The next time you are trying on a piece of clothing, and worrying about the fit, perhaps you should think about the following description from Pvt. George W. Peck:

"Something happened that I was unable to be present the first forenoon that clothing was issued, and, when I did call upon the quartermaster-sergeant, there was only two or three suits left.... I can remember now how my heart sank within me, as I picked up a pair of pants that was left. They were evidently cut out with a buzz-saw, and were made for a man that weighed three hundred. I held them up in installments, and looked at them. Holding them by the top, as high as I could, and the bottom of the legs of the pants laid on the ground. The sergeant charged the pants to my account, and then handed me a jacket, a small one, evidently made for a hump-backed dwarf. The jacket was covered with yellow braid. O, so yellow, that it made me sick. The jacket was charged to me also. Then he handed me some undershirts and drawers, so coarse and rough that it seemed to me they must have been made of rope, and lined with sand-paper. Then came an overcoat, big enough for an equestrian statue of George Washington, with a cape on it as big as a wall tent. The hat I drew was a stiff, cheap, shoddy hat, as high as a tin camp kettle.... The hat was four sizes to large for me. Then I took the last pair of army shoes there were, and they weighed as much as a pair of anvils, and had raw-hide strings to fasten them with."

Even allowing for a bit of exaggeration, it makes one grateful that modern sutlers have a choice of sizes. Incidents like this also help explain why so many soldiers wrote home asking for articles of clothing. There are also accounts of soldiers who sold their issue clothing and used the money to buy items which fit better. (Makes you wonder who they got to buy the stuff?)

Next time someone gives you a piece of clothing that doesn't quite fit... maybe you should just wear it anyhow!