Figure 1.--This CDV portrait was taken by EJ Rees in Perterburg, Virginia, a major Civil War battlefield in 1865. This portraitv was taken in 1871. The boy looks to be about 8 years old or so. He wears a short tunic front-buttoning, belted tunic with long pants. He holds what looks like a toy rifle. His rounded-crown hat sits on the brick wall. Notice the thin stripe on his pants. we are not entirely sure how to classify this outfit. It may be more of a jacket than a tunic. We note similar suits called the Lorne suit.

We note boys wearing a variety of pants with tunics in the 1870s. We see boys wearing bloomer knickers, straight knee pants, and long pants with tunic suits. We do not see as many long pants as in the 1860s, but they were still quite common. We also see fewer bloomer knickers and more knee pants. This reflected general fashion trends associated with pants and trousers and no specific tunic suit trends. Many of these outfits were done as suits with the tunic and pants matching. We also see tunics and pants that did not match, but this was much less common than previously. Some of the matching pants were often heavily stylized with stripes and other detailng to match the fancy tunic styling.

Bloomer Knickers

We see fewer American boys wearing bloomer knickers with tunic suits. These were knicker-length pants that had drawstrings to secure the bottom hem looking rather like elastic. Bloomer knickers at the time were more popular in Europe than America. They ere worn with tunic suits, but we do not see boys wearing them as regulsr pants.

Knickers

We also see boys wearing knickers with tunic suits. These were knickers that buckeled or buttoned to secure the bottom hem of the pants leg. We do not see boys wearing these pants as standard trousers, although unlike bloomer knickers we do see some boys wearing them. Here boys mostly woire long pants or straight-leg knee pants. We are not sure why this was. Most of these knickers buckled at calf level. They were tunic suits with the tunic matching the knickers. We can not see in many of the images just how the band was fasteed, but we can see it did not involve drawstring like bloomer knickers. Knicjkers seem much kless common thsan knee psants, but our sampling is still relatively small.

Knee Pants

We see American boysin the 1870s wearing tunics with knee pants. We see fewer bloomer knickers and more knee pants. This appears to reflect general fashion trends associated with pants and trousers and no specific tunic suit trends. Allmost all of the examples we have found are suits wiyj matching tunics and trouss. We see a few tunics and pants that did not match, but this was much less common than previously. Some of the tunics had decorated embroidery. This was less common on the kneepants. The knee pants were cut the same as the knee pants for suits, often rather long at calf level. As far as we can tell, the knee pants boys wore with tunic suits were the same as those worn with suits. They were always worn with long stockings. Striped stockings were very popular in the 1870s in contrast to the 60s when white stockings were especially poplar.

Long Pants

Long pants were sdtill very common for boys in the 870s, even ypunger boys. We do not see as many American boys weearing long pants with tunics as we did in the 1860s, but we still see anumber of portraits.

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Created: 3:24 AM 3/12/2007
Last edited: 5:53 AM 3/5/2010