One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

[floridawar]

Re: One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

Thanks for that piece of information Archie! I know he was in and out of the Gordonsville, VA area during the late winter and early spring of 1862. As you note, buried somewhere at the NA could be information related to a person or persons working in that area refitting old garments/equipment, or making new items. An interesting lead that I'll try to pursue, much appreciated.

Cheers, Jim Broomall

No Jim, thank you... I had seen the Gordonsville reference a while back and filed it in the "hmmm" section of the brain. When I read your post the blurb converted to an "Aha..." Systematic conversion of US uniform clothing for the CS Army is not shocking, but it is interesting to see these evidences no matter how incomplete.

Cheers....

[JimConley]

Re: One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

Now, The REbs were not the only ones converting fed blue into butternut:

from: Report of proceedings incidental to the erection and dedication of the Confederate MOnument... (Chicago, 1896): By John Cox Underwood, p. 215: Regarding the ladies working to provide clothes for the rebs incarcerated at Camp Douglas:

"the question of furnishing trousers to the thousands became an almost hopeless task, made more difficult because of the mandate from the secretary of war, prohibiting the outside furnishing of prisoners with clothing other than of "butternut color." Mrs. Waller secured a sample of butternut colored jeans and a piece of blue kersey, experimented with success, and finally discovered that the blue cloth could be dyed so as to produce a fairly good butternut color. At first 300 pairs of condemned Federal blue pantaloons were purchased, and, through the dying process, they were converted into regulation butternut garments. This problem was solved, and by furnishing the needy with portions of raiment at a time, she finally obtained reasonably comfortable clothing for the destitute..."

Good stuff, Jim & Archie!

A bit off topic, but Archie's post about Camp Douglas reminded me of an image I have always been fond of. I'm sure before a lot of the crashes, this image had been discussed before.

Source: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2012646159/

Title: [Five unidentified prisoners of war in Confederate uniforms in front of their barracks at Camp Douglas Prison, Chicago, Illinois]
Date Created/Published: [between 1862 and 1865]
Medium: 1 photograph : quarter-plate tintype, hand-colored ; 11.9 x 9.4 cm (case)
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-32610 (digital file from original item)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Access Advisory: Use digital images. Original served only by appointment because material requires special handling. For more information see: (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/info/617_apptonly.html)
Call Number: AMB/TIN no. 2862 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Now, I have the huge TIFF file of this image downloaded, but the detail is lacking a bit. I have always thought that these fellows are wearing US overcoats, possibly a production for mounted services. I could be dead wrong. They very well could be Confederate manufacture. From what detail I can recognize, however, the stitching on one of the collars appears consistent with that of US produced coats. But, I am hesitant to make a conclusion.

That is a great reference, Archie. Makes me curious why the SoW would issue such a directive? I would guess that they simply did not want rebels in US uniforms.

[poilu1917]

Re: One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

Jim,
Great info! Thanks for sharing.

[Mississippian]

Re: One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

I've been thinking that perhaps this federal overcoat was picked up by a civilian or merchant after the Valley Campaign of 1862 (god knows Banks left a lot of stuff behind) and later sold to officers or soldiers who had the money to buy an overcoat. Our soldier in question, being from a rather rich family, probably wasn't too bad off for money, and could purchase just about anything he could need.

Will MacDonald

[floridawar]

Re: One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

Howdy, Again on the reference to an overdyed fed. overcoat, this account of the Execution of Sam Davis in Tenn. in late 1863 by Joshua Brown, 2nd Ky Cav. (a fellow prisoner with DAvis) Notes:

"He was dressed in a dark brown overcoat, with a cape to it, which had been a blue federal coat, such as many of us had captured and dyed brown. I note this because it has been stated he was dressed in citizens' clothes..." (Confederate Veteran, vol. 3, p. 183)

Regarding purchased overcoats, I have seen in the records of one of Bate's Division quartermasters, a list of officers of the division who purchased Quartermaster property at auction near Chattanooga in late 1863, and it shows dozens of officers purchased great coats direct from the quartermasters... I often wondered if these were picked up coats from Chickamauga, etc... as I could not imagine the sale of QM property to officers with the men in such a state as reported... anyways...

On the original thread subject of the ANV in 1862, here's something regarding the rebs at South Mountain in 62:
"rebel prisoners just come in from south mountain; tall, bronzed, ragged, barefooted men in butternut, greasier and dirtier than even our own..." Henry Wilson's Regiment, (22nd Mass.), p. 187.

Also, after Sharpsburg, the CS Govt. evidently took over the larger portion of the cloth made locally for Lee's Army: Regarding cloth for the cadets at VMI, particularly the Crenshaw mill:


The contractor had a large part of the cloth ready for delivery, and my ordnance sergeant had gone to Winchester to receive it, when the whole supply and the mills were impressed by the quartermaster of tho Confederate States army, for thejase of the army of Gen. Lee, after the battle of Sharpsburg. Thus unexpectedly disappointed in a supply which was considered certain, with the fall season upon me, I dispatched a courier to Gen. Lee, and requested a revocation of the order, so far as to enable me to get a supply of cloth for tho cadets' immediate wants. This distinguished officer promptly and courteously released ths mills for the use of the military institute; but the cloth which had been made for us having been used for the army, some delay necessarily occurred in getting another supply.
Message of the Governor of Virginia, and Accompanying Documents, 1862, p. 8.

I reckon the abvoe (written in Jan. 63) may be referencing the commencement of the new law requiring the army to supply clohting (after Oct. 8, 62.) and subsequently the conversion of lee's army from homespun to supplied by the CS Army...

cheers,

ARchie.

[floridawar]

Re: One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

...and more to the point, Mr. Corsan's description of rebs "Two months in the Confederate states..." (p. 216...)regarding the dress and equipments of Jackson's men before Fredericksburg:

We met them all along the railway between Hanover Junction and Staunton, in great numbers—at Louisa Court-house, Gordonsville, Charlottesville, &c.: a hardy, active-looking set of men, evidently used to rough lodging and fare, but full of enthusiasm and anxiety for a fight. I noticed comparatively few very young men among them. They looked like troops that had served in several campaigns, and knew their duty. Of course they were clad, shod, and armed just like all the other Confederate troops I ever saw : no attempt at uniform, either in hats, clothes, or anything else; but the same dingy homespun dress, nondescript caps, strong shoes, unshaven, unwashed, uncombed heads and faces, and the same bright rifles and bayonets I had seen all through the South.
I was told by one of the quartermasters, that all the tales we had heard about the army being in want of shoes, blankets, and tents, had, for a long time, been either totally false or gross exaggerations. He said the men were very wasteful and careless, and would often march great distances, and go about for a long time, in fair weather, without shoes, even when they had them. I saw numbers of men myself with bare feet, and their shoes slung over their knapsacks; and can quite understand how a Federal prisoner, accustomed to all the abundance of the Northern army, or even a civilian from Richmond not accustomed to seeing an army at all, would run away with an impression that such troops were in the greatest extremity of want and destitution.It must be borne in mind always, however, that while the mass of the Southern army is drawn from the agricultural classes—accustomed from boyhood to hunting and shooting in swamps and forests, and consequently needing less than troops more daintily bred—a very large proportion of the Federal troops, and nearly all the Federal officers, are taken from classes used to the comforts of city-life, and even from sedentary occupations. In our own country, the food and lodging which would kill a lawyer's-clerk in a month would make a navigator fat, and fit for any work which lungs and muscles could do. The Southern army owes much of its success to the superior aptitude of the Southern men for camping out, riding, and handling a gun. They have become true soldiers sooner; and an advantage thus once gained can never be wrested from the possessor. General Jackson's men, certainly, looked as if they could march any distance, live on anything they could catch, sleep just when night overtook them, and fight when called upon.

I recall some of the descriptions of Braggs army some time later is similar, with the men dressed as they pleased, etc. in contrast to the troops of Lee's Army. Above, Mr. Corsan suggests Lee's troops looked little different in '62. I love his comments regarding the improvident nature of the men being the cause of most of their wants!

cheers,

Archie.

[fallstoomuch]

Re: One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

Will you have another pair made, all aligator tops, lined with calf or something as suitable_buckle in front_thicker [strike] soles than these, & full scotch bottoms_’so that a mouse can run all round without falling off’ I would love a pair of these!!

[floridawar]

Re: One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

From John Worsham; "ONe of Jackson's Foot Cavalry..." p. 105, regarding Jackson's march to the Seven Days Battles, and Worsham and company's return to Richmond:

Jackson's division was marched to Morris farm on the Mechanicsville turnpike, and there went into camp on the 11th. Gen. Jackson on the next day gave F Company permission to spend the day in Richmond. To most of the company that was a great day, many of them not having been in the city since they left it a year ago. What changes had taken place in one year. We left Richmond a year ago in new uniforms, with the fair complexion of city men, some frail and spare, none of us with one exception having seen anything of real war. We returned now ruddy and brown, with the health and hardness that outdoor living creates, and were veterans. Our welcome was an ovation, and it made us feel our standing in public esteem. The only thing we regretted as our time closed was that the day did not last forever.

We stayed at Morris farm several days, taking a much needed rest, the first we had had since April 30th. During the time that ended now at Morris farm, Jackson's men had marched over five hundred and fifty miles, fought nine battles, many skirmishes, captured several thousand prisoners, large quantities of small arms and cannon, wagons, and stores.

At the commencement of the war, the Southern army was as poorly armed as any body of men ever had been. In the infantry, my own regiment as an example, one company had Springfield muskets, one had Enfield, one had Mississippi rifles, the remainder the old smooth bore flint-lock musket that had been altered to a percussion gun. The cavalry was so badly equipped that hardly a company was uniform in that particular; some had sabers, nothing more, some had double-barrel guns, some had nothing but lances, while others had something of all. One man with a saber, another with a pistol, another with a musket, another a shotgun, not half a dozen men in the company armed alike. The artillery was better, but the guns were mostly smooth bore, and some of the horses had wagon and plow harness. It did not take long for the army of Northern Va. to arm itself with better material. When Jackson's troops marched from the valley for Richmond to join Lee in his attack on McClellan, they had captured enough arms from the enemy to replace all that were inferior, and after the battles around Richmond, all departments of Lee's army were as well armed. After that time, the captures from the enemy kept us up to their standard. Our ammunition was always inferior to theirs.

Towards the close of the war, nearly all equipments in the army of Northern Va. were articles captured from the Yankees. All the wagons were captured, and to look at them on a march, one would not know that they belonged to the Confederacy, many of them having the name of the brigade, division and corps of the Yankee army branded on them. Nearly all the mules and horses had U. S. branded on them; our ambulances were from the same generous provider, our tents also, many of them having the name of the company, etc., branded on them; most of the blankets were those marked U. S., also the rubber blankets or cloths; the very clothing that the men wore was mostly captured, as we were allowed to wear their pants, underclothing and overcoats. As for myself, I purchased only one hat, one pair of shoes, and one jacket after 1861. We captured immense quantities of provisions, and nearly all the "hard tack" and pork issued to us was captured.

Cheers,

Archie.

[Mississippian]

Re: One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

Archie,

Funny that Worsham mentions lances, I have seen ordnance records of lances in Virginia in 1862. I don't have a record of units being issued said lances yet, but they were at least in forward storage depots in central Virginia.

Will MacDonald

[floridawar]

Re: One Confederate soldier's insights into the material conditions of the ANV in 1862

Archie,

Funny that Worsham mentions lances, I have seen ordnance records of lances in Virginia in 1862. I don't have a record of units being issued said lances yet, but they were at least in forward storage depots in central Virginia.

Will MacDonald

Howdy, Will, Perhaps the lances had been turned in to store after (as Worsham suggests) they were able to reequip into 1862. Here's a blurb from the official REcords recording an instance where the lances were wanted in mid-61:

HEADQUARTERS POTOMAC DEPARTMENT,
Culpeper Court-House, Va., May 14, 1861.
Col. R. S. GARNETT, Adjutant-General:
SIR: I communicate herewith a paper for the information of the General in-Chief, which may have a significance of some interest just at this juncture. I would also communicate to the general that I was yesterday informed by Major Brent, Virginia volunteers, and direct from Alexandria, that the enemy is prolonging himself along the canal, and has already reached Monocacy with his advanced post, which point is at the junction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad with the canal, so that already Colonel Jackson’s vedettes may be in sight of the enemy. Some of my cavalry being without pistols, I would be glad if they could be provided with lances.
Very respectfully, your most obedient,

PHILIP ST. GEO. COCKE,
Colonel, Commanding Potomac Department.

I recall references to the Texas Cavalry at Valverde out west in Feb., 62 armed with lances in that battle, but Worsham seems to suggest such antiquities were largely replaced by mid-62 in the east so far as he observes....

cheers,

Archie.