Leather Neck Collar
This stiff leather collar, fastened by two buckles at the back, measured nearly three and a half inches high, and it prevented the neck movement necessary for sighting along a barrel. The origin of the leather neck collar has to do with early 19th Century military fashion trends in Europe and North America. Its use among enlisted men supposedly improved their military bearing and appearance by forcing the chin high and to serve as protection for one's neck from sword blows. General George F. Elliott, recalling its use after the Civil War, said it made the wearers appear "like geese looking for rain."
The stock was dropped as an article of marine uniform in 1872, after surviving through the uniform changes of 1833, 1839, and 1859.
Leather collars were later issued to marines sent to the Philippines during the Philippine-American War because of the high casualty rate due to neck wounds and decapitations especially in battles in the Southern Philippines.
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