Blanket coats, one of the most well-known pieces of winter equipment and often one of the most badly reproduced owing to the sheer extensiveness of their usage over a three hundred year period. Being made often, though not exclusively out of a blue striped trade blanket, bound with similar wool tape, these garments were widely made use of not only in the Province of Quebec, or New France, but extensively by British regular and Provincial units and as far flung as Virginia.
Occasionally coming in solid colours such as brown and grey, these blankets have also been known to be created out of blankets with a red stripe and associated trim, earlier with no trim and merely white. For the period of the Revolution in the context of the British military, we can for certain say that they were made out of trade blankets with a blue stripe and matching worsted wool trim, having ties often erroneously created as “gorget rosettes”, owing to translations and misinterpretations of the images. These “rosettes”, combined with a loop, at the bottom corner of the front, allow the coat to be brought up to clear the legs and allow more free movement of the user, also allowing it to clear the snow.
Friedrich Von Germann, 1778
Of particular note is the extent to which these garments were employed, not only by civilians, but by regular and provincial forces. Extensively documented, we can find individuals from French Canadian militia to members of renown units employing them as standard equipment, myth claiming that in certain instances these garments may have replaced short supply coats for certain units (myth, possibly, as noted).
Genre Studies of Habitants and Indians
Royal Ontario Museum 969.37.2
Friedrich Von Germann, 1778
For the 8th Light Company, often participating in engagements throughout the region, the use of such an item would have been a necessity, given both the significant extent to which they were issued, numbering in the thousands, to the effectiveness of the garment in protecting the soldier. The image noted here, is our interpretation of the garment as created by Mistress da Cunha of Timbrell Cockburn Cunha, using her own research into the matter and extensive records.
***A few references of note***
Journal of von Pausch, November 9th, 1776:
“…one large underwaistcoat with sleeves, made of a strong white wool; one Canadian overcoat
with hood and cuffs, made from white woolen blankets, with a blue strip at the bottom of the coat. The
hood and cuffs of heavy white twilled cloth, drawn tight with a bright blue woolen tape, and are fastened
down the front with three toggles. There are three rosettes made of the same cord on the coattails. This
last item is called a “Capot” everywhere in Canada.”
General Return of Store, May 1st, 1778:
“1350 Blanket Coats at St John’s And 142 ditto at Montreal made by Order of Lieut. General
Burgoyne”
April 2nd, 1777, 41 coats provided to deserters from the KRRNY, as noted in the accounts and returns of provisions.
September 8, 1779, List of Sundry Articles Wanted for the use of Mjr Butler’s Corps of Rangers:
“360 blanket coats or blankets in proportion’
April 4th, 1780, Germain to Haldimand:
“Troops have also been provided and sent out in this Ship agreeable to the enclosed
List calculated for the Supply of 5,500 Regulars and 3,000 Provincials; A Blanket, a pair of Mittens and
Leggings have this and the former year been superadded to the Ordinary Regimental Clothing of the
Troops by His Majesty out of his Royal Bounty in humane Consideration of the Severity of the Climate
and the Hardships the Men may be exposed to in a late or early Campaign”
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