Four Union Soldiers Testing a Blanket Boat on the Potomac River During the Civil War (1862)

Four Union soldiers testing a blanket boat on the Potomac River during the Civil War, c. 1862. Originally captioned: ”Blanket boats on the Potomac at some distance from shore. A pair of boats carries four men, and a single small boat made of an ordinary blanket, one man, who is sitting on the bottom. Boats of blankets of the ordinary size are too small. They have buoyancy enough to carry a man, but he must be very expert in the use of a canoe, or he will upset.” By Andrew J. Russell.

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