shelter half

Noun

shelter half (plural shelter halves)

1. A canvas sheet that, when combined with another, comprises a shelter tent; one half of a shelter tent.
   • The men now had their rifles and 100 rounds of ammunition, one blanket, one shelter-half (one-half a dog tent), one rubber poncho, one coffee-tin, one knife, fork, and spoon, one tin cooking-pan and cover, one canteen and haversack containing three day’s provisions1898, T.P. Conneff, “Campaigning with the 12th U.S. Infantry”, in The Holy Cross Purple, volume 7, page 72
   • Soldiers were each issued as standard field equipment a woolen blanket, a rubberized or painted muslin blanket or poncho, and a canvas shelter half or tent half with a series of buttons and buttonholes placed on three sides to enable them to be fastened together in various combinations. It was...1982, Dean Nelson, “‘Right Nice Little House[s]’: Impermanent Camp Architecture of the American Civil War”, in Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, volume 1, →DOI, page 80