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The gold laced full dress trousers were not to be worn under this change. In full dress the coat was worn with epaulets, cocked hat, sword and sword knot in undress, either epaulets or shoulder straps could be worn, and the cap replaced the cocked hat in service dress, shoulder straps and a cap were worn.
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A Uniform Change issued by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles on 31 July 1862, directed that the full dress coat be omitted from an officer’s wardrobe, and that the undress frock coat of 1852 be used for full, undress, and service dress. The uniform of the United States Navy during the Civil War was governed by the 1852 order with changes to meet the need of an expanding Navy.
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