Confederate tartan anachronisms

[OC Richard]

First, I don't know the right place to post this, because the Confederate Memorial Tartan is recent.

Yet, the photos of men wearing it I've come across online nearly always show men wearing Civil War era jackets.

So what I have to say is out of place both in Historical kiltwearing and Contemporary kiltwearing, which is precisely the point!

I was just looking through old XMarks threads, and a site selling kilts of the Confederate Memorial Tartan, and what struck me strongly (being a collector of vintage photos) was the amazingly consistent anachronism of wearing American Civil War jackets, Confederate Memorial Tartan kilts, and post-1900 style sporrans.

Couldn't one, just one, of the wearers get a sporran of a style that existed in the 19th century? Evidently there's a knowledge disconnect between people interested in the American Civil War and people interested in 19th century kiltwearing.

Here's the site. Four men are shown wearing the CM tartan with Civil War jackets and every one is wearing the sort of sporran that didn't appear until the 20th century.

http://www.alexismalcolmkilts.com/1089/1207.html

Here's an old XMarks thread showing precisely the same thing: there are two men wearing Civil War era costume, CM tartan kilts, and 20th-century-specific sporrans.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...lt-pics-39216/

I've looked over hundreds of 19th century photographs of kiltwearers and never seen such sporrans. These small pocketlike sporrans, leather for Day and Sealskin for Evening, seem to suddenly appear around WWI and quickly ousted the previous style, the long hair sporran, which had been worn by civilians in Day Dress and Evening Dress alike throughout the 19th century.

Here is perhaps the best overview of the styles of sporrans worn in the 1860s, provided by The Highlanders of Scotland. Those doing Civil War era kiltwearing would do well to study that book.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...cotland-67675/

For those questioning the accuracy of MacLeay's sporrans, here's a thread where I post photos of vintage sporrans showing a wide variety of unusual designs identical to, or very similar to, those appearing in The Highlanders Of Scotland

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...s-flesh-83376/