After reading this description, please refer to additional information listed below. Diplomatic Coatee Of Major Raymond H.J. Perry. Worn by him during his time as a Grant appointed Consul and U.S. Commercial Agent to Santa Domingo in 1869. The blue navy wool coatee, has 14 coat and 6 cuff General Staff buttons made by D. Evans & CO. ATTLEBORO, MA.” The coat was made by Brooks Brothers, New York and their company label is sewn on the lining below the collar. The buttons are an interesting choice, in that they are not diplomatic, and perhaps the appointment by President Grant making him a U.S. Commercial Agent as well as consul required a different button. It could just be, fitting with Perry’s nature to order buttons common to his past military experience.  There is no question as to their being original to the coat. Provenance for this coat, although not named, was purchased by me several years ago, when buying a large lot for Perry’s brother, James DeWolf Perry, a Chaplain in the 6th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. The material had come from the estate in Rhode Island. There are a number of small moth holes, but hard to see.  The most wear to the coat is on the fold at the front were the material has separated in a few areas, the longest being several inches. This can be easily restored, but as the photos show is somewhat disguised given where the tears are.  There is some wear to the interior lining which is padded. Interior pockets in the breast area, and tails are lined in a brown polished cotton, as commonly used in clothing of the period, both civilian and military. Overall a fine looking coat, that displays nicely. Raymond Henry Jones Perry, from Bristol, Rhode Island, was born on October 2, 1836.  He had a most interesting life and is careers were plentiful.  Before the Civil War, Perry had made several voyages to China, and California. He enlisted in the 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery as a private in April of 1861, a three month regiment that mustered out on August of 1861. A few days later he is commissioned as a 1st lieut. in Battery “B.”  Perry resigned in October that year and on October 25, 1863, became a captain in the 3rd Rhode Island Cavalry, that was serving in the Department of the Gulf.  Capt. Perry resigned in October of 1865, and remained in that area, according to family history, serving with General Sheridan, in New Orleans, and spent time in Texas and Mexico.  For a couple of years after the war, he was appointed Chief of Police in Galveston, Texas, and a Chief of Indian and Mexican Scouts with Sheridan. In 1869, Major Perry was appointed as Consul and U.S. Commercial Agent in Santa Domingo by President Grant. (Taken from a biographical note from the University of Rhode Island Library) “Perry was somewhat hot-headed and reactionary. His words to President Grant in 1869 are exemplary of his character and outlook: “When you have any rough work to do that requires nerve and activity and a man that will do his duty regardless of anything or anybody, I can do it and am ready anytime to undertake it.” He was an honest man who felt obliged to perform his duty for his country without personal gain. It was because of his brazen character that some questioned the appropriateness of his appointment to such a delicate post. And it was due, in large part, to his extreme honesty of character that the treaty for the annexation of Santa Domingo was not signed. Characteristic of the Grant Administration in general, the annexation attempt was deeply involved in corruption on the part of many of the principals. Perry, finding this out, revealed the facts to the U.S. Senate, which was split over annexation, because of racist attitudes toward the black population in Santa Domingo. Efforts to silence Perry included an attempted extradition to Texas on false charges and, this failing, an attempted kidnapping. This corruption, along with the confinement in Santa Domingo of Davis Hatch (an agent of a salt mining company who opposed annexation) led the Senate to oppose ratification, 28-28, with 16 abstentions. A written account of the historical details on the annexation and Perry’s involvement in it appears in Hamilton Fish : The Inner History of the Grant Administration, by Allan Nevins. After his termination as U.S. Commercial Agent, Perry was commissioned as Brigadier General of the Fifth Brigade of the Rhode Island Militia on March 23, 1871, which commission he resigned on June 13, 1871. He then retired to Rhode Island to farm and raise animals until his death in 1902.” (Taken from Hamilton Fish, The Inner History of the Grant Administration, by Nevins) “In Major Perry, Grant had appointed just the sort of man who should not have been sent. He was an adventurer, a hot-headed rover of Rhode Island birth, who had enlisted in the war, had shot an officer but had been acquitted by court martial, had joined the Mexican forces against Maximilian, and had then served with Phil Sheridan in Louisiana and Texas. He had asked Grant to make him a  Federal Marshal in Western Texas, and would have been in his element twirling a six-shooter in some wild border town. But the President, who sometimes seems to have believed that any Union veteran could fill any post on earth, selected him without a qualm for a foreign appointment which required extraordinary tact, vigilance, and discretion.” (Nevins go on to say that Perry accepted the appointment with reluctance, and while waiting for his ship in New York, he wrote to Fish that he wished to be in another job.  I included this as it seems likely while waiting to sail from New York City, it is then that Perry had his coat made at Brooks Brothers).   Raymond Henry Jones Perry was quite the character, and certainly a most interesting one at that. This coat represents a short part of his history in the Grant Administration. He would retire to his home in Bristol and become a farmer, and raise blooded cattle.  Certainly an interesting piece of history. After having been recently educated on the rarity and importance of this U.S. Army’s prescribed uniform for special occasions, this unassuming coat fills a space for these important “missing links” in regulation uniforms of the pre Civil War through the 1870s.   IMPORTANT ADDITION NOTE REGARDING PERRY’S UNIFORM. Time does not always permit the in-depth research, and I am always grateful to followers of our site to educate us further on any material offered for sale.  Thank you!   I have received the following information regarding Colonel Perry’s uniform:   “The “diplomatic” coat worn by Colonel Perry would have been suitable for use by him when serving overseas as part of the diplomatic Corps, but it is actually a rare Army uniform coat.  It first appears in Army regulations in the 1830s as a  special social dress coat. It was essentially a deliberately inauspicious formal evening garment that enabled officers to blend in with civilians whether at a formal dinner, the theater, or a dance. The 1861 regulations under “Miscellaneous” described it as: [Paragraph 1631 of Army Regulations for 1861 can be read in the photo section for this listing,] (Con’t.) No pattern was prescribed in this regulation or when it was repeated in 1875, but earlier regulations stated that it was to be made according to civilian fashion for a formal dress coat. that at the time was generally a double breasted garment with tails. I’ve seen a couple of 1830s or 1840s versions and they are cut in the civilian style with open lapels.  Their sole identifying feature is the use of military buttons. Because they are so similar to their civilian counterparts, many go unrecognized, however, they are rare.  It was the perfect garment for Colonel Perry’s duties. I only recognized the existence of this garment when I inspected one of our Army museums in the 1980s and found two. They did not know what they were and thought they were costume shop conversions.”