Rare Civil War Enlisted Signal Corps Fatigue Jacket

A rare documented uniform in EXC condition with not a single rip, tear, or moth hole in the dark blue wool body or lining. The body is machine stitched with a low, 1.6” plain standing collar having eleven small general service eagle buttons fastened to the front; only the top button has been reattached with modern thread, all of the others are still held by their original stitching. The buttons were evidently sewn to the jacket before final assembly as the tread does not penetrate the 2-ply placket. The buttonholes are hand-finished in the crudest manner. On the cuff of each sleeve are two small eagle buttons attached with original thread. Both body and sleeves are fully lined with brown polished cotton, which is fully intact and fully attached. The jacket is completely unmarked, without stampings of any kind; however, inside one sleeve is a rectangle of machine stitching where, we surmise, a label had once been attached.
 
This scarce regulation uniform is occasionally seen in period photographs of the newly formed Signal Corps authorized on March 3, 1863. Two other identified examples are pictured on page 157 of Time-Life’s Echoes of Glory—Arms and Equipment of the Union. This shell jacket is nearly identical. By way of provenance the coat was offered for sale at a Chicago CADA show in 1978. It was acquired by a respected Chicago collector for the princely sum of $100 who kept it for 19 years before selling to fellow collector Richard K. Tibbals in September 1997.