Tag: bedroll

Wikipedia says: The cowboy bedroll was an American Old West precursor to the modern sleeping bag, which carried a man’s bed and some personal belongings in a waterproof shell. In Australia, it was called a swag.

It is unclear when or how the roll developed, but has been used in its variations from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, among other places. However, one item just predating the “Cowboy” era that was very familiar to most cowboys – many of whom were veterans of the American Civil War – was the Confederate soldier’s rolled bedding that was carried slipped diagonally over one shoulder and tied together just over one hip. A vital part of this “bedding roll” was the “rubber blanket”, a rectangle of heavy canvas with brass eyelets at the corners and edges, that was heavily coated with vulcanized “Goodyear” latex rubber. Each Federal soldier was issued one, but both sides write of having acquired two or more, either through capture or acquisition on the battlefield. This rubber blanket was carried rolled around the rolled-up wool blanket and served as a groundcloth, sunshade, hasty tent, or any other purpose the soldier could devise. This rubber blanket was very waterproof and made it possible for the soldier to sleep relatively dry for the first time in the history of warfare. Prior to this time, most soldiers of the world’s regular armies may or may not have been issued a wool blanket. Very crude groundcloths of “painted canvas” were sometimes secured by the soldier themselves, but at best, the soldier could count on waking wet and cold. In the Civil War, the usual practice was to spread one rubber blanket on the ground, arrange the wool blanket on the rubber blanket, and, if available, spread a second rubber blanket on top of the wool blanket. The soldier slept directly on the rubber blanket, uncoated side up, and the wool blanket over the recumbent soldier. In practice, it almost duplicated the cowboy bedroll. The addition of the waterproof tarp of the cowboy bedroll may well have descended from this source.