Welcome to our Accoutrements Department.

 Period sources and artifact collections reveal that Northern Department Continental equipment, official or not, was rare in the Southern Department during the Revolutionary War. The states provided most of their equipment for their troops, and in great variety. They had to make do with fabric versions, usually brown hemp osnaburg, twill, duck, or webbing, depending on the date and item.  

 The bleaching properties of chlorine were not discovered until 1784. Before that, creating a white fabric required repeated baths in harsh chemicals and several months’ exposure to the sun, making white fabric three times as expensive as naturally colored fabric.