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This is for all of my Fort Donelson Historians ON THE MARCH! The following is just a small segment of articles available on the siege and Battle of Fort Donelson. There are two interesting quotes on the black stripe on the trousers and the carpet blankets. I don’t expect all who participate to sew stripes on their trousers and obtain carpet blankets—but some of you should—just because they did.
A Visit to the Rebel Prisoners [Camp Douglas, Chicago].
“As it was a chilly day, many of the prisoners were out on the sunny side of their quarters, conversing amongst themselves or with visitors. Their dress was a butternut colored jean, which gave a characteristic brown hue to every group. Except in this, and that some of the Companies were clothed in Negro cloth, a coarse dirty gray stuff, they wore no uniforms. They had all kinds of hats and caps and every imaginable sort of blankets, from a fiery red to a patched quilt, tattered and torn into shreds. So far as dress and cleanliness is concerned, they were about as hard looking set of men, as can well be imagined.”
JANESVILLE, WI. DAILY GAZETTE. February 28, 1862.
Arrival of Prisoners of War [Chicago].
“Such a motley assemblage of humanity is seldom witnessed as that when those dressed and undressed prisoners were upon the principal parade ground this morning. Their uniform is the most un-uniform that can be imagined—dark gray, light gray, mixed, mottled and ragged--. Old blankets, pieces of carpeting, hearth rugs, etc. are worn in place of overcoats. The Regiments that have arrived, 20th Mississippi app. 400, 50th Tennessee, app. 1,000, 14th Mississippi, app. 500, and the 7th Texas, 333, for a total of 2,231, and [2,600 more in transit].”
JANESVILLE, WI. WEEKLY GAZETTE AND FREE PRESS. FEBRUARY 28, 1862.
“Soon after entering the Fort, we found that General Pillow had been in Command but, in company with General Floyd, had that morning made a precipitous retreat up the Cumberland River… The number of guns captured were about 146…There were also 10 to 15,000 stands of small arms, the largest part of which were shotguns, [civilian] rifles, and flint lock muskets. The troops were mainly in civilian clothes, their only insignia being black stripes on their pants. Many of the Officers wear the regular gray uniform, while others the Army blue, the only difference from the United States style being the great profusion of gold lace.”
The NEW YORK TIMES. FEBRUARY 22, 1862.
“There is some difference between whipping and being whipped, and after the fight we felt comfortable and the Rebels did not… They were generally clad in “Lindsey Woolsey”, un-uniformed, and by no means prepossessing. Most of their arms were inferior to ours…”
SUNBURY AMERICAN. March 22, 1862.
“Their appearance was grotesques in the extreme. Without uniformity in dress, few of them wore anything that could be called a uniform, unless it was a white or striped blanket, worn in the Indian fashion enveloping the whole person. Large numbers of them, instead of blankets, wore large pieces of carpeting in the form of a blanket. These I learned were the soldiers who [retreated] from Fort Henry in extreme haste and left their coats behind.”
BURLINGTON FREE PRESS. FEBRUARY 28, 1862.
CSuniforms
Tom Arliskas
A Visit to the Rebel Prisoners [Camp Douglas, Chicago].
“As it was a chilly day, many of the prisoners were out on the sunny side of their quarters, conversing amongst themselves or with visitors. Their dress was a butternut colored jean, which gave a characteristic brown hue to every group. Except in this, and that some of the Companies were clothed in Negro cloth, a coarse dirty gray stuff, they wore no uniforms. They had all kinds of hats and caps and every imaginable sort of blankets, from a fiery red to a patched quilt, tattered and torn into shreds. So far as dress and cleanliness is concerned, they were about as hard looking set of men, as can well be imagined.”
JANESVILLE, WI. DAILY GAZETTE. February 28, 1862.
Arrival of Prisoners of War [Chicago].
“Such a motley assemblage of humanity is seldom witnessed as that when those dressed and undressed prisoners were upon the principal parade ground this morning. Their uniform is the most un-uniform that can be imagined—dark gray, light gray, mixed, mottled and ragged--. Old blankets, pieces of carpeting, hearth rugs, etc. are worn in place of overcoats. The Regiments that have arrived, 20th Mississippi app. 400, 50th Tennessee, app. 1,000, 14th Mississippi, app. 500, and the 7th Texas, 333, for a total of 2,231, and [2,600 more in transit].”
JANESVILLE, WI. WEEKLY GAZETTE AND FREE PRESS. FEBRUARY 28, 1862.
“Soon after entering the Fort, we found that General Pillow had been in Command but, in company with General Floyd, had that morning made a precipitous retreat up the Cumberland River… The number of guns captured were about 146…There were also 10 to 15,000 stands of small arms, the largest part of which were shotguns, [civilian] rifles, and flint lock muskets. The troops were mainly in civilian clothes, their only insignia being black stripes on their pants. Many of the Officers wear the regular gray uniform, while others the Army blue, the only difference from the United States style being the great profusion of gold lace.”
The NEW YORK TIMES. FEBRUARY 22, 1862.
“There is some difference between whipping and being whipped, and after the fight we felt comfortable and the Rebels did not… They were generally clad in “Lindsey Woolsey”, un-uniformed, and by no means prepossessing. Most of their arms were inferior to ours…”
SUNBURY AMERICAN. March 22, 1862.
“Their appearance was grotesques in the extreme. Without uniformity in dress, few of them wore anything that could be called a uniform, unless it was a white or striped blanket, worn in the Indian fashion enveloping the whole person. Large numbers of them, instead of blankets, wore large pieces of carpeting in the form of a blanket. These I learned were the soldiers who [retreated] from Fort Henry in extreme haste and left their coats behind.”
BURLINGTON FREE PRESS. FEBRUARY 28, 1862.
CSuniforms
Tom Arliskas
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