US Civil War Union Army Enlisted Forage Cap
This item is listed for historical interest only. It was listed on our site previously but has been sold and is no longer available for purchase.
Sold for: $1795.00

Original ear manufacture. Classic Civil War "Bummer's" hat of dark blue wool with a polished brown cotton lining and leather sweatband. When we purchased this old hat it was squashed flat and we were told by the seller that it was found inside a WWI doughboy's footlocker along with a WWI uniform and German souvenirs. He was told that it had belonged to the Doughboy's father, but no name was recorded. The hat is complete but shows considerable wear in the form of mothing to the edges of the hat and scattered bites to the body. The lining material is intact with it's original size tag still pasted onto the crown, full leather sweatband, painted leather visor and chinstrap with both side buttons present, the left side button needs resewn. The mothing, while considerable along the bottom edge of the hat can be cosmetically repaired to where most of it would blend quite well. There is some mothing around the crown welt exposing the thin reed stiffener inside. I played around with this a bit and used a marker to carefully dab color onto the reed, making the reed blend quite nicely.