The Civil War soldier's equipment, reduced to the basics, was a weapon with its leather accouterments, a canteen, and a woolen blanket. Every soldier was issued a blanket. In the Northern armies, the typical blanket was a substantial 4 to 5 pound rectangle of twill woven, mouse brown color wool, measuring just under 5.5 by 7 feet and with a dark brown stripe near each end. To discourage pilferage, the letters "U.S." were stitched in the center of each blanket. Army blankets were valuable to soldier and post-war civilian alike; it is little wonder that few of the millions issued during the Civil War exist today.

Excellent copies of documented original blankets have been difficult for historic sites and military living historians to find. In 1999 a small group of Minnesota historians and reenactors undertook a project to produce a nearly identical replica of the bedding blanket issued to Private Abraham Thomas of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Full access to the original blanket, extensive notes on Civil War blanket manufacture, examination of a score of other original blankets, and the cooperation of a small blanket mill which began business in 1865 has resulted in the most accurate recreation of a Civil War blanket ever attempted. A limited run of only 350 of these exacting replicas was made.

This is the story of Abraham Thomas' Civil War Blanket.