"Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

[Craig L Barry]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

I wrote something a while back on the Schuylkill Arsenal regarding contractor fraud and came across this same description from the Inquirer, part of which was used to describe the operation in the article. Yes, mosquito netting...very interesting. IIRC, I had trouble finding images of the facility from the 1860s. Anybody know of any?

[David Fox]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

I think there are contemporary stills of the arsenal in a VHS of Union uniforms I have, which may have been issued ten or more years ago, perhaps from the Smithsonian. "Think", "may", "perhaps": how's that for precision? I'll look later in the day.

[RevWarTaylor]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

Craig,

Here are a few that document the exterior of the buildings. All 23 were knocked down in 1963.

Congress in Philadelphia authorized 4 arsenals in 1797 and constructions ws mainly complete on Schuylkill Arsenal in 1800

A description of the facility in 1830 says that it was made up of "four large three story buildings that formed a hollow square"

Here is one of these buildings that was left:


Nice shot of the date stone


Powder Magazine


Commandents House


These are a few but there is a lot more of them, and they only have a few online...

Enjoy
Neal

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

Regarding mosquito nets, exhibit 13 to Meigs' 1865 annual report (ORs, Series III, Vol. 5, p. 285) reports that the government purchased 133,585 "mosquito bars" during the war, 9,580 in Philadelphia, the rest in New York. As I recall, they were also provided by the Sanitary Commission and procured independently by the Medical Department.

[Becky Morgan]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

Thank you! As someone else said, reporters haven't changed much. The inaccuracies point out the need for as many diverse primary sources as we can get. I wonder whether he might have been looking at officers' trousers in that "bluish-black". The quality standards made me grin, especially considering the opinion a lot of men seemed to have about government socks.

As for his flannel terminology, I wouldn't worry too much; this is a reporter, not likely to have had any experience as a tailor, and he knows he's looking at flannel of some kind. Put yourself in his place, walking through a workplace that isn't your own. If you don't craft, you'd look at my desk and see two similar balls of yarn, one a tad darker and thicker than the other, a circular knitting needle and a white plastic crochet hook. Because I'm familiar with it all, I would say there's a ball of Red Heart and a ball of Premier Elite, a size 7 24" bamboo circular that is probably a Panda, and a Susan Bates J hook. OTOH, I'm looking over at my sewing corner. There's some (modern) printed cloth for a housedress. I'm not sure exactly what the blend is, or whether there's anything unusual about the weave. Anyone expert in such matters would likely call it a this weave that kind of fabric. To me,. it's shirt-weight cotton-blend with hummingbirds!

I immediately started to wonder about the wrappings for the clothing bales and how many uses those big hunks of painted canvas probably had. Ground cloths, replacement tents, floor cover for winter quarters and extra tent space all come to mind.

BTW, this reminded me of the Pittsburgh Arsenal, and here are some articles with pictures...

http://www.lhs15201.org/articles_b.asp?ID=13

http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/lawrenceville/law_n41.html

http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/lawrenceville/law_n211.html

The NY Times had an article about the explosion on September 17, 1862. I thought I'd found the Pittsburgh Post one, but it turned out to be a dud. I'm surprised at the lack of local coverage here; apparently the invasion had all the attention.

[CompanyWag]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

I immediately started to wonder about the wrappings for the clothing bales and how many uses those big hunks of painted canvas probably had. Ground cloths, replacement tents, floor cover for winter quarters and extra tent space all come to mind.

Interesting comment. Of course this is conjecture, but entirely plausible. Why destroy the water-proofed canvas when it could serve many useful purposes particularly in fixed camps or winter quarters. If we knew exactly how the bales were marked (IE: stenciled with contents and destination, etc) that would be an interesting detail reproduced on the canvas roof of a winter hut.

Paul McKee

[CompanyWag]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

I had trouble finding images of the facility from the 1860s. Anybody know of any?

Those are some nice, detailed photos from the Library of Congress posted earlier in the thread. They make me shed a tear that they were razed as late as the CW Centennial.

I was able to find a JPG of a painting from a Lewis & Clark website showing the arsenal. It certainly looks to be from around the Civil War, but gives an indication of its appearance throughout the 19th century.

Paul McKee

[estephenson]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

Same city, same time period (1950's-1960's) knocked down the remaining structure that was George Washington's white house when the capital was Philadelphia, all this to create the "Independence Mall". And what did they build on the site? A public restroom. (Demolished in 2003) then the northern part of the Liberty Bell pavilion. I can only imagine what other historic buildings they destroyed in the same period.

[David Fox]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

...and I remember being horrified as a junior high student when the government let Farrigut's flagship the Hartford sink at her moorings, arguably the most historical American ship of the 19th Century (the Constitution was launched in the 18th Century, I believe) to survive into the 20th Century.

[CompanyWag]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

...and I remember being horrified as a junior high student when the government let Farrigut's flagship the Hartford sink at her moorings, arguably the most historical American ship of the 19th Century (the Constitution was launched in the 18th Century, I believe) to survive into the 20th Century.

Well I believe that would leave the Olympia and the Constellation to compete for that honor now. The Constellation has been established to be the last wooden US warship built to be powered exclusively by sail, however the Olympia's wartime history may trump that. Hopefully Philadelphia will treat the Olympia better in the distant future than it served Washington's presidential mansion and the Schuykill Arsenal buildings (lame attempt to keep this post on topic).

Paul McKee

[Horace]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

"Next we come to the footmen's pantaloons of plain bluish black cloth." My understanding is that infantry trousers were still dark blue at this stage.

I still think it's interesting that they were shipping large amounts of material to St. Louis and Cincinatti. There's also this statement: "As many as 12,000...coats have been shipped to various points in the United States in a single day." I wish he'd mentioned which points.

[CompanyWag]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

"Next we come to the footmen's pantaloons of plain bluish black cloth." My understanding is that infantry trousers were still dark blue at this stage.

I still think it's interesting that they were shipping large amounts of material to St. Louis and Cincinatti. There's also this statement: "As many as 12,000...coats have been shipped to various points in the United States in a single day." I wish he'd mentioned which points.

You are correct; sky blue was not made regulation until December 1861, GO #108.

It is noteworthy that Schuylkill was shipping all over in this period only two months after the President's callup of 75,000 troops. This was the period when it became readily apparent to the government that Schuylkill could not possibly keep up with the new demand and spawned a network of clothing depots throughout the north.

Back in the late 1980s when I was doing research on sack coats, Don Kloster of the Smithsonian showed me documentation of finished trousers being shipped from Schuylkill to St Louis. I wish I had a copy of that correspondence to refer to. I got the impression that this was a shipment to beef up inventory stocks while St. Louis clothing depot was in startup rather than a shipment from the army's only clothing manufacturer for local issue as in pre-war years.

Paul McKee

[RN_PAC]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

Dan,

I wasn't sure if these were common terms of the period that I just wasn't aware of. I thought I had seen references in the past to French pattern two piece poles, for shelter halves and thought that might be what he was referencing. I could see how those might be viewed as a "new fangled notion" at the time. I guess we can chalk this up to a reporter, out of his element.

Thanks,
Craig Wolfe

This is almost certainly a reference to French double-bell tents. There are some terrific pics of the 5th NY at Monroe in 6/1861 using them. Right now I'm on my iPhone at a Volvo dealer but I'll see if I can post them later. Basically, they are an oversize common tent but closed at both ends in the form of a semicircular cone versus a two dimentional triangle. Entry is made from either side of the tent; the best part of each side could be untoggled and lifted sort of like an old single piece garage door. They could then be supported with poles so that the arraingement was something like two cones of tent facing each other with a big fly at right angles between them. An old fried has one of these made up a few years ago and we used it at Cedarnassas and some other events; the rhing was the most comfortable tent ever. Cost him like two large, though!

[RN_PAC]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

Incidentally, the reference to "Small's Regiment" is a reference to the 26th Pennsylvania - "First From The State / For Three Years". Good stuff.

[Becky Morgan]

Re: "Schuylkill Arsenal" Discription 1861 LONG

I need to dig around and see if there are any extant pictures of the bales with any sort of legible labeling. Mind you, there's no guarantee we can find a picture of someone using a bale wrapper, but we know from letters home and the like that troops in winter quarters were expert scroungers for the slightest trace of creature comfort.I don't want to get into "if they'd had it, they'd have used it" territory, but this seems pretty reasonable.