William Hightower's uniform at Chancellorsville

[Dan Limb]

Gents,

I have posted some "digitypes" that I took last October (2010) at the Chancellorsville visitor's center. As the thread title indicates, they are of the uniform William Hightower (Co. E 23rd VA INF) was wearing when he was wounded at Chancellorsville. I took these while on a photo documenting spree last year since we don't have much access to artifacts on the West Coast. But, I took special care to document this one for the sake of posterity because of a few pecularities that I thought interesting. Namely:

1. This appears to be a full "suit of clothes" from the same type of material (medium gray wool)

2. Double breasted enlisted frock, muck like John Lester's (10th GA)

3. NCO stripe down the legs. It is interesting to me that combat veterans would still request such things in a new uniform in the mid war time frame.

4. It looks pretty clean for a garment worn in combat by a man seriously wounded. Cleaned after the fact no doubt, which I am sure greatly added to its current state of preservation.

5. Looks strikingly the same as you would expect to see in 1861, not 1863. Much like his wartime image (see attachments).

6. The trouser leg seems to have been cut clean up to the waist band, then partially sewn back to the damaged section, which also appears to have been cleaned up. Am I wrong in this?

7. I thought the 1st SGT insignia was a nice touch, and added when it was made.

Ultimately, I knew that uniformity ebbed and flowed throughout the war, but this one really opened my eyes to what soldiers were still receiving. Question: Does anyone know if this was furnished from home, or issued through the depot?

Regards,

Dan Limb
The Pacific NorthWET

[rbruno]

Re: William Hightower's uniform at Chancellorsville

I have looked at this uniform in the visitor center with a friend not too long ago as well. I believe it is either made of satinet or cassimere (sp?) jean cloth. I would speculate that this was sent from home because of the matching vest and some other characteristics that I would guess would not come from the depot system. The other item that really drew my attention and made me go home and do some research is the fact that the coat has two Maryland cuff buttons on each sleeve. As someone from MD, the orginal MD buttons are works of art compared to what we see in the reenactment world (you could say that about a lot of things) and they are found on so many of the uniforms worn by MD soldiers from the pvts to the generals. To find the MD cuff buttons on this jacket was a surprised to me. I went home and started to look for some connection with the 23rd VA and any MD unit and didn't find much. I think they served in the Valley with the 1st MD infantry, but I am not sure if they were in the same brigade. I have always wondered how soldiers got buttons that were manufactured in the North down through to their units to put on jackets and then to find two cuff bottons on this coat worn by a VA soldier is interesting to me. Anyway, I too found this uniform to be very interesting.

[Archie R. Lib]

Re: William Hightower's uniform at Chancellorsville

Hey Dan. Interestingly enough, I stopped and spent a great deal of time looking at that uniform also this past summer on the battlefied visit/trek to Manassas. It is in fantastic condition, and I agree that there was significant cleaning and preservation done on it. When I got home I did some research on it also....

According to the Quartermaster records for the 23rd Virginia, which is broken down by Company:

* In March '62, at Staunton, Company E received 49 "round jackets" and 49 pair of trowsers.
* In January '63, in Skinner's Neck winter quarters, Co. E received 4 "jackets", 3 pair of shoes, 1 overcoat, 1 blanket, 2 pair of socks, 1 shirt and 1 fly tent
* In February '63 still in winter quarters, Co. E received 5 "jackets", 14 pair of pants, 19 shirts, 2 caps, 4 pair of shoes and a camp kettle
* In March '63, still at Skinner's, they received 3 pair of shoes, 2 blankets and 2 pair of drawers

There is not another quartermaster draw for Company E in the records until after the battle of Gettysburg, on July 31, 1863 at Orange Court House. 1 jacket was issued among assorted pants, socks, shoes and drawers. The boys must have been in pretty banged up shape by then, liberal seizures of clothing and equipage notwithstanding. Or, they were simply issued and/or were receiving gear that was not captured in these quartermaster documents.

Though of course there is always some concern about completeness and disparity of Confederate records, it is interesting that there is a distinction between "round jackets" (which I assume are shell jackets or "roundabouts"), and "jackets" which may mean anything other than shell jackets. Or it could just be a lazy quartermaster who didn't feel the obligation to describe them further. What seems clear from these records is that they reflect issued items after the equippage of the company. In other words, the men got their clothing and gear some time either at their camp of instruction (Camp Lee) or at Camp Laurel Hill in June "61, and the subsequent records only document the maintenance of the company afterwards. There is no indication in the records I have of what Sgt. Hightower's company may have been originally issued, though it is documented that Company B received 24 "F. Coats" (frock coats) in May 1861.

In any event, there are only a total of 58 jackets of any type issued to the company between March '62 and Chancellorsville. 49 of them were round jackets or shells. It is not likely this was an original issue, as by May "63 it would be upwards of 2 years old and have some pretty hard eastern campaigning under its belt. Also, as Rob mentioned, the pants, vest and coat are the same material, much like you would see in EOG or other artifact collections that contain complete uniforms made at home or as a private purchase. When I looked at it at the visitor's center, it looked very much to me like a very good grade of regular wool that had deteriorated with age and may have been a much darker hue originally. But then again I am not much of an expert on those materials. There are others on the forum that have much more experience than I do with that.

I do know that Sergeant Hightower was a very, very wealthy man for the times so private purchase dandy uniform of quality wool is probably the best bet.

And, yes, I belive you're correct. One of the staff personnel there told me that the pants leg had been repaired long after the amputation and his death for display purposes.

Rob - I believe the 23rd was originally in Taliaferro's (then Colston's) brigade along with the 10th and 37th VA and the 47th and 48th Alabama. The 1st MD was present for the Valley Campaign (they almost mutinied because some enslistments were up), so there may have been some contact there somewhere, or maybe he picked the buttons up after the 1st disbanded in the fall but before they became the 2nd Maryland in Ewell's Corps.... Interesting to speculate how those may have ended up on a Virginia 1st Sergeant's jacket. Hightower was wounded at Sharpsburg and spent some time as a prisoner of war at Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor and at Fort Monroe and was promoted in January 1863. Maybe he picked them up then?

Thx.
R

[Dan Limb]

Re: William Hightower's uniform at Chancellorsville

Great responses! Thank You!

I was thinking that Hightower may have received this uniform some time in early '63, given that he had just been returned to duty (November), and then was promoted in Jan '63. Without knowing for sure, the stripes look as if they were added when the garment was constructed.

The vest is particularly interesting because it is uniformly fitted with small Federal Infantry Officer buttons. Also, the stitiching is so precise as to almost suggest machine sewing. Thoughts on this? Seriously, it would almost pass for a top quality sutler row repop in some ways.

One more thing - I zoomed in the images of the trousers, and it looks like the seat has a great deal more damage and wear than the fly. Could this have been from camp life? Did either of you get a good look at the seat of the trousers?

Regards,

Dan LImb

[Archie R. Lib]

Re: William Hightower's uniform at Chancellorsville

Hey Dan -

Just my own opinion, but I think you're probably about right on with the timing. Considering the condition everything is in now, there just could not have been that much wear on it by May 1863.

Personally I believe this was a private purchase, made to his specifications after he was promoted to 1st Sgt. He was plenty wealthy, and had options (some sources claim he was worth upwards of $90K, obviously a huge sum for the times) to be dandified. This was not some poor country yokel from the backwater who would have to scrimp just to buy a testament or a bar of soap. I would say he probably had the best tailor available in the area get it done for him. Money talks. What I find really interesting is the fact that he was content to remain in the enlisted ranks, though he would have had no real issues raising a company or more on his own easily considering his funding availability, if the reports of it are accurate.

No, I did not get a close look at the seat, other than what you can see in the display. But yes I would say camp life/wear would wear the seat/knees of the pants out before anything else.

R

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: William Hightower's uniform at Chancellorsville

The vest is particularly interesting because it is uniformly fitted with small Federal Infantry Officer buttons. Also, the stitiching is so precise as to almost suggest machine sewing. Thoughts on this? Seriously, it would almost pass for a top quality sutler row repop in some ways.

I agree with your conclusion, but not the logic that brought you there. ;-)
If you look at the stitching as it goes down the front edge of the vest, it is very close to the edge, but "wanders" a bit. If you've sewn by machine, you're familiar with how a piece can "drift" a bit as it is fed under the presser-foot. Hand-sewing can be done very neatly and precisely so as to almost mimic machine sewing (especially using a backstitch). However, there would be no "wandering" top stitching on a hand-sewn item because each stitch is placed where the maker wants it.

[Dan Limb]

Re: William Hightower's uniform at Chancellorsville

John - Trust me, that was in no way a plug for sutlery row! I am a novice when it comes to identifying stitching, so thanks for the input.

Rich - From what I have been able to glean, he was a student, but probably came from a well off family. I think they were tobacco planters, but I am not sure.

In any case, the man certainly wanted to look his best!

Regards,

Dan Limb

[Michael McComas]

Re: William Hightower's uniform at Chancellorsville

However, there would be no "wandering" top stitching on a hand-sewn item because each stitch is placed where the maker wants it.

This depends on a lot of factors, including the light, how tired the tailor's eyes are, and how much of a hurry they're in. For a quality garment like this, where the tailor is being paid his worth, pride and coin would see that it's sewn straight. For a depot jacket, the topstitch often wanders like a drunken sailor.

Cheers,

Michael McComas

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: William Hightower's uniform at Chancellorsville

John - Trust me, that was in no way a plug for sutlery row! I am a novice when it comes to identifying stitching, so thanks for the input.

Dan:
I wasn't accusing you of that! No way! =)

Michael:
Very true.

[RudyN]

Re: William Hightower's uniform at Chancellorsville

I remember seeing the uniform that past October when I was at Chancellorsville. It is quite a nice display.