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U.S. Army impression, circa 1898 through 1910
Oskar_2ndChev:
Good luck! The only other thing your buddy will need, and unfortunately nobody reproduces it, is the buffalo overcoat. ;D These were organizational issue items and were very popular with the men. The Govermnent held on to these long after the buffalo were gone.
JerseyCaptain:
That's cool. Say, I don't know the historical impression very well at all, but is that pretty consistent across the board? I mean, would units stationed in northwestern bush Alaska have had such things at that time? Or would there be special gear for the colder weather (allowing for the fact that, during the late spring and summer, it got tolerable weather-wise)?
So far, I've been able to find nothing more about the units which were garrisoned at Fort Davis. Any thoughts on how I might shed some light on that?
Oskar_2ndChev:
As far as extreme cold weather gear goes, by the late 1890s, the Army was very well equipped and there were a lot of speciality items such as rubber overshoes, hoods, muskrat caps and the like. Also, for campaign conditions, the Army tended to turn a blind eye to soldiers procuring all sorts of civilian pattern items and it's reasonable that soldiers would be wearing Muk-Luks (sp?) and the like- although I'd want to see more pictures. Also, the issue great coats were blanket-lined and speaking from personal experience, they're quite warm.
I'll see what I can find out as to Ft. Davis.
Oskar_2ndChev:
Here's some links that you might find useful:
http://photolab.elmer.uaf.edu/gallery/panoramas/images/1964-0074-00075.jpg
http://www.alsap.org/FortDavis/FortDavis.htm
It appears that the 16th infantry was stationed there in 1912 and they used skis.
Oskar_2ndChev:
As a follow-up, the Annual Reports of the Secretary of War might have some interesting information and some of the pertinent years are actually available online for downloading. Just go to:
http://books.google.com/
and use "Annual Reports of the Secretary of War" as search terms.
The closest I could find was for 1903 and in the troop movements, there's mention of the 7th Infantry returning from Alaska to San Francisco. Overseas tours were usually for two years. There's also some interesting comments in the Commander of the Department of Alaska's official reports.
The rest is up to you... ;)
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