It is important that re-soling of leather shoes happens in a timely fashion.  That’s because there is a point of no return and you have a ruined shoe.  A Fugawee shoe only moderately abused but properly taken care of will give you ten or more years of service.

Care maintenance: When you get back home from an event, check your shoes, clean them and use a good dressing to return the oils to the leather that have evaporated.  Use shoe forms to help keep the shape of your shoe while they rest for the next event.

What is happening to your sole?

The method we use is a McKay stitching in our shoes.  At the time, this was the primary method of shoe construction as the welting process, that didn’t come in till 1869.  The thread is pulled into the leather at the skive line.  These are leather soles and will need to be re-soled from time to time.  This will give you longer use of any pair instead of having to replace them when the uppers are fine.

The US Army figured three months in the field was all that a pair of shoes would be useful.  If you’re spending a lot of time on concrete or asphalt, this is hard wear and will tear apart the leather fibers, in other words, this will wear out the soles faster.  This does not happen with modern rubber soles.  The period correct fix is hobnails and or heel plates (I find all hobnails are better on asphalt).  This will give you a grip on the rough ground beside letting your leather sole last longer.

How to tell when you need a re-sole.

Turn the shoe upside down and look at it toe first. You will see on any pair of new leather soled shoes there is an arch acting like a toenail. As you walk the leather wears off, it will flatten out. (Just like thinning the top of toenail to prevent an ingrown nail.)  When it gets to that point, you want to push in/down on the middle of the sole.  If it is giving/getting soft. Then it’s time to have them re-soled.

What to Do!

Get them re-soled it’s what you have to do.

According to Steven at Dons’ shoe repair our local shoe repair shop:

• Frayed thread on bottom… that’s the time to save your sole. You have gone as far as you should to keep the shoe in good repair.
• Smiling seam: yes that is fixable. When a sole has worn down to the stitching, the upper and lower soles separate (Usually happens to the toe so it looks like the shoe is smiling). Time to take them in for repair.
• A hole through the outer sole. (Some shoes have two layers of Sole leather) Maybe this can fixed. Check with the repair shop.
• Holes all the way through….. Too late the shoe is good for potting plants.

The nonperiod fix is to have them 3/4 soled with rubber (that’s the heel and sole). This usually referred to as Sole Saver.  The rubber sole material can be smooth, of the same color as the original leather sole or black to match the uppers.  It is almost undetectable and the footing is so much better less slipping and sliding.

Now just a heel minute or Heel..@#%! Heel.

Because we’re looking at your sole, it is a good time to check out the wear on your heels.

Is it just at the back? Or is there wear on the outside or the inside of the heel? This would show “Pronation” or “Supination”.  If action isn’t taken it could mean that with further wear, the heel cup could slip sideways and accentuate the pronation or supination of the ankle, you may already have.  It will seem like you are walking on your ankles, and that is not far from the truth. We had one client that his heels were almost on the ground.

If you have a Fugawee shoe on and it’s hurting your feet, please call us. We don’t like people walking around in Fugawee’s and their feet hurting.

It may be time for the heels to have a facelift. The same material (Sole Saver) can be used for new heels. Some repair shops carry both colors and others have to order the natural color.

Lots of folks, like to use heel plates and or hobnails.  This can prolong the wear, as we all know that iron takes longer to wear down than leather.  But check those additions too, not as often, but they will after a while show the same wear as the leather.  After all, they had no place but your tootsies to learn that from.

How long should a set of soles last?

The US army figured three months in the field was all the time a pair of shoes was good. If you’re spending time on concrete or asphalt a lot this will wear out the soles faster. The period correct fix is hobnails and or heel plates. (I find all hobnails are better on asphalt.) But check with your commander which they will allow. Hobnail and heel plates can be like ice skates at first on hard surfaces and really mess up wooden dance floors.  You may need a plain pair just for the Balls. But going up a grassy hill you can’t find anything better.

Historically, shoe uppers always had been considered women’s work and this may be all that was done by the home workers but it is possible that the welting and sole stitching was done at home as well.

The largest pair of bootees on record still exists.  They are smooth side out, size 17. Three pairs were specially manufactured for a large Swedish draftee.  The shoes never reached him.  A target of his size was just too tempting and the Confederates killed him before his custom-made shoes got to him. One pair of his shoes remains in a museum at Susquehanna.

Fugawee calls our Northern or Federal shoe a Contract Bootee because, contrary to pre-war practice, Army footwear was built by contractors. Naturally, there were slight variations in the shoes issued to the Northern troops.

We have a letter dated January 1862 from Colonel Crossman, Assistant Quartermaster General describing the purchase of 1,102,700 pairs of boots and booties from contractors all over the North.  Contracts were as large as 120,000 pairs from one manufacturer at Sing Sing, NY (did they have the prison then?) or as small as 300 pairs from another factory in Pennsylvania.  The shoes apparently included work shoes already on hand. They had been manufactured on lasts (the forms on which shoes are built) already in the factories.  You may be sure that contractors produced variations in design and fit.. This is borne out in the Congressional hearings early in 1862. Some of the testimony is hilarious.

One manufacturer, faced with the fact that he had supplied shoes that foot soldiers wore out in three weeks replied, “But those shoes were supposed to go to the Cavalry.” So help me, it is in the Congressional Record of the Washburn Committee..

In early 1862 Crossman reported his purchases to Congressman E.B. Washhburn, Chairman of the House Committee to Inquire into Government Contracts (Page 1569, Record of the 37th Congress, 2nd Session) click to read the letter and apologized for having accepted a small quantity of pegged bootees which had been accepted only because of the urgency of the war.  Regulations called for sewn shoes but cheap work shoes for the immigrant trade and those for the plantation (slave) trade had been pegged together since a labor-saving machine that set nine pegs to the inch came into use.

Which is correct, pegged or sewn?

The army did everything it could to force the contractors to deliver sewn shoes.  While a pair of sewn shoes brought the contractor $1.80 to $2.00 per pair, the Government would pay only $1.25 for pegged shoes. With Cavalry boots the prices were $3.25 for sewn and $2.50 for pegged. The Army accepted only  265 pairs of pegged of cavalry boots out of 183,997 pairs purchased by Colonel Crossman.

In a total of  1,102,700 pairs of shoes and boots purchased by Col. Crossman, only 5.43% were pegged. The Colonel felt that he had to explain that he had bought the inferior pegged shoes only because of the exigencies of the war, even though they cost the Gov’t one third less.

Here is a picture of the sole of an original Civil War issue pegged boot.  The split-apart pegs are diamond-shaped (remember the machine?) and are in two staggered rows that total nine pegs pr inch.  Although it is hard to tell,  this is a left/right shoe.

The shank is riveted in place and the heel has a close-set row of cut nails to extend wear. The boot is machine pegged, nine pegs to the inch.

No, that is not stitching, it is two rows of pegs. They are staggered for strength and to get as many pegs in the row as possible. Note the rivets on the shank and the close-set nails in the heel.

Forty percent of Civil War shoes were made on a pegging machine invented in 1838, It was much like a two needle sewing machine and almost as fast.  The first station was an awl which made a hole, then the second station drove a peg into the hole.

This machine took a block of wood that had been cut across the grain and was of a thickness equal to length of the pegs. The end grain was scored in both directions, making a “card” full of diamond points.  The card was then split by the machine to free the hundreds of pegs.  These fed directly into the next step in the machine which inserted them in the shoes.

One of the big differences between the nine-to-the-inch machine-pegged shoes actually used in the Civil War and the three-or-four-to-the-inch pegging seen  on Sutlers’ Row  is the fact that machine-set pegs were driven all the way through the leather until they were flush with the sole. The points that went into the interior of the shoe were then cut off with special tools before  the insole was glued in. Those pegs were square and straight-sided all through the leather.

Most of today’s reproduction shoes are made with round, polished pegs which are actually made to hold the shanks of modern cowboy boots. The pointed ends of the pegs are driven in only until they encounter the metal form inside the shoe.  When the points of the pegs reach the metal, they are cut off on the outside: This means that the smooth, pointed peg is in a tapered hole. Thus, the shoes have three or four round, polished and tapered pegs instead of nine straight-sided, split-off pegs to the inch.  The shoe is held together mainly with glue. The pegs are mostly cosmetic.

Fugawee made “pegged” shoes until our research showed that the sewn shoes were not only appropriate but had been preferred by the military.

About forty percent of all boots and brogans purchased by the US Army during the Civil War were constructed with the less expensive pegging process.

During the days of the Soviet Bloc,  the East Germans and Poles used some machine-pegged boosts in their armies.  I don’t know where you would find a pegging machine today. Fugawee Jefferson bootees are all sewn as per the basic military regulations during of the Civil War.  Fugawee Jefferson bootees are built on lasts taken directly from an 1865 boot.

The Army used the term “Jefferson”. The reason goes back to Thomas Jefferson:

During the French Revolution, large, fancy shoe buckles were considered the mark of the Aristocrats.

Shortly, wearing any shoe buckles at all could cause your head to leave your body. Shoe buckles quickly went out of style in France.

In the United States, Thomas Jefferson was a strong supporter of the French Revolution so, at his inauguration in 1801 he wore laced-up shoes.. This set a fashion. All laced shoes soon were called “Jefferson Shoes.”

The term “Jefferson” continued to mean laced shoes until the early twentieth century. “Bootee” is a diminutive of “Boot” and signifies a short boot. “Brogan” is derived from “Brogue”, an English term for a rugged shoe that almost covered the ankle as opposed to a shoe which was lower and a boot which was higher.

The majority of Confederate shoes came through the blockade and were made much in the fashion of an English military boot and of riveted or nailed construction. The British did not make many shoes with pegs until the 1870’s when they started to use them in leather sea boots because pegs were not corroded by sea water.

Civil War shoes are pretty hard to tell apart. Once they have been stomped through the mud a few times your eye can’t tell where they came from. That’s when your feet will tell you that you are wearing Fugawee’s Civil War shoes.

Fugawee’s Smooth side out Civil War Union army Jefferson

The Army used the term “Jefferson”. The reason goes back to Thomas Jefferson:

During the French Revolution, large, fancy shoe buckles were considered the mark of the Aristocrats.

Shortly, wearing any shoe buckles at all could cause your head to leave your body. Shoe buckles quickly went out of style in France.

In the United States, Thomas Jefferson was a strong supporter of the French Revolution so, at his inauguration in 1801 he wore laced-up shoes. This set a fashion. All laced shoes soon were called “Jefferson Shoes.”

The term “Jefferson” continued to mean laced shoes until the early twentieth century. “Bootee” is a diminutive of “Boot” and signifies a short boot. “Brogan” is derived from “Brogue”, an English term for a rugged shoe that almost covered the ankle as opposed to a shoe which was lower and a boot which was higher.

The majority of Confederate shoes came through the blockade and were made much in the fashion of an English military boot and of riveted or nailed construction. The British did not make many shoes with pegs until the 1870’s when they started to use them in leather sea boots because pegs were not corroded by sea water.

Civil War shoes are pretty hard to tell apart. Once they have been stomped through the mud a few times your eye can’t tell where they came from. That’s when your feet will tell you that you are wearing Fugawee’s Civil War shoes.