As civil war reenactors, we are always trying to find new ways to make our impressions more authentic and believable.  So many people will tell us that this or that fabric would not have been worn, or a woman would not be caught with out her hoop.  But in times of war, sometime fashion just goes out the door.  Julia Johnson Fisher, a woman of the civil war stated in a journal entry, "For three long years the world has been comparatively lost to us.  We know nothing of the changes that have taken place during that time.  In dress we are just where we were in 1860 - for fashion, but rags and wrinkles are more plentiful."  Just what excatly did the women wear durning the civil war, and what can we wear to help our impression?

   In the early mornings, before women would go about their day, they would wear what is know as a wraper.  It reseambled a other civil war style dresses only it would button from the top all the way to the bottom of the skirt.  Hence the name, because women could wrap this dress around themselves.  This stlye dress was also a favorite amoung pregnat and nursing women.

   Another stlye dress is what we call a Day Dress or a Visiting Dress.  This would be a nice dress that women would wear with her hoop and petticoats.  The Day Dress often featured a fitted bodice the closed on the front with either hook and eyes, or with buttons.  Sometimes with dress would close with hook and eyes and just have buttons sewn on for decorations. The skirt on this dress was general jackknife pleated with the pleats meeting each other in the front and back of the dress.  The veriation in the Day Dress was usually found in the sleeves.  There are several different stlyes of sleeves worn during the civil war.  This I will cover in a different guide.  One of the most common sleeve was called a Bishop sleeve.  It was a sleeve that was either pleated or gaithered at the arm, and it would puddle around the wrist.  The Day Dress was usually made out of nicer fabric, such as silk, and fine linen.  Yet during the civil war, whatever fabric was avalilble is what was used.

Please check back later, there is more to come.