![]() ![]() ![]() The coat and the balance of his uniform are leftovers from the Civil War. The soldier on the left (mid-late 1870s) is wearing the 1858 pattern fatigue, or sack coat. Personal field gear innovation also seemed to be revolutionary only to have the soldiers return to the old tried and true. The army searched to replace the 1858 sack coat, or fatigue coat with a few new styles that seemed to come full circle back to a similar design. While the army exhausted the old stocks, new uniform patterns were tested and adopted. The old uniforms stayed with the army until 1880 when the Quartermaster General finally reported the old stocks gone from the inventory. Other innovations initiated by the soldiers themselves included retailoring old uniforms to more fashionable forms and improvising looped belts to carry the new cartridge ammunition in the field. This innovation gave birth to the “trapdoor” rifle that was to become one of the U.S. ![]() One novel idea was to take the old muzzle loading rifled muskets and modify them to be breech loaders. army looked to innovate the United States Congress gave the army a mandate “to issue on-hand old pattern items until supplies were exhausted.” Despite is lack of congressional support a few innovations slipped though. In several of the world’s military establishments old muzzle loading rifled Muskets were being replaced by breech loaded cartridge rifles. The years between 18 became a time of reexamination for the army's uniforms, equipment and weapons. The regular army found its self with literally tons of surplus uniforms and equipment leftover from the war. With the end of the Civil War in 1865, Volunteer units went home, and the regular army moved back into the old and a few new forts across the west. ![]()
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