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The hobby of Civil War reenacting has come a long way since I began my search (1976) for the answers to many of the questions that most of us have we begin something new or learn as one participates. We have come a long way. Today through the dedication of both amature and professional historians, digital records collections, and documents once lost or misplaced and now found, it enables us to have a far better picture of what the Civil War soldier wore, used, thought lived, and experienced. This article for some will come as a surprise as it directly confronts many fallacies that not only reenactors and living historians have, but deeply misunderstood conceptions of the image of a Confederate soldier, and especially when it come to our blue color. While having your pards views on a particular subject related to Confederacy is a good starting point, they may be giving you noncorrect information either from lack of knowledge or having their own bias, viewpoints, and opinions. As a college lecturer and professional historian and consultant I often suggest that David Hackett Fischer's "Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical thought" while an overly long book will require you to examine your thought process and how this reflects your views. With that said, let's get to the meat of this title!
If you are told that the Confederates did not use sky blue, medium blue, dark blue or blue kersey extensively you will have some ammunition to rebut at lease some of their argument and quite equally completely send them into fits of confussion. Let's start the ball rolling!
The Confederate Blues ©
By Stephen B. McKinney, MA Military History, MPA
The 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War has begun and will continue into April 2015. During this period it is hoped that additional scholarly research into the subject of the Civil War and the Confederacy in particular will be published, bringing forth material that has in the past been either ignored or unavailable to researchers. The subject of this article focuses on Confederate use of the color blue in its uniforms, flags, and mystique.
It is widely known that the Confederate States of America “Regulations for Uniforms” adopted in 1861 required frock coats of Confederate-Gray (cadet-gray) with sky blue trim on coat collars and cuffs for infantry. These regulations are believed by many to be virtually ignored by the member states, their quartermaster departments, private contractors, local aid societies and foreign importers filling government, state, and private orders. Contrary to popular thought, evidence suggests that only the frock coat was unofficially dropped, but that in numerous instances Confederate quartermasters did attempt to follow the directive on uniform trim and color. Evidence suggests that private sewing societies also sought to give at least some form of military outline in what they produced. Physical and written evidence provide proof that national, state, and private contractors did manufacture and import materials having the color blue as the garment or some portion of the uniform piece in some shade of this color and included; coats, caps, and trousers in a spectrum of blue colors, which is supported both in physical relics/artifacts and written evidence. For collectors and researches studying the Confederacy, access to physical evidence is often hard to acquire but several researchers including; Les Jensen, Howard Madaus, Geoff Walden and Fredrick Adolphus have published material which greatly enhances our collective knowledge about the Confederacy and the uniforms worn by its troops.
The first question that must be answered in an attempt to understand the use of blue within the Confederacy is how and where the color blue comes from, and how cloth is dyed to this color. Indigo Dye comes from the plants Indigofera Tinctoria, which is native to the tropics from India to Central America; Isatis Tinctoria (Woad) which grows in temperate climates from Western Asia and Siberia to the Caucasus Region in Russia and the Ukraine. This second variety (Woad) was widely available through trade and was grown in England during the Tenth Century A. D. and, used by the Celts and earlier by the Gaul’s in France. The plant Baptisia Australis is native to North American and grows wild from North Carolina to the fringe of Nebraska and was used by Native Americans, especially the Cherokees as a trade good. Chemical dyes were not available until 1878. The link between India, Indian, and indigo is tied to the production of this dye through the breakdown of the leaves and stems which when altered, produces a liquid which can then be used to get shades of blue. The process seems simple but getting a consistent dye is not, and a secondary substance such as urine or lye must be added to the vat process which initially causes material soaked in the liquid solution to turn green. It is by exposure to oxygen and open air that the green turns to a shade of blue. Repeatedly dying the cloth produces deeper shades of blue and up to forty emersions might be necessary to acquire the blue used by the Union Army for their uniform coats. Throughout history, blue has been a color associated with power and success and was ingrained into the American psyche to an extent that U.S. Uniforms were designated to be blue from the post revolution to the Civil War and beyond.(1)
Indigo was a cash crop equal to tobacco and greater than cotton in the Colonial areas of South Carolina, Costal Georgia and Spanish West Florida. Eliza Lucas Pinckney began growing Indigo from plants transplanted to South Carolina in 1744 and by 1775 these areas produced over 1,100,000 lbs. of solid brick indigo, but the export market collapsed when the Revolutionary War erupted.(2) On the eve of the American Civil War, some plantations in the South were still harvesting indigo. Dyeing cloth with indigo only takes 2-12 grams of the substance to produce trousers or coats from a light blue to very dark blue and thus a single pound of brick natural indigo will dye seventy-five garments to a sky-blue color using six grams per article of clothing. Two acres of indigo plants would produce over 40 lbs. of compressed dye formed into dried solid brick forms. (3) Using just 80 lbs. of indigo grown on 1-2 acres will dye over 6,000 garments using period dying formulas and methods. This demonstrates that it takes very little indigo production to dye a significant amount of material. The work associated with producing indigo dye was dangerous and very hazardous and thus was primarily produced in the United States by slaves until 1865. Indigo dye was also imported in large amounts during the Civil War primarily going North, but it is just as likely that it came ashore in the South through the blockade with the vast hosts of other items needed by both the military and civilian populations. For practical purposes in this article blue-gray material often called cadet- gray will be considered a form of blue.
The written evidence supporting the Confederacy’s extensive use of blue material for trousers, coats, kepis, forage caps, and uniform trim comes from the first hand accounts of the veterans, itemized cargo run through the blockade into Southern ports, and from advertisements offering material for sale or for auction within the South. Any researcher seeking answers to the Confederate Quartermaster Department will often feel like they are looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack as the majority of these records did not survive the war. However, some records do exist along with the majority of the Quartermaster records from the State of Alabama.
A reflection of the South’s association with ‘blue” are indicated with no less than fourteen Alabama Infantry Regiments having companies with Blue or Blues in their name and eight of these organizations were formed post July 1861’s Battle of Manassas.
The Confederacy imported vast amounts of military stores during the months extending from the summer of 1861 and ending with the closing of the last Southern port east of the Mississippi River at Wilmington, NC in December of 1864. Evidence supports that both manufactured uniforms, uniform parts, cut by tailors for assembly in the Confederacy, and woolen bales of cloth were imported in great qualities. (4) Confederate Major Caleb Huse was the chief purchasing agent for the South in England and began shipping English made uniforms (many English military organizations wore blue cloth) into the South in the summer of 1861 with an undisclosed number of Army and Navy uniforms coming ashore aboard the ship Fingal into Savannah Harbor. Confederate QM purchases of 78,520 yards of “blue-gray and blue army cloth” purchased from S. Isaac Campbell and Co. on Dec. 14th 1861 and Dec. 24th 1861 arrived into the possession of the Confederate QM Department. Specific evidence regarding additional importation of our elusive blue cloth appears in the following records of the S.S. Minna in April 1862 consisting of 4,500 yards of light blue cloth. In documents relating to Confederate Major Gorgas and the success of his purchasing efforts abroad we find that on Feb. 3rd 1863 his department had received 8,250 “royal blue wool kersey” trousers and that he had purchased an additional 13,750 and only awaiting shipping. (6) On September 12th, 1863 the S.S. Cornubia delivered four cases blue cloth great coats and five cases of trousers. (6) Extensive evidence exists that not only did S. Isaac and Campbell and Co. sell uniforms and uniform cloth to the Confederacy but that Peter Tait & Co. of Limerick, Ireland sold completed uniforms consisting of coat, trousers, and caps to the Confederacy. In addition, Tait contracted with the State of Alabama for completed uniforms, and uniforms pre cut to sew, and uncut uniform cloth, all of either cadet-gray or a shade of blue with the state having enough excess to offer for sale to her sister states in their need. (7) We will most likely never know exactly how many imported uniforms were brought into the Confederacy but the evidence we do have seems that it was extensive. Thousands of bales of woolen cloth and uniforms were imported with each bale consisting of 75 full uniforms or the raw material to make this number.
Throughout the war until the fall of 1865 local and regional advertising was placed in the Montgomery Daily Advertiser, Weekly Advertiser and the Montgomery Mail offering both English cloth, uniforms, and “custom dying to any color desired” as well as military brogans, sashes, gloves, overcoats, swords, buttons, and a variety of other military stores. In the December 8th, 1863 edition of the Montgomery Weekly Advertiser, blue cloth, Melton blue-gray cloth, and blue gray wool was offered for auction. (8)
Confederate manufacture and purchase of cloth for uniforms were supplied by hundreds of contractors working across the South. Indigo dye was available through production in the South or run through the blockade. A portion of the material they produced whether it was turned into kersey, jean-cloth, or cotton was dyed blue. The State of Alabama by January 1st, 1862 had contracted for kersey, linsley and tweed with no less than seven of these manufacturers producing some shade of blue or blue-gray. By the end of the War they had contracted with over ninety different material providers and purchased uniform parts from over 120 different Aid Societies. In particular the Barnett Micon & Company of Tallassee and the Eagle Manufacturing Co. of Columbus, GA not only made uniforms but furnished much of the dark blue cloth associated with the Alabama Volunteer Corps from February of 1861 into 1862. (9)
Numerous eyewitness and first person accounts of blue being used by the Confederacy include these examples: The diarist Phillip Amsler of Co. B, 2nd BN, Waul’s TX Legion wrote home on November 9th 1862 from Coldwater, Mississippi that “we received a good uniform last week consisting of good blue cloth pants, a grey woolen jacket well lined, and a grey cap.” (10) This account is confirmed by Surgeon John K. Earns of the 41st Tennessee Infantry wrote from near Holley Springs Mississippi on Oct. 26, 1862 that he had “returned from Holly Springs about sunset, and when I got to the Regt., I found the boys all in Uniforms which they had drawn. Their pants were all sky blue: their coats grey round about, with cuffs and collars trimmed with blue. Grey caps for all.” (11) These descriptions of trousers being issued in this color as well as the jackets points to a type of common government manufactured garments with the jackets bearing a striking resemblance to the type of jackets attributed to the Columbus, Georgia; although the Confederacy did have a clothing depots at Columbus, Mississippi and Demopolis, Alabama.
The Columbus Georgia Daily Enquirer (dated Oct. 22, 1864) details the results of Alabama Quartermaster Duff Green’s contract with Peter Tait & Company of Ireland and mentions that uniforms consisting of coat, trousers, and great coats had begun arriving along with uniform parts cut out for assembly. (12) In addition to many of the troops stationed in Mobile receiving new uniforms Duff Green wrote A.R. Lawton, Quartermaster General in Richmond in February 1865 that he was prepared to sell the Confederate blue and gray kersey wool at $7.50 per yard as well as blankets at $10.00 each and shoes at $10.00 each. (13) Previous researchers on Confederate uniforms and in particular the Peter Tait manufactured material along with the surviving samples support them being of blue-gray wool material with some having piping, some having collar and cuff piping and others having only collar trim with still others have no trim.
The physical remains of Confederate trousers and coats are indeed rare, and when encountered in museums or very prominent private collections they are usually associated with Confederate officers; just as the vast majority of surviving uniform coats was those worn by officers. Many historians and curators often state that there are X numbers of this type or that type of jacket in existence, which means that these are within a group acknowledged by themselves and a few others, which survive today. These type of statements should be viewed as open-ended since the collective body of knowledge grows each year, just as new discoveries are made when uniforms that were not generally known suddenly surface. While their research has led to a much greater knowledge on the subject of the Confederate uniform, it is woefully lacking in documenting the hundreds of parts of uniforms that are either held in deep storage by museums; have never been on exhibit, or exist in small historical societies and museums off the beaten track. Having worked within the collecting field for over thirty years, I can say that there are more Confederate uniforms unknown by the public or the “in the know” historians than those that are known.
So where did the Confederacy get the most often encountered officer uniform material, which is most often cadet-gray? How did all those Confederate Flags from official Stars and Bars to Regimental Battle Flags associated with the Army of Northern Virginia, Army of Tennessee (including those of Polk’s & Hardee’s Corps), and the Trans-Mississippi come up with blue material? The evidence supports the conclusion that the South was still issuing blue material which they either produced or imported even in last few months of the war. This cannot be disputed since many of the flags that exist today, along with the majority of uniforms represent the last material issued and worn by those in service. Some of the physical evidence is held within museums and collections and for time and space purposes in this article only a few will be noted.
According to author and historian Fred Adolphus in his newly published book Imported Confederate Uniforms of Peter Tait & Co., Limerick, Ireland, there are not less than eleven surviving uniforms that can positively be identified to Tait or so very close to Tait that they could have been manufactured by Hebbert & Company London; and Alexander Collie & Company, Manchester and London. (14) Evidence collected by Fred and Les Jensen confirm that Tait uniforms began reaching Southern ports by late spring or early summer 1864. This author has examined two other uniform jackets in private collections that are almost assuredly Confederate assembled Tait material since one has no trim and the other has a blue kersey material added to the collar after the uniforms completion. These types of uniforms can be documented to all theaters of the Civil War. From the current available research from Jensen, Madaus, and Walden it is evident that somewhere between nine and twelve jackets attributed to either the depot at Columbus, GA or Mobile, AL exists. All of these jackets have some various color of blue in the garments construction, or on the collar, cuffs, or both.
Existing documented Confederate trousers which have been examined by historians and noted as being sky-blue, cadet-gray/blue-gray mix, royal blue, or dark blue are attributed to Corporal T. V. Brooke, 3rd, Co., Richmond Howitzers which are a sky blue kersey; J. T. Moore’s jean cloth trousers attributed to manufacture at Spartanburg, SC; Major or Private Redwood which is a medium blue kersey wool; Col. Edward Anderson’s are royal blue and no doubt of English manufacture and an additional pair of sky-blue with yellow piping; Pvt. Joseph B. Phillips of the LA Crescent Regiment which are sky blue jeans which he was wearing at Tupelo, Mississippi in July 1862; Major Johns Hughes 7th NC Inf. which are royal blue kersey and English in origin; the trousers of Capt. William Cleaver 7th TX Mounted Rifles killed in El Paso, TX in July 1862 which are made of jean cloth and a dark blue color; Gen. William Dorsey Pender’s royal blue English enlisted kersey wool trousers he was wearing when wounded in at Gettysburg; all photographed in Echoes of Glory. (15) The coat and trousers of Pvt. Daniel Strouse Co. I, 3rd Alabama exist in two private collections which the author has examined. The coat is a shell jacket made of cadet-gray kersey wool with nine button front, with Alabama State seal buttons attached and has sky-blue kersey wool trim on the color and cuffs. The trousers are of matching sky blue wool. Private Strouse was killed at First Manassas. Existing in a private collection is a dark blue forage cap of the 1858 pattern and conforming to the Alabama Volunteer Corps uniform regulations is attributed to Private J. F. Blackwell of the 5th Alabama Infantry Regiment who died in Richmond shortly after arriving with his unit in June of 1861. In the collections of the Alabama Department of Archives of History in Montgomery two pair of Confederate trousers (one pair dark cadet gray and another in a dark royal blue). Other Confederate jackets and trousers are held in museum vaults or on display at the Texas Civil War Museum Fort Worth, TX and UDC Confederate Museum in Charleston, SC. (16) In addition, many of the existing enlisted men’s coats and trousers not conforming to an “assigned depot” designation exist with some color of blue trim both in large and small historical society museums; city/county museums or in the collections of several advanced collectors who do not wish to be identified.
With the evidence provided, the conclusion is that the Confederacy used blue material in the assembly of uniforms both produced domestically and imported! This leaves open the questions of how much blue material was used and how common was its presence in the various theaters of war. It is likely that we will never know the full story of this subject but photographic evidence showing Confederates wearing Richmond Depot, Columbus Depot and Peter Tait imported coats and trousers of blue and blue-gray color, with or without trim, along with the written evidence and existing uniform jackets, trousers, vests, caps, forage caps, and great-coats confirm the fact some color of blue was present and not uncommon as many believe.
The Conclusions
The vast majority of evidence supports that Confederate soldiers and navy personnel wore a wide variety of coats and trousers and that many of these were dyed a shade of blue. In helping us understand why so many variations exists we must understand the supply system used in the early years of the Civil War, and how over time it changed. Historians agree that from 1861 to mid 1863 the “Commutation System” (troops purchasing their uniforms and being reimbursed by the state or Confederate Government) produced an almost limitless variety of uniform variations. Eventually this system was phased out, which in itself eliminated some diversity of materials, and thus caused and created more uniformity in issued uniforms. Factual evidence confirms that Confederate troops from the Trans-Mississippi, Deep South, and Eastern Theater of War either purchased or was issued uniforms involving the color blue from the beginning of the war in 1861 to the surrenders in 1865. Add the facts that Confederates captured thousands of Union soldiers and thousands of wagons with their contents during the four years of conflict which coupled with documented evidence leads to the conclusion that an authentic impression or interpretation of a Confederate soldier can indeed include materials of this color while being historically accurate.
Endnotes
1. "Dying with Indigo," Maine Organic Farmers and Gardners Association, section goes here, accessed December 15, 2010, www.mofga.org/tabid/485/defant.aspx. “sciway3.net/proctor/state/sc_rice.html” An acre of good land may produce betweet forty and eighty pounds of weight of good indigo, and one slave many manage two acres upwards”.
2. Robert Olwell, Masters, Slaves, and Subjects: The Culture of Power in the South Carolina Low Country 1740-1790 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998). This book provides insight into how the plantation system worked, the type of crops planted, harvested, and sold.
3. Jeffery Robert Young, Domesticating Slavery: The Master Class in Georgia and South Carolina 1670-1837 (Chapel Hill: Univeristy of North Carolina Press, 1999). "Indigo Dye," Aurora Silk, section goes here, accessed July 05, 2010. Blue Wild Indigo Plant Guide. Multiple sources on planting, growing, and dying with natural indigo. https://www.aurorasilk.com/natural_d...ye_indigo.html.
4. Leslie D. Jensen, "A Survey of Confederate Central Government Quartermaster Issue Jackets Part Three," THE COMPANY OF MILITARY HISTORIANS: pg. #, accessed January/February, 2011. The three articles on Confederaty Quarter Master supply provide some interesting and insightful into the whole system of supply and provides helpful information on how these uniforms were constructed and what materials and colors were used in that construction.
http://military-historians.org/compa...federate-1.htm.
5. Dudley Wright, 1877- Knox, ed., Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: General Index, by Dudley W. Knox. (New York, Antiquarian Press, 1961), Series IV. Vol. II pg.630-631. Confederate Quartermaster purchases from S. Isaac & Campbell Feb. 3, 1863. Series II Vol. II pg 1-17979, on board Ship “Minna” April 1862. OR Series IV p. 623-634 Ship “Fingal” army and navy uniforms into Savannah, GA. Strong evidence that numerous blockade running ships entered Confederate ports with cargos of materials both uniform, cloth, and pre-cut uniforms.
6. John M. Payne, MS, Eleanor S. Brockenbrough Library, Museum of the Confederacy. Papers of Captain John M. Payne of Lynchburg, VA. Confederate States Ordanance Corps Items Imported by Deptarment through Blockade through the Port of Wilmington, NC July 17, 1863-Jan. 12, 1865, Richmond. Numerous papers, letters, and reports on Ordnance and Quartermaster stores entering Confederate Ports with ships cargos detailed with specific reference to S.S. Robert E. Lee, S. S. Cornubia, S. S. Lucy, S.S. Texas, S. S. Tryon. Additionally, orders of shipments to Confederate ordanance and quartermasters assigned at various locations thoughout the Confederacy.
7. Frederick R. Adolphus, Imported Confederate Uniforms of Peter Tait & Company., Limerick Ireland (Frederick Adolphus, 2010), pg. 56-57.
8. "ADAH," know as Alabama Archives & History. Montgomery Daily Advertiser (Montgomery), April 17, 1862, July 11, 1862, Spet. 7, 1862, Nov. 5, 1863. June 10, 1663, Dec. 8, 1863 Daily ed., advertising sec, microform rolls. “213 & 284. Various types and colors of wool (blue, gray, blue-gray mix, black, brown, red, gray, and unifrom descriptions and prices including coats, great coats, trousers, jackets, gloves, socks, shoes, army brogans, English uniforms, wool, army brogans, buttons, English caps, officer sashes, swords, all indicating that what are thought to be various scarce items at least until mide 1864 were available though at higher prices at the war continues.
9. ADHA, Micro film State of Alabama Quartermaster Duff Green Papers, rolls SGO-029236, 1157-01, 17132-017, 11124-006-010, 471-009-021. Extensive documents numbering over 300,000 with specific details with contractors, ladies aid societys, uniform and material purchaes, shipments to officers at depots or in the field; arms and musitions purchased and distributed.
10. R. A. Hasskari and L. R. Hasskari, Texas Civil War Regiments: Civil War Confederate Units, Texas Brigade, Terry's Texas Rangers, Waul's Legion (Ada: Authors, 1985), pg. 8.
11. J. A. Smith, "Mary-the Civil War Diary of John Kennerly Farris," review of Franklin County Historical Review #25, 1994, pg. 25.
12-13-14 Frederick R. Adolphus, Imported Confederate Uniforms of Peter Tait & Company., Limerick Ireland (Frederick Adolphus, 2010), pg. 56-57., 65. Photos and information on identified and unidentifed Tait jackets and trousersLetter by Confederate Nurse Kate Cumming. Alabama Quartermaster General Major Duff Green papers ADHA and reports of troops in summer and fall of 1864 with photographic evidence confirming that Tait Jackets ready made and in pre-cut pieces are being issued to troops with supplies being plentiful as to allow surplus to be both issued and sold.
15. Henry Woodhead, ed., Echoes of Glory Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy (Alexandria: Time Life Books, 1991). Numerous color photos of Confederate trousers.
16. Stephen B. McKinney, Confederate Uniform Material held in public or private collections., 1981-2011, raw data, Author's Notes, Ringgold.
Bibliography
Alabama Department of Archives and History. Montgomery Daily Advertiser (Montgomery), April 17, 1862, Daily ed., Advertising sec. Microform.
ADAH Micro Film #284. Jan. 01 1861-April 16, 1864 Green, Duff. "Alabama Dept. Archives and History. Alabama Quarter Master Records (1861-1865). Rolls SGO11157-001, SGO17132-017, SGO06471-009-0067." Microfilm.
Adolphus, Frederick. "Confederate Clothing of the Houston Quartermaster Depot." Military Collector and Historian, 1996.
_______, Frederick R. Imported Confederate Uniforms of Peter Tait & Company, Limerick Ireland. Frederick Adolphus, 2010.
Boaz, Thomas. Guns for Cotton England Arms the Confederacy. Shippenburg: Burd Street Press, 1996.
Burt, David. Major Caleb Huse C.S.A. & S Isaac Campbell & Co: The Army, Clothing and Equipment Supplied to The Confederate States of America 1861-64. Bloomington: Author House, 2009.
Daily Enquirer (Columbus). "Good News for Alabama Soldiers." October 22, 1864, Daily ed., News sec.
"Dying with Indigo." Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. Accessed December 15, 2010. www.mofga.org/tabid/485/defant.aspx.
Green, Duff. "Alabama Dept. Archives and History. Alabama Quarter Master Records (1861-1865). Rolls SGO11157-001, SGO17132-017, SGO06471-009-0067, Microfilm.
Hasskari, R. A., and L. R. Hasskari. Texas Civil War Regiments: Civil War Confederate Units, Texas Brigade, Terry's Texas Rangers, Waul's Legion. Ada: Authors, 1985.
"Indigo Dye." Aurora Silk. Accessed July 05, 2010. https://www.aurorasilk.com/natural_d...ye_indigo.html.
James B Whisker, Larry W. Yantz, and Daniel D. Hartzler. Firearms From Europe. 2nd ed. State College: Tom Rowe Books, 2002.
Jensen, Leslie D. "A Survey of Confederate Central Government Quartermaster Issue Jackets Part 3." THE COMPANY OF MILITARY HISTORIANS. Accessed February 01, 2011. http://military-historians.org/compa...federate-3.htm.
______, Leslie D. "A Survey of Confederate Central Government Quartermaster Issue Jackets Part." THE COMPANY OF MILITARY HISTORIANS. Accessed January 02, 2011. http://military-historians.org/compa...federate-2.htm.
______, Leslie D. "A Survey of Confederate Central Government Quartermaster Issue Jackets." THE COMPANY OF MILITARY HISTORIANS. Accessed January/February, 2011. http://military-historians.org/compa...federate-1.htm.
Knox, Dudley Wright, 1877-, ed. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: General Index, by Dudley W. Knox. New York, Antiquarian Press, 1961.
MacDonald, K. C. "Trans-Mississippi Confederate Uniforms - Part 3." Lazy Jacks Mess. Accessed February 23, 2011. http://www.lazyjacks.org.uk/tranmis1.htm.
McKinney, Stephen B. Confederate Uniform Material held in public or private collections. 1981-2011. Raw data. Author's Notes, Ringgold.
Olwell, Robert. Masters, Slaves, and Subjects: The Culture of Power in the South Carolina Low Country 1740-1790. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998.
Procter, Victoria. "Rice and Indigo in South Carolina." USGenWeb. South Carolina. Accessed December 12, 2010. sciway3.net/proctor/state/sc_rice.html.
Smith, J. A. "Mary-the Civil War Diary of John Kennerly Farris." Review of Franklin County Historical Review #25. 1994.
U.S., War Department: The War of the Rebellion. A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 1881-1901. Vol. 1-128. Reprint. Dayton: Morningside Bookshop, 1994.
Vandiver, Frank E. Ploughshares into Swords Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordnance. Paperback Ed. First Edition Texas A & M University. College Station.
Woodhead, Henry, ed. Echoes of Glory Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy. Alexandria: Time Life Books, 1991.
Young, Jeffery Robert. Domesticating Slavery: The Master Class in Georgia and South Carolina 1670-1837. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
©
If you are told that the Confederates did not use sky blue, medium blue, dark blue or blue kersey extensively you will have some ammunition to rebut at lease some of their argument and quite equally completely send them into fits of confussion. Let's start the ball rolling!
The Confederate Blues ©
By Stephen B. McKinney, MA Military History, MPA
The 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War has begun and will continue into April 2015. During this period it is hoped that additional scholarly research into the subject of the Civil War and the Confederacy in particular will be published, bringing forth material that has in the past been either ignored or unavailable to researchers. The subject of this article focuses on Confederate use of the color blue in its uniforms, flags, and mystique.
It is widely known that the Confederate States of America “Regulations for Uniforms” adopted in 1861 required frock coats of Confederate-Gray (cadet-gray) with sky blue trim on coat collars and cuffs for infantry. These regulations are believed by many to be virtually ignored by the member states, their quartermaster departments, private contractors, local aid societies and foreign importers filling government, state, and private orders. Contrary to popular thought, evidence suggests that only the frock coat was unofficially dropped, but that in numerous instances Confederate quartermasters did attempt to follow the directive on uniform trim and color. Evidence suggests that private sewing societies also sought to give at least some form of military outline in what they produced. Physical and written evidence provide proof that national, state, and private contractors did manufacture and import materials having the color blue as the garment or some portion of the uniform piece in some shade of this color and included; coats, caps, and trousers in a spectrum of blue colors, which is supported both in physical relics/artifacts and written evidence. For collectors and researches studying the Confederacy, access to physical evidence is often hard to acquire but several researchers including; Les Jensen, Howard Madaus, Geoff Walden and Fredrick Adolphus have published material which greatly enhances our collective knowledge about the Confederacy and the uniforms worn by its troops.
The first question that must be answered in an attempt to understand the use of blue within the Confederacy is how and where the color blue comes from, and how cloth is dyed to this color. Indigo Dye comes from the plants Indigofera Tinctoria, which is native to the tropics from India to Central America; Isatis Tinctoria (Woad) which grows in temperate climates from Western Asia and Siberia to the Caucasus Region in Russia and the Ukraine. This second variety (Woad) was widely available through trade and was grown in England during the Tenth Century A. D. and, used by the Celts and earlier by the Gaul’s in France. The plant Baptisia Australis is native to North American and grows wild from North Carolina to the fringe of Nebraska and was used by Native Americans, especially the Cherokees as a trade good. Chemical dyes were not available until 1878. The link between India, Indian, and indigo is tied to the production of this dye through the breakdown of the leaves and stems which when altered, produces a liquid which can then be used to get shades of blue. The process seems simple but getting a consistent dye is not, and a secondary substance such as urine or lye must be added to the vat process which initially causes material soaked in the liquid solution to turn green. It is by exposure to oxygen and open air that the green turns to a shade of blue. Repeatedly dying the cloth produces deeper shades of blue and up to forty emersions might be necessary to acquire the blue used by the Union Army for their uniform coats. Throughout history, blue has been a color associated with power and success and was ingrained into the American psyche to an extent that U.S. Uniforms were designated to be blue from the post revolution to the Civil War and beyond.(1)
Indigo was a cash crop equal to tobacco and greater than cotton in the Colonial areas of South Carolina, Costal Georgia and Spanish West Florida. Eliza Lucas Pinckney began growing Indigo from plants transplanted to South Carolina in 1744 and by 1775 these areas produced over 1,100,000 lbs. of solid brick indigo, but the export market collapsed when the Revolutionary War erupted.(2) On the eve of the American Civil War, some plantations in the South were still harvesting indigo. Dyeing cloth with indigo only takes 2-12 grams of the substance to produce trousers or coats from a light blue to very dark blue and thus a single pound of brick natural indigo will dye seventy-five garments to a sky-blue color using six grams per article of clothing. Two acres of indigo plants would produce over 40 lbs. of compressed dye formed into dried solid brick forms. (3) Using just 80 lbs. of indigo grown on 1-2 acres will dye over 6,000 garments using period dying formulas and methods. This demonstrates that it takes very little indigo production to dye a significant amount of material. The work associated with producing indigo dye was dangerous and very hazardous and thus was primarily produced in the United States by slaves until 1865. Indigo dye was also imported in large amounts during the Civil War primarily going North, but it is just as likely that it came ashore in the South through the blockade with the vast hosts of other items needed by both the military and civilian populations. For practical purposes in this article blue-gray material often called cadet- gray will be considered a form of blue.
The written evidence supporting the Confederacy’s extensive use of blue material for trousers, coats, kepis, forage caps, and uniform trim comes from the first hand accounts of the veterans, itemized cargo run through the blockade into Southern ports, and from advertisements offering material for sale or for auction within the South. Any researcher seeking answers to the Confederate Quartermaster Department will often feel like they are looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack as the majority of these records did not survive the war. However, some records do exist along with the majority of the Quartermaster records from the State of Alabama.
A reflection of the South’s association with ‘blue” are indicated with no less than fourteen Alabama Infantry Regiments having companies with Blue or Blues in their name and eight of these organizations were formed post July 1861’s Battle of Manassas.
The Confederacy imported vast amounts of military stores during the months extending from the summer of 1861 and ending with the closing of the last Southern port east of the Mississippi River at Wilmington, NC in December of 1864. Evidence supports that both manufactured uniforms, uniform parts, cut by tailors for assembly in the Confederacy, and woolen bales of cloth were imported in great qualities. (4) Confederate Major Caleb Huse was the chief purchasing agent for the South in England and began shipping English made uniforms (many English military organizations wore blue cloth) into the South in the summer of 1861 with an undisclosed number of Army and Navy uniforms coming ashore aboard the ship Fingal into Savannah Harbor. Confederate QM purchases of 78,520 yards of “blue-gray and blue army cloth” purchased from S. Isaac Campbell and Co. on Dec. 14th 1861 and Dec. 24th 1861 arrived into the possession of the Confederate QM Department. Specific evidence regarding additional importation of our elusive blue cloth appears in the following records of the S.S. Minna in April 1862 consisting of 4,500 yards of light blue cloth. In documents relating to Confederate Major Gorgas and the success of his purchasing efforts abroad we find that on Feb. 3rd 1863 his department had received 8,250 “royal blue wool kersey” trousers and that he had purchased an additional 13,750 and only awaiting shipping. (6) On September 12th, 1863 the S.S. Cornubia delivered four cases blue cloth great coats and five cases of trousers. (6) Extensive evidence exists that not only did S. Isaac and Campbell and Co. sell uniforms and uniform cloth to the Confederacy but that Peter Tait & Co. of Limerick, Ireland sold completed uniforms consisting of coat, trousers, and caps to the Confederacy. In addition, Tait contracted with the State of Alabama for completed uniforms, and uniforms pre cut to sew, and uncut uniform cloth, all of either cadet-gray or a shade of blue with the state having enough excess to offer for sale to her sister states in their need. (7) We will most likely never know exactly how many imported uniforms were brought into the Confederacy but the evidence we do have seems that it was extensive. Thousands of bales of woolen cloth and uniforms were imported with each bale consisting of 75 full uniforms or the raw material to make this number.
Throughout the war until the fall of 1865 local and regional advertising was placed in the Montgomery Daily Advertiser, Weekly Advertiser and the Montgomery Mail offering both English cloth, uniforms, and “custom dying to any color desired” as well as military brogans, sashes, gloves, overcoats, swords, buttons, and a variety of other military stores. In the December 8th, 1863 edition of the Montgomery Weekly Advertiser, blue cloth, Melton blue-gray cloth, and blue gray wool was offered for auction. (8)
Confederate manufacture and purchase of cloth for uniforms were supplied by hundreds of contractors working across the South. Indigo dye was available through production in the South or run through the blockade. A portion of the material they produced whether it was turned into kersey, jean-cloth, or cotton was dyed blue. The State of Alabama by January 1st, 1862 had contracted for kersey, linsley and tweed with no less than seven of these manufacturers producing some shade of blue or blue-gray. By the end of the War they had contracted with over ninety different material providers and purchased uniform parts from over 120 different Aid Societies. In particular the Barnett Micon & Company of Tallassee and the Eagle Manufacturing Co. of Columbus, GA not only made uniforms but furnished much of the dark blue cloth associated with the Alabama Volunteer Corps from February of 1861 into 1862. (9)
Numerous eyewitness and first person accounts of blue being used by the Confederacy include these examples: The diarist Phillip Amsler of Co. B, 2nd BN, Waul’s TX Legion wrote home on November 9th 1862 from Coldwater, Mississippi that “we received a good uniform last week consisting of good blue cloth pants, a grey woolen jacket well lined, and a grey cap.” (10) This account is confirmed by Surgeon John K. Earns of the 41st Tennessee Infantry wrote from near Holley Springs Mississippi on Oct. 26, 1862 that he had “returned from Holly Springs about sunset, and when I got to the Regt., I found the boys all in Uniforms which they had drawn. Their pants were all sky blue: their coats grey round about, with cuffs and collars trimmed with blue. Grey caps for all.” (11) These descriptions of trousers being issued in this color as well as the jackets points to a type of common government manufactured garments with the jackets bearing a striking resemblance to the type of jackets attributed to the Columbus, Georgia; although the Confederacy did have a clothing depots at Columbus, Mississippi and Demopolis, Alabama.
The Columbus Georgia Daily Enquirer (dated Oct. 22, 1864) details the results of Alabama Quartermaster Duff Green’s contract with Peter Tait & Company of Ireland and mentions that uniforms consisting of coat, trousers, and great coats had begun arriving along with uniform parts cut out for assembly. (12) In addition to many of the troops stationed in Mobile receiving new uniforms Duff Green wrote A.R. Lawton, Quartermaster General in Richmond in February 1865 that he was prepared to sell the Confederate blue and gray kersey wool at $7.50 per yard as well as blankets at $10.00 each and shoes at $10.00 each. (13) Previous researchers on Confederate uniforms and in particular the Peter Tait manufactured material along with the surviving samples support them being of blue-gray wool material with some having piping, some having collar and cuff piping and others having only collar trim with still others have no trim.
The physical remains of Confederate trousers and coats are indeed rare, and when encountered in museums or very prominent private collections they are usually associated with Confederate officers; just as the vast majority of surviving uniform coats was those worn by officers. Many historians and curators often state that there are X numbers of this type or that type of jacket in existence, which means that these are within a group acknowledged by themselves and a few others, which survive today. These type of statements should be viewed as open-ended since the collective body of knowledge grows each year, just as new discoveries are made when uniforms that were not generally known suddenly surface. While their research has led to a much greater knowledge on the subject of the Confederate uniform, it is woefully lacking in documenting the hundreds of parts of uniforms that are either held in deep storage by museums; have never been on exhibit, or exist in small historical societies and museums off the beaten track. Having worked within the collecting field for over thirty years, I can say that there are more Confederate uniforms unknown by the public or the “in the know” historians than those that are known.
So where did the Confederacy get the most often encountered officer uniform material, which is most often cadet-gray? How did all those Confederate Flags from official Stars and Bars to Regimental Battle Flags associated with the Army of Northern Virginia, Army of Tennessee (including those of Polk’s & Hardee’s Corps), and the Trans-Mississippi come up with blue material? The evidence supports the conclusion that the South was still issuing blue material which they either produced or imported even in last few months of the war. This cannot be disputed since many of the flags that exist today, along with the majority of uniforms represent the last material issued and worn by those in service. Some of the physical evidence is held within museums and collections and for time and space purposes in this article only a few will be noted.
According to author and historian Fred Adolphus in his newly published book Imported Confederate Uniforms of Peter Tait & Co., Limerick, Ireland, there are not less than eleven surviving uniforms that can positively be identified to Tait or so very close to Tait that they could have been manufactured by Hebbert & Company London; and Alexander Collie & Company, Manchester and London. (14) Evidence collected by Fred and Les Jensen confirm that Tait uniforms began reaching Southern ports by late spring or early summer 1864. This author has examined two other uniform jackets in private collections that are almost assuredly Confederate assembled Tait material since one has no trim and the other has a blue kersey material added to the collar after the uniforms completion. These types of uniforms can be documented to all theaters of the Civil War. From the current available research from Jensen, Madaus, and Walden it is evident that somewhere between nine and twelve jackets attributed to either the depot at Columbus, GA or Mobile, AL exists. All of these jackets have some various color of blue in the garments construction, or on the collar, cuffs, or both.
Existing documented Confederate trousers which have been examined by historians and noted as being sky-blue, cadet-gray/blue-gray mix, royal blue, or dark blue are attributed to Corporal T. V. Brooke, 3rd, Co., Richmond Howitzers which are a sky blue kersey; J. T. Moore’s jean cloth trousers attributed to manufacture at Spartanburg, SC; Major or Private Redwood which is a medium blue kersey wool; Col. Edward Anderson’s are royal blue and no doubt of English manufacture and an additional pair of sky-blue with yellow piping; Pvt. Joseph B. Phillips of the LA Crescent Regiment which are sky blue jeans which he was wearing at Tupelo, Mississippi in July 1862; Major Johns Hughes 7th NC Inf. which are royal blue kersey and English in origin; the trousers of Capt. William Cleaver 7th TX Mounted Rifles killed in El Paso, TX in July 1862 which are made of jean cloth and a dark blue color; Gen. William Dorsey Pender’s royal blue English enlisted kersey wool trousers he was wearing when wounded in at Gettysburg; all photographed in Echoes of Glory. (15) The coat and trousers of Pvt. Daniel Strouse Co. I, 3rd Alabama exist in two private collections which the author has examined. The coat is a shell jacket made of cadet-gray kersey wool with nine button front, with Alabama State seal buttons attached and has sky-blue kersey wool trim on the color and cuffs. The trousers are of matching sky blue wool. Private Strouse was killed at First Manassas. Existing in a private collection is a dark blue forage cap of the 1858 pattern and conforming to the Alabama Volunteer Corps uniform regulations is attributed to Private J. F. Blackwell of the 5th Alabama Infantry Regiment who died in Richmond shortly after arriving with his unit in June of 1861. In the collections of the Alabama Department of Archives of History in Montgomery two pair of Confederate trousers (one pair dark cadet gray and another in a dark royal blue). Other Confederate jackets and trousers are held in museum vaults or on display at the Texas Civil War Museum Fort Worth, TX and UDC Confederate Museum in Charleston, SC. (16) In addition, many of the existing enlisted men’s coats and trousers not conforming to an “assigned depot” designation exist with some color of blue trim both in large and small historical society museums; city/county museums or in the collections of several advanced collectors who do not wish to be identified.
With the evidence provided, the conclusion is that the Confederacy used blue material in the assembly of uniforms both produced domestically and imported! This leaves open the questions of how much blue material was used and how common was its presence in the various theaters of war. It is likely that we will never know the full story of this subject but photographic evidence showing Confederates wearing Richmond Depot, Columbus Depot and Peter Tait imported coats and trousers of blue and blue-gray color, with or without trim, along with the written evidence and existing uniform jackets, trousers, vests, caps, forage caps, and great-coats confirm the fact some color of blue was present and not uncommon as many believe.
The Conclusions
The vast majority of evidence supports that Confederate soldiers and navy personnel wore a wide variety of coats and trousers and that many of these were dyed a shade of blue. In helping us understand why so many variations exists we must understand the supply system used in the early years of the Civil War, and how over time it changed. Historians agree that from 1861 to mid 1863 the “Commutation System” (troops purchasing their uniforms and being reimbursed by the state or Confederate Government) produced an almost limitless variety of uniform variations. Eventually this system was phased out, which in itself eliminated some diversity of materials, and thus caused and created more uniformity in issued uniforms. Factual evidence confirms that Confederate troops from the Trans-Mississippi, Deep South, and Eastern Theater of War either purchased or was issued uniforms involving the color blue from the beginning of the war in 1861 to the surrenders in 1865. Add the facts that Confederates captured thousands of Union soldiers and thousands of wagons with their contents during the four years of conflict which coupled with documented evidence leads to the conclusion that an authentic impression or interpretation of a Confederate soldier can indeed include materials of this color while being historically accurate.
Endnotes
1. "Dying with Indigo," Maine Organic Farmers and Gardners Association, section goes here, accessed December 15, 2010, www.mofga.org/tabid/485/defant.aspx. “sciway3.net/proctor/state/sc_rice.html” An acre of good land may produce betweet forty and eighty pounds of weight of good indigo, and one slave many manage two acres upwards”.
2. Robert Olwell, Masters, Slaves, and Subjects: The Culture of Power in the South Carolina Low Country 1740-1790 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998). This book provides insight into how the plantation system worked, the type of crops planted, harvested, and sold.
3. Jeffery Robert Young, Domesticating Slavery: The Master Class in Georgia and South Carolina 1670-1837 (Chapel Hill: Univeristy of North Carolina Press, 1999). "Indigo Dye," Aurora Silk, section goes here, accessed July 05, 2010. Blue Wild Indigo Plant Guide. Multiple sources on planting, growing, and dying with natural indigo. https://www.aurorasilk.com/natural_d...ye_indigo.html.
4. Leslie D. Jensen, "A Survey of Confederate Central Government Quartermaster Issue Jackets Part Three," THE COMPANY OF MILITARY HISTORIANS: pg. #, accessed January/February, 2011. The three articles on Confederaty Quarter Master supply provide some interesting and insightful into the whole system of supply and provides helpful information on how these uniforms were constructed and what materials and colors were used in that construction.
http://military-historians.org/compa...federate-1.htm.
5. Dudley Wright, 1877- Knox, ed., Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: General Index, by Dudley W. Knox. (New York, Antiquarian Press, 1961), Series IV. Vol. II pg.630-631. Confederate Quartermaster purchases from S. Isaac & Campbell Feb. 3, 1863. Series II Vol. II pg 1-17979, on board Ship “Minna” April 1862. OR Series IV p. 623-634 Ship “Fingal” army and navy uniforms into Savannah, GA. Strong evidence that numerous blockade running ships entered Confederate ports with cargos of materials both uniform, cloth, and pre-cut uniforms.
6. John M. Payne, MS, Eleanor S. Brockenbrough Library, Museum of the Confederacy. Papers of Captain John M. Payne of Lynchburg, VA. Confederate States Ordanance Corps Items Imported by Deptarment through Blockade through the Port of Wilmington, NC July 17, 1863-Jan. 12, 1865, Richmond. Numerous papers, letters, and reports on Ordnance and Quartermaster stores entering Confederate Ports with ships cargos detailed with specific reference to S.S. Robert E. Lee, S. S. Cornubia, S. S. Lucy, S.S. Texas, S. S. Tryon. Additionally, orders of shipments to Confederate ordanance and quartermasters assigned at various locations thoughout the Confederacy.
7. Frederick R. Adolphus, Imported Confederate Uniforms of Peter Tait & Company., Limerick Ireland (Frederick Adolphus, 2010), pg. 56-57.
8. "ADAH," know as Alabama Archives & History. Montgomery Daily Advertiser (Montgomery), April 17, 1862, July 11, 1862, Spet. 7, 1862, Nov. 5, 1863. June 10, 1663, Dec. 8, 1863 Daily ed., advertising sec, microform rolls. “213 & 284. Various types and colors of wool (blue, gray, blue-gray mix, black, brown, red, gray, and unifrom descriptions and prices including coats, great coats, trousers, jackets, gloves, socks, shoes, army brogans, English uniforms, wool, army brogans, buttons, English caps, officer sashes, swords, all indicating that what are thought to be various scarce items at least until mide 1864 were available though at higher prices at the war continues.
9. ADHA, Micro film State of Alabama Quartermaster Duff Green Papers, rolls SGO-029236, 1157-01, 17132-017, 11124-006-010, 471-009-021. Extensive documents numbering over 300,000 with specific details with contractors, ladies aid societys, uniform and material purchaes, shipments to officers at depots or in the field; arms and musitions purchased and distributed.
10. R. A. Hasskari and L. R. Hasskari, Texas Civil War Regiments: Civil War Confederate Units, Texas Brigade, Terry's Texas Rangers, Waul's Legion (Ada: Authors, 1985), pg. 8.
11. J. A. Smith, "Mary-the Civil War Diary of John Kennerly Farris," review of Franklin County Historical Review #25, 1994, pg. 25.
12-13-14 Frederick R. Adolphus, Imported Confederate Uniforms of Peter Tait & Company., Limerick Ireland (Frederick Adolphus, 2010), pg. 56-57., 65. Photos and information on identified and unidentifed Tait jackets and trousersLetter by Confederate Nurse Kate Cumming. Alabama Quartermaster General Major Duff Green papers ADHA and reports of troops in summer and fall of 1864 with photographic evidence confirming that Tait Jackets ready made and in pre-cut pieces are being issued to troops with supplies being plentiful as to allow surplus to be both issued and sold.
15. Henry Woodhead, ed., Echoes of Glory Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy (Alexandria: Time Life Books, 1991). Numerous color photos of Confederate trousers.
16. Stephen B. McKinney, Confederate Uniform Material held in public or private collections., 1981-2011, raw data, Author's Notes, Ringgold.
Bibliography
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______, Leslie D. "A Survey of Confederate Central Government Quartermaster Issue Jackets Part." THE COMPANY OF MILITARY HISTORIANS. Accessed January 02, 2011. http://military-historians.org/compa...federate-2.htm.
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