaggerated, as in some metal figures.

Most figures are single pose, but a few allow separate arms to be attached. These, and the duplicate sets of slouch hats vs. fatigue caps allow some nice options without being too fiddly, especially if you're willing to do a little conversion work – plastic is much easier to work with than metal.

Over all, I like the set very well. I just wish it had been more focused on Confederate vs. Federal, marching vs. skirmishing.

I was sorely tempted to mix the poses and disregard the coat styles. But in the end, like Frederick, I bought a couple more boxes…

that's the point of them mixing poses