Presented by Dr. Blake Hill – Historian
Location: UNT Health Science Center, MET Building Rm. 109-111, 1000 Montgomery Street, Fort Worth, TX 76109
Dinner: 6PM (Menu: Herb Crusted Pork Chop with Honey Dijon Sauce, New Potatoes, Green Beans, Garden Salad and Dessert – $15. To RSVP respond to this announcement or call or text Jim Rosenthal at 817-307-9263.)
Program: 7 PM
As a topic of historical discourse, military uniforms have not received just consideration. Instead, they have been relegated to a niche corner of the profession. This has been a serious miscalculation. The clothing of Civil War soldiers not only provides insight into who they were as regiments and brigades, but also, who they were as men. For men serving at the front, far away from home, pieces of clothing that came from loved ones provided a sense of closeness to relatives. Also, men often asked for specific goods from family members because the garments provided by the Army fit poorly or were, in their opinion, substandard. Many of the criticisms were legitimate and the clothes supplied were often “shoddy.” Clothing manufacturers were often criticized by the Army, the public and the government leading to congressional investigations and public distrust of the industry as a whole. Consequently, clothing was not simply a small part of the war, but an everyday concern for soldiers that connected them more fully with their families, the government, and each other.
Dr. Hill received a BA in History from Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC, his MA in History from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland and his PhD from TCU. Currently, he is teaching history at Founders Classical Academy of Corinth in Corinth, TX. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and will be presenting this Spring at the Society of Military Historians Conference in Fort Worth. He is currently working on a book on Civil War Uniforms.