"Hunting shirt colors" Topic

I was curious as to whether or not it was common during the AWI for the hunting shirts/frocks to be a main color with a different trim color. I have seen shirts like that, but most seem to have been during the War of 1812. Just wondered if anyone had more info on this.

I think most hunting shirts or rifle frocks of this period would be one color, with the fringe cut from the same cloth at the main body. Obviously there were dyed examples fromr the period (purple, blue, green), but you can't go wrong with just plain linen either.

The fringe on a huting shirt was there to collect water and cause the shirt to dry faster after rainstorm.
Naturally, over time, the damp would darken the fringe and cause it to discolor.

Hope that helps.

It seems to be quite rare but there are examples such as

6th Virginia Continentals of 1776 who have red collars and cuffs with officers having additional re fringing (CMH plate by Charles McBarron & Fredieck P Todd)

Culpper Minutemen Battalion of 1775 – Lt John Marshall of Capt Taliaferro's Company hada light blue of purple hinsting shirt fringed white (CMH plate by Peter Copeland & Mark Zlatich)

4th Independent Company Maryland Stae Troops reported to be in 'purple' hunting shirts with red collar and cuffs (I think Lefferts deserter descriptions might be the source for this).

Most mentions of hunting shirts just refer to plain materials as historygamer states. It does seem interesting that the only definite mentions of 'ornamented' hunting shirts, that I am aware of, come from the early part of the war and even at that time they are rare. So it can and does happen but is very fr from being a general occurrence.

Two things to bear in mind about hunting shirts:

1) In the first year or so of the war, they were dyed in company colours; after 1776, they seem to have been dyed in battalion/regimental colours.

2) Don't assume that references to "frocks" are just hunting shirts by another name. They can be, but a frock could also be a long single-breasted coat, or something like a labourer's smock, which looked quite similar to a nightshirt.

Fringes would have been more time-consuming in terms of the production of the shirt, and extra expense in labour and material. It sounds very plausible that ornamentation was common among pre-/early-war garments, but omitted from those produced as the war went on.

SM

The CMH plate description of the Culpepper Minutemen specifically mentions frocks for officers and does differentiate them from hunting shirts. The descrition of Lt subsequently Chief Justice John Marshall comes from a biography dated 1902(ish) and the source is not given so there could be grounds for doubting the light blue fringed white after all. As ever with these things the devil is in the detail.

The CMH plates are neat, but there is a lot of new research out there since many of them were done some years ago.