I visited the ruins of Fort Selden, New Mexico today. Established in 1865, this adobe fort sits along the Rio Grande River, north of El Paso, Texas. In 1884, Captain Arthur MacArthur, Jr. (Civil War Medal of Honor winner), 13th Infantry, was assigned as post commander. With him was his wife and two young sons, Arthur MacArthur III, age 7, and Douglas MacArthur, age 4. In his memoirs, Douglas MacArthur wrote that it was at Fort Selden that he and his brother learned to ride and shoot, even before we learned to read and write. The MacArthurs spent two years at Fort Selden before Captain MacArthur was transferred to Fort Wingate. I saw the remains of their house, not much but eroding mud walls. Very interesting place, very remote, dry desert, surrounded by mountains, and near a very pretty river.

In the museum I saw behind a glass case what was listed as a Civil War Union shell jacket. It had nine federal buttons, but I had a problem with the cut of cloth, design, and color of this shell jacket. It reminded me of a British made shell jacket, or North Carolina issue, the color was near black/grey. The design looked too Confederate. The corporal strips were black with white background, very thin. It had a small pocket on the right breast. The stitching didn't look like it was done by a machine, but I didn't have my specticles so I couldn't see the fine details. The information about the jacket only said their were nearly 1 million of these jackets in Army depots after the Civil War and they were still issuing these (after modification) to Federal troops up until the 1880s. This jacket was not modified that I could see.

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David Upton