There are few Confederate frock coats in such beautiful, original condition as the example shown here. The dark, cadet grey outer body and the inner liner are in virtually perfect condition. The coat exemplifies the very finest in tailoring and is made from the very best material to be had; an imported English Kersey blanket. The eight-piece body is made from an English Kersey blanket that still retains virtually one hundred percent of its nap. A pocket lined with osnaburg is set into the coat’s inner left breast. The pocket is in perfect condition. The one piece ballooned sleeves are lined with osnaburg, reused from a flour sack. Part of the printing from the sack still remains on one inner sleave. Each sleeve is adorned with three, cuff sized, eagle staff officer’s buttons. Pockets, lined with osnaburg, are set into the tails; the tail flaps retain all four Extra Quality, three-piece eagle staff officer’s buttons. The breast is adorned with fourteen Extra Quality eagle staff officer’s buttons. All of the buttons appear to be original to the coat. The collar, breast and tail are piped with a bead of cream colored cloth, and a chevron of the same color outlines each cuff. The cream color indicates that the wearer was on the general staff. The coat’s collar is adorned with a single, embroidered star denoting the wearer as a Confederate Major. The sleeve chevrons are outlined by the regulation three strands of braid denoting a field grade officer.

The body liner is made of green sateen. It too is in beautiful condition, with the exception of an area just below the collar where it had worn through, which was then crudely repaired. Otherwise, the body liner, sleeve liner and pocket liner are in virtually perfect condition. The coat has white/grey strips from the original blanket that the coat was made from on the interior padded breast.

I have owned more than fifty original Confederate uniform pieces and have examined as many more, yet I can say that I have never seen a better coat, both for original quality of construction and current condition, though I have seen three or four that are its equal.

The coat has had no restoration whatsoever other than the damage below the collar mentioned above. Very few major’s frocks exist and none are better than this example.