Were the unions soldiers uniforms in the civil war durable?

Answer 1

Generally yes, though no fabric of the times could hold up indefinitely under the rigors of living out of doors in all weather conditions for too terribly long. Also, early in the war, as the Union scrambled to expand its forces from a tiny, scattered Army of 16,000 men to more than 2,000,000, supplies of every sort were in immediate need, which created an opportunity for the unscrupulous to sell items of exceedingly poor quality to the desperate, overworked and harassed Union purchasing agents. It took some time to root out the corrupt government officials who were willing to overlook substandard items if they were sufficiently well bribed, and to determine who was able and willing to supply quality items. There were cardboard shoes, and the term "shoddy" was actually coined as a trade name for a type of "fabric" foisted on the Union, made of fibers pressed together instead of woven. In the first rain both shoes and "shoddy" uniforms dissolved.