go to http://www.cwreenactors.com and click on the link for "forums"and
you'll learn a lot about the various quality uniform makers out there.
There's a guy named Chris White in Richmond (lives in Church Hill) who does
good uniforms -- think he's called "The Richmond Depot" or some such and
might be able to do a custom order for a post-CW Richmond Blues uniform.

Other very good makers of Civil War uniforms, using reproductions of the
original cloth are Charlie Childs, Ben Tart and Nick Sekela at Historical
Clothiers. Again, they dont usually do post War stuff, but might consider
special orders

I'd go ahead and post a query on this forum under "Clothing, Equipment and
How To" and you'll undoubtedly get several knowledgeable answers.

For the fabric itself, I dont know what the uniforms were made of, but if
they were dark blue kersey, Pat Kline at Family Heirloom Weavers reproduces
handwoven kersey that is extremely nice (www.familyheirloomweavers.com). Or
shop around for a good source of blue woolen broadcloth or melton, finely
woven, if that's where your research is pointing you.

Sounds like a GREAT plan! Is somebody re-constituting the Richmond Blues,
post war for local historical events? That would be wonderful.

Kathryn Coombs
Alexandria

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