THE US ISSUE SHELTER TENT.

We have always taken for a fact that there were two types of shelter tents issued to the soldiers during the American Civil War;

1. A small "early war" tent

2. A larger "later" issue tent with a row of buttons to three sides and known as the M1864 shelter tent.

It now appears that there was only one type issued, this one conforming to the ’64 specifications for the period of civil war issue. Below are the specifications that all our shelter tents should adhere to.

Each half to be made of eight ounce (or as close to) cotton duck of two piece construction , length five feet, six inches (66").  Width five feet, five inches (65").

TOP BUTTONS

Nine tin or bone buttons, in a line parallel to, and four inches from the upper edge or head of the tent, at intervals of eight inches centre to centre, the end buttons being one inch from the side edges of the tent.

END BUTTONS

Seven tin or bone buttons, in a line parallel to and four inches from each side edge of the tent, at intervals of eight inches centre to centre, the first button of the row being three inches from the lower edge or foot of the tent.

BUTTONHOLES

on each half tent, twenty three in number, along the upper and side edges a half inch there-from, opposite the button of their own half.  

Each corner of the shelter half is to have a four inch square reinforcement of cotton duck with two hand sewn grommet holes, the foot of the half is also to have a central four inch square reinforcement with two hand sewn grommet holes. The reinforcements at the foot of the half should have a loop of Manilla rope for pegging out.

The original shelter half was made of two entire widths of cotton duck seamed together selvage edge to selvage edge, the end  edge of the tent being the other selvage edge of each piece.  Sometimes this outside edge would have a blue woven in strip about 1" inch, only the head & foot were hemmed, all the main construction is machine sewn. Each shelter half had a contractors name stamped on the bottom left side.

U.S. Issue Shelter Tent The diagram to the left show the layout of the buttons and button holes and depicts the detail  of how ropes were attached to the corners to allow pegging into the ground.

THE SIZE QUESTION

From research carried out by Patrick McDermott and Don Rademacher the answer to differing shelter half sizes could be down to shrinkage. By making a test shelter half to the 64 specifications then putting it through the same weather and harsh conditions that the originals would have been subjected to, they ended up with a shelter half 62 1/2 inches by 57 1/2 inches. This was now compared to extant halves, the first two from the Stametelos collection that were used by an unknown Massachusetts Sergeant and  were used together as a complete tent and are made by the same contractor, the others from the Gettysburg National Park Service, these also were used together as a complete tent but are unmarked and differ in some construction points and button usage ( one having tin the other having bone). The results can be seen below  

It can be see that the test half falls into the pattern of the extant halves. It is also worth noting that the contractor would not have gone to the trouble of washing and drying thousands of yards of cloth plus the large amount of lost yardage due to shrinkage, the first time they got wet would create the diversity in sizes seen today.

As the 1864 specification in essence puts down on paper what the Government wanted through the war, where does this differing in size between early and late halves perpetrate from? I think this can be laid at the door of the sutlers, who in error have taken the measurements of an original half and called it the " early pattern " and accepted the 1864 specification  as the "late war pattern"  

SHELTER TENT ENDS

There is no evidence of a specifically cut tent end being made or issued to civil war troops, however there are many primary accounts for the use of shelter tents, blankets, gum blankets and overcoats to cover one or both ends.  

END NOTES

The Government specified that the good old tin type button was to be used on each shelter half. Contractors being contractors seemed to have a liking for the much cheaper bone button, the only problem with these was that the middle of the button tended to pop out when under stress. It would appear that the government tried to cut this practice out, as from 1863 onwards shelter tents tend to have the tin buttons, although this is still not a hard and fast rule.

Also note that the "head " of the shelter has a set of grommet holes in each corner in the 1864 specifications, these are referred to as "pole and rope holes". It has been suggested that the inner hole was for the spike of the pole and the outer one for the rope that was supplied with the shelter.

For more information on shelter tent poles see the article by Robert Braun on the 33rd Wisconsin web site.  

A Soldiers View on the Shelter Tent

The following quote is from the memoirs of Rice C. Bull ( Soldiering - The Civil War Diary of Rice C. Bull - Presidio Press 1977) and illustrates nicely the use of the U.S. shelter tent.

As soon as our company streets were laid out by our Officers each man was issued a tent cloth, and with these strips of cloth were directed to construct shelter tents; "dog tents" was the name given them.

Usually three men would occupy a tent as the three cloths could be so arranged as to enclose, when finished, the three sides of a tent, in which they could lie. These tents were to be used chiefly for sleeping, as one could barely sit erect at the highest place in the center. They were far from comfortable living quarters. Yet they were the only kind of shelter we would have in the field during our term of service. For three years this thin cloth tent would be our cover from wind, storm and cold. The tents were kept erect by driving a stake at each end, the stakes extending about three feet above the ground, and about six feet apart. They were connected at the top by a light pole over which was placed two of the tent cloths, buttoned together and stretched  as much as possible at the sides. The third cloth covered the back end of the tent. The head of our tent was at the back where we used our knapsacks for pillows. For our beds we would first spread our rubber blankets, on top of which we placed one woolen blanket, for covering we used the two other blankets. In fair weather we stacked our guns in the street but when it was stormy took them into the tent to keep them dry. When the weather was dry and warm our tents were comfortable sleeping quarters but in wet, cold times they were anything but satisfactory. They would shed rain when it came gently but if the storm was heavy the rain would come through, at first like damp mist and when the cloth was well soaked would run through in big drops like a leaking roof. In rainy weather we had either to stand out and take it full force or lie wet in our tents. As soldiers we had to get used to anything, discomfort, food, clothing and shelter, and we soon became used to the little tents  and were thankful to have them. Experience taught us to always trench around our tents if we were to use them for any length of time, so we would not be flooded out in case of a storm.

At this Capital Hill Camp we had our first experience in camp engineering. The ground was level and our streets nicely arranged. Our tent cloths were new, so the tents looked white and attractive. In our ignorance we did not ditch around our tents so were washed out of house and home within forty-eight hours by a hard thunder shower. This taught us early never again to neglect to drain our camp.

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