41. Next, get yourself some good buttons. Stay away from plastic and modern buttons. Go with glass, bone, shell, metal, porcelain, 2-hole cat's eye or Mother of Pearl. Metal buttons are authentic but they have potential to rust and stain your fabric.

45. Some shirts had button on collars, and many shirts were collarless. ECHOES: The Confederate Version shows seven shirts on pgs. 154-155, and each one has a different collar. Pvt. John Burgwyn MacRae Starr's North Carolina is a dark blue wool collarless pullover shirt while one below, Pvt. Andrew Thomas Beam, 28th South Carolina Volunteers' shirt is a white cotton with a square edged collar made of same color and material.

50. My rule of thumb is that I only make Civil War uniform items that I have seen in an original photograph or museum. Note: what is in museum is only very smallest tip of iceberg because there are very few actual items that made it through war. The vast majority of original clothing is long since gone. Some of fabrics and colors can be seen in very old quilts because they reused everything.

53. Note different collars, buttons, and fabrics, color combinations. I personally do not like solid color shirts. I like something with a little color to it. These shirts have original glass buttons on them. I prefer glass buttons for shirts because I like to match color combinations.

55. Keep everything 100% wool and 100% cotton. Make sure that material is a good grade, like homespun. If you are going to take time and energy, to make your own shirt, buy something high quality that will last. The price of shirt material is negligible compared to time and energy you will put into making it.

70. Original coin buttons are still available and affordable if you want to look for them. You can find them anywhere from one to three dollars. You might even want to go with a mismatched set - one or two state seals and remainder coin buttons.

Do you have more questions, have them answered http://www.civilwaruniforms.net/authenticshirts.htm

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Most Civil War shirts pull over head. I have not seen many that are completely button down in front. But, plackets on Civil War shirts vary as much as collars. A placket is piece of shirt, which contains two pieces of material - back placket is where buttons are sewn and front placket is where buttonholes are placed. The collar is usually attached to top of placket.

With plackets, without plackets, most shirts button down front with a variety of buttons. Civil War soldiers wore fancy shirts with ruffles, plain shirts; wool shirts, shirts made from flour sacks and some shirts were made by tailors. The combination of pieces you can put on your Civil War Uniform Shirts is endless: collars, plackets, buttons, style, material, etc.

I take some liberty to combine pieces I like as long as I have seen them in a museum or an original photo. What is in museums and original photos is only tip of iceberg when it comes to styles of shirts worn during Civil War Era.

For a course on Civil War uniforms which provides many more specific details, send an email to collars@civilwaruniforms.net

To see actual photos of reproduced shirts with a variety of collars, go to

http://www.civilwaruniforms.net/collars.htm

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