Post-US civil war coastal artillary jacket?

[gooseandspoons]

i found this jacket one day as i was driving to work, i saw it hanging in a tree at a yardsale. When i saw it from the road i thought it was a coastguard uniform, but as i got closer i relized it was a coastal artillary man's uniform jacket. Here is the thing though, i've looked the uniform completely over finding all sorts of clues on it. The button holes are hand stitched and so is the collar and cuffs. Inside the arms there was stamped the unit and on the other inside sleeve had the soldiers name. But is it real, or is it a really good repro for some re-enactor?

[Adrian Stevenson]

Completely outside the scope of my knowledge, so I am moving this from the WW2 forum into the WW1 section in the hope that someone here might be able to help?

Cheers, Ade.

[gardengalore]

I myself would like to hear more about this one, I live here in Virginia and see that you are from North Carolina. My maiden name is Spain and some of my father's family linage is from some parts of N.C. Can anyone make out the last letters of the last name? This would be interesting if some one can find out. We have traced some heritage in the family but lost connections in N.C. There's also a small town here in Va, named Spainville. Fasinating to say the least, if this turns out to be an original.

[Brian T]

Hi there! I know little to nothing about uniforms, but I do know a few things from American Civil War collecting friends.
First, the Great Seal are on the buttons. The Great Seal was adopted by the US in 1902, so the uniform is at the very least post 1902.
The next thing my ACW buddies look at are the backmarks on the buttons and to see if there is any tag left by the manufacturer. If you can figure out who made the uniform and buttons, you might be able to pin down a time frame.
Lastly, I found this web site from the "Coast Defense Study Group, Inc."
http://www.cdsg.org/reprint%20PDFs/CACuniforms.pdf
Good luck,
Brian

[gooseandspoons]

I myself would like to hear more about this one, I live here in Virginia and see that you are from North Carolina. My maiden name is Spain and some of my father's family linage is from some parts of N.C. Can anyone make out the last letters of the last name? This would be interesting if some one can find out. We have traced some heritage in the family but lost connections in N.C. There's also a small town here in Va, named Spainville. Fasinating to say the least, if this turns out to be an original.

the name in the sleeve is J.W. Spainhouer. I did some research when i first bought it and I found out the Post that the 117th Coastal Artillary was garrisoned at was Fort Adams in Rhode Island.

[gooseandspoons]

Hi there! I know little to nothing about uniforms, but I do know a few things from American Civil War collecting friends.
First, the Great Seal are on the buttons. The Great Seal was adopted by the US in 1902, so the uniform is at the very least post 1902.
The next thing my ACW buddies look at are the backmarks on the buttons and to see if there is any tag left by the manufacturer. If you can figure out who made the uniform and buttons, you might be able to pin down a time frame.
Lastly, I found this web site from the "Coast Defense Study Group, Inc."
http://www.cdsg.org/reprint%20PDFs/CACuniforms.pdf
Good luck,
Brian

The button manufacturer is Horrstmann in phillidelphia. When i first got it i gathered all this info, but my research links for this sort of thing a really limited.http://www.workshopoftheworld.com/ce...horstmann.html

[gooseandspoons]

brian thanks for that link

[gooseandspoons]

so far as i can tell looks real to me. but it still leaves me with questions. what about the lay down collar, could this have been an older model converted into a early 1900's model? well what ever the uniform is i only paid a dollar for it, and the uneducated man that i bought it from said it was a us marines uniform from vietnam. his wife was even skeptical. i just gave him my dollar and hurried back to my truck before he got wiser about it.

[Brian T]

You're welcome for the link. I hope it was helpful.
According to this link, Horrtsmann ended button manufacturing in 1935, so if it's legit, it pre-WWII. http://pw1.netcom.com/~jimyce/bm.html
I don't know why anyone would fake a Coastal Artillery Uniform, it's really cool but I highly doubt it's a high dollar item. If you have access to ancestory.com you can put that fella's name in and you might be able to pull something up on him. It's worked for me a couple times.
Remember though, I know next-to-nothing about uniforms.
Good luck!!!

[gooseandspoons]

thank you so very much brian. my mother has a ancestory.com account, i'll check it out and i'll keep my progress on here if anybody wants to know.