Bales of shirting for Georgia Relf. and Hosp. Assc.

[arkangel33]

I have been reading the accounts of the Georgia Relief and Hosp. Assc. you would be surprised but there are two excellent PDF's of the books on this Association via a google search. Anyhow there are many mentions of Bales of shirting. Based on the expenditures and where the items they purchased or produced went this could either be for the Hospitals that were run by the State of Georgia or for making into shirts to send to Ga. Troops. My question is how much yardage is in a bale? I realize this might be one of those ambiguous questions with no clear answer. They often post items in yardage. For instance on 17July1862 they purchased 197 yards. When It comes to shirting they are buying it in Bales so my guess to the amount would be a lot.

[rmilstead]

Re: Bales of shirting for Georgia Relf. and Hosp. Assc.

Mike,

I cannot supply any specific information about domestic cotton mill supplies to the Georgia Relief and Hospital Association but from a study that I did last spring of Richmond operations I have a little information that may be relevant in terms of the amount of this kind of material used in a large CS clothing operation (Richmond) and the approximate amount of material in Bales of English cloth shipped to the Confederacy out of Manchester.

First, Captain O.F.Weisiger who ran the clothing manufactory operation at the RCB had 152,155 yards of such cotton material in three widths (3/4, 7/8, and 4/4)on hand at the end of the 1st quarter of 1864 based upon inventory reports, of which 40,574 yards was specifically identified as osnaburg. Other types of material mentioned in the records include both shirting and sheeting. My guess is that shirting was just that and used for making shirts while sheeting was used in tents, grain bags, and other misc. applications made by Richmond but as I said that is a guess. Osnaburg clearly was used in linings but may also have been used in shirts and drawers.

Second, from letters sent by J B Ferguson the QM agent in England the size of bales of English goods shipped to the West Indies for ultimate trans shipment to the Confederacy varied somewhat but were typically between 300 and 350 yards of 6/4 material per bundle. In a letter dated 25 May 1864, Ferguson discusses shipment of 24 bales of "Light Blue Army cloths" amounting to 8213 3/4 yards of (6/4) material and 30 bales of "Blue Gray Army cloths" amounting to 8972 1/2 yards of (6/4) material. The individual bales ranged in size from 296 yards to 352 yards. I do not know why there was such a variance except that (possibly) Ferguson's shipment came from several suppliers who may have bundled in different quantities. Ferguson is known to have dealt with as many as 16 Manchester mills during this period for cloth procurement..In early October, 1863 Alexander Lawton (CS QM) ordered Ferguson to purchase 1,200,000 yards of 6/4 woolens, half blue-gray for jackets and half light blue for pants and this shipment was likely part of the goods ordered at that time.

Domestic Cotton material typically was 3/4 size and so if the bundles were similarly sized in terms of weight then the number of yards per bale would have been obviously proportionally larger. As an example, in a letter late in 1863 Capt. W G Ferguson at the Richmond Clothing Bureau (J B's brother) quoted equivalents of items constituting a shipping ton as 1400 yards of 6/4 grey Woolen cloth and 2500 yards of 3/4 Blue Gray flannel per shipping ton.

Again not specifically relevant to you question but may give you some insight into period bundling and shipping practices.

Dick Milstead
Hardaway's Alabama Battery
The Company of Military Historians