Augusta Depot Jackets

[50thGAInfantry]

Hi all,
I'm doing research on the Augusta jackets that were being issued late in the war. According to a Savannah quartermaster they were white wool jackets and "a poor article" of clothing. If anyone has any examples or other citations from other quartermasters or soldiers, could you point me in the right direction please?
Thanks in advance!

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

I am wondering if "white wool" might be an indication of an undied kersey or something.

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

Dillan, I believe Jordan Roberts might have some info on these jackets.
FWIW, I am of the same idea as Wick. Given that these are late war garments the term "white" may simply indicate that the wool was left in is natural white/grey state rather than taking the time to dye it.
Just some food for thought.

[DougCooper]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

Fred Adolphus would concur - "white" meant an absence of dye, and it simply means the dyeing step was bypassed to produce uniforms that much faster. It created a sensation when introduced earlier in the war, but I imagine by 1864-65 it had become more common. http://www.adolphusconfederateunifor...-uniforms.html

[roundshot]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

I think the quote that Dillan is referring to from the Savannah Quartermaster is the one posted on my blog here, and the time is late 1863: http://26nc.org/blog/?p=593

Note that the material from which these substandard jackets and pants were made is listed as being of Georgia homespun but most certainly undyed as you surmise. There is no specific reference to Augusta however.

[Aubrey]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

"White wool" makes me think of researches I did recently on the famous "white/grey" wool that was issued in the French Royal Regiment (Louis XV period). And specially those who served in North America during the french and Indian War.
The meaning of this shade as said above is undyed. And the white/grey looks like more a off-white than a grey. Take a look on this: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv...em.r=Tis18Rich

[brown]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

Dillon,

Would you be comfortable sharing the source of that info? It is a cool reference and may be useful to different researchers in different ways. Thanks for posting it.

[50thGAInfantry]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

As to the Augusta provenance, these jackets were said to come from the Richmond Factory. They wouldn't be Richmond depot as we know it even though jackets were made in Savannah early in the war that looked very similar to RD2 jackets. Augusta is in Richmond County, Georgia, and the mills, arsenal, etc. are often referred to as the Richmond Mills, Richmond this and that. The source is a quartermasters report of items on hand in Savannah as of October 31, 1863 that can be found in the Georgia Historical Society. It includes uniforms, rations and a few other things. (I don't have it on me at the moment.) As to the undyed question, yes from what I understand it would be undyed wool. My personal hunch is that the Grizzard / Hanleighter jacket of Fred Adolphus fame might be an "Augusta" jacket. Hanleiter's Battery, as I understand it, was in Savannah during the war and thus would be issued from it's supplies on hand. Grizzard joined the battery in 1864. Let me say now I am no expert. Just someone trying to put two and two together.

[brown]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

Thanks for the info. I had an interested friend.

[roundshot]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

Dillan: That is the same report referenced in my post and cited link above. I was not aware of the Richmond Co./Augusta connection, however. Thanks for clarifying that.

[JLH]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

The prisoners at Huntsville in Texas produced Uniforms that were "White" due to the lack of dye. One such jacket 'recreation' was worn at a reenactment, needless to say it became a nice 'Butternut' color by the end of the weekend.

[floridawar]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

Chiming in,

Although the white jackets mentioned may have come from Augusta, GA, there is evidence the products of the CS Army clothing bureau facility there were generally gray. In fact some of the records of that facility show they even had on hand quantities of colored flannel for trimmings (wink). That facility was established by Gen. Bragg in October, 1862 to supply his army. Due to its efficiency it became a general CS Army Quartermaster Dept. depot for fabrication the next year. Its products were for the Army of Tennessee. I think Les Jensen's great articles on Depot Jackets from "Military Collector & Historian" erred in not at least referencing this facility (he mentions Athens, but not Augusta). References to the products claim they were "of the best make and material" produced for the Confederate Army, (Feb., 1863) and by Sept., 1863 27,000 yards of woolens were being cut out for jackets and trousers by 1,500 local needle women.
At the close of the war the The Confederate army clothing then available at Augusta included “grey coats and jackets, grey and blue pants, and cotton under drawers.” [Daily Constitutionalist, Augusta, GA, 6-29-1865.]

Best,

James E. Marshall

[rmilstead]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

James,
I am not so sure that Les was mistaken in not referencing the Augusta Clothing Bureau as ultimately he was only discussing the overall CS Quartermaster operation and examples of the work of those Clothing Bureaus he felt comfortable with serious attribution because of enough surviving examples with appropriate provenance (except for Tait Contract jackets which were none of the above). But then I should let him respond to your criticisms himself. Also I think he states that the actual number and location of the Clothing Manufactories operated by the CS QM changed during the conflict mostly due to Federal incursions during the war. The following letter from Quartermaster General Lt. Col. A,C, Meyers in March 1863 was sent to the 14 such Clothing Bureaus that were operational at that time including Augusta GA.

Richmond March 12th, 1863
Sir:
I request that you will forward to this office at the earliest practicable moment a report showing –
1st : An approximate of the quantity of manufactured Army Clothing, and of materials for the manufacture of the same which you may now have on hand;
2d : A statement of the material for the supply of which, contracts have been made, which will certainly be completed with, in time to be manufactured during the year ending April 1st 1864;
3d : A statement of the different articles of Army Clothing specifying particularly the number of each garment which can be made at the Depots in your charge by the 1st of April 1864.
In addition to these statements you will add such other information as will aid the Department in making a reliable estimate of the quantity of Clothing which can be supplied during the coming year from the resources of your district not already within your control; and in determining how far existing arrangements are adequate to provide Clothing and Shoes for the different armies in the field.
Signed A.C.Meyers
Q M Genl
Sent to AQMs in charge of operations at:
Staunton, VA
Little Rock, AR
Montgomery, AL
Columbus, GA
Knoxville, TN
Huntsville, AL
Eufaula, AL
Charleston, SC
Jackson, MS
Raleigh, NC
Atlanta, GA
San Antonio, TX
Richmond, VA
Augusta, GA

The response from Richard Waller at the Richmond Clothing Bureau was at one time on the now departed "Blue and Gray Marching" web site. It was a seminal piece of information on the operations and capabilities of the RCB. Jensen discusses a similar response out of Atlanta in his 1989 article. Researchers looking to understand these way these manufactories worked and what their capabilities are should try to find other ones as they provide such information. It is also significant that some of the facilities Meyers managed on this list at this time later moved or were replaced. Knoxville TN is a good example as the city was occupied by Federal forces in the fall of 1863, after which I believe it ceased to exist.

With respect to the discussion of "white uniforms" I believe that the more common descriptor at the time was "drab". Fred Adolphus did an article in the September - October 1992 edition of Confederate Veteran magazine on "Drab - The Forgotten Confederate Color" which is perhaps the earliest discussion I am aware of. Regardless, "drab" was undyed wool, either cream or sheep's gray on cotton warp which could either be natural or brown. In recent research I have been doing into the Virginia mills that supplied woolen fabric to the RCB, "drab" woolens were quite regularly delivered in significant quantity (yardage) throughout the war. Such material also turns up in surviving examples. The Richmond manufactured trousers in the Atlanta History Center collection that Fred shows on his web site as part of the so called "Reuben Taylor" uniform are "drab" with cream wool fill over natural cotton warp. After some study of the famous Henry Hollyday trousers in the Michael Kramer collection they are also "drab" but with "sheep's gray fill (not logwood dyed as I thought initially) over brown cotton warp. This is in my opinion a highly underrepresented fabric color today.

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

[floridawar]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

Hello Dick,

. I do not think Mr. Jensen stated anything incorrectly in his work, it is about surviving jackets, not Confederate clothing supply. But given the Army of Tennessee's importance as the second largest field army in the Confederacy, that the clothing facility established by Bragg to supply it was not mentioned, is at least a slight error of omission. I notice Athens is not on the list you posted.

All that said, in response to the query you posted sent out by the CS QMG, , it would appear the answer from Augusta was as given below:

Production from Oct., 1862 to Sept. 25, 1863:
woolens used for clothing: 220,000 yds. (@ $2.52 per yd.)
cotton used for clothing, 650,000 yds. (@ $0.50 per yd.)
these were cut and used to make (most since ca. April, 1863):
55,000 pr. pants.
37,000 jackets.
65,000 pr. drawers.
70,000 shirts.
Average cost of a suit of clothes: $20.00.
1,500 women employed. More could be employed if more woolen goods could be had.
Average monthly pay out to seamstresses: $25,000.00
Capacity was had to cut 27,000 yds. woolens, and 75,000 yds. cotton, per month.
Capacity for production was 30 to 35,000 garments per month.
[Wilmington Journal, Wilmington, NC, 10-8-1863]

There is some good reference to the Augusta facility on Fred Adolphus' website in this article:
http://http://adolphusconfederateuniforms.com/confederate-uniforms-of-the-lower-south-part-iii-georgia-and-the-army-of-tennessee.html

I understand there was also a State of Georgia clothing manufactory at Augusta as well. That was a different establishment from the CS Army Clothing Bureau establishment at Augusta. There are some specific references to the GA state issue clothing being "dingy" white goods if I recollect. I believe there is reference to it in Mr. Arliskas' "Cadet Gray and Butternut Brown." As noted in one of the earlier posts, the "Richmond" reference from the Savannah Quartermaster Documents reference likely refers to Augusta goods. The "Richmond Factory" was a large facility which made Negro cloth (plains and kerseys) for slave clothing before and during the War:



Best,

J.M.

[rmilstead]

Re: Augusta Depot Jackets

James,
On the Jensen article I think you missed my point in that Les didn't mention very many of the 14 or more manufacturing locations . While you obviously are an advocate/enthusiast for Augusta, he did discuss jackets out of two of the other major "Depots" that provided the AOT with uniforms, i.e. Atlanta and Columbus. My point was that first he tried to give a preface that discussed, generally, the overall CS QM clothing making operations and second covered, in relative detail, only jackets where surviving examples or provenance provided enough information to draw significant conclusions. In the 30 years since he did that work some number of additional examples have surfaced and other researchers have applied his methodology to add to the knowledge base on other operations. But focus on what Jensen did or did not omit 30 years ago is IMO misplaced. He did what he did and no one before or since has moved the state of the art further.

All that being said, the Augusta actual response to Meyer's request does likely exist. To give some relative scope, in his response Waller at the RCB estimated that his woolen goods “on hand” were “sufficient to make 28,000 suits (a suit meaning one jacket and one pair pants).” His cotton cloth supply was “sufficient for linings and to make 50,000 undergarments (shirts and drawers). I have on hand 375,000 pounds of [raw] wool, which will produce 375,000 yards of 3/4 jeans.... I have [already] contracted for the manufacture of 285,000 pounds." If material could be obtained in the next calendar year ending 1 April 1864, Waller estimated that he could manufacture: “Jackets: 210,000; Pants: 270,000; Shirts: 275,000; Drawers: 275,000." Consider the size of this operation in relation to the Augusta numbers you quote. Other sources suggest that the RCB actually received an estimated 950,000 yards of 3/4 equivalent woolen fabric in the April 1863 to April 1864 period, most being domestically produced wool on cotton material. Conservatively, what additional woolen goods were received was sufficient to produce in excess of 175,000 "suits of clothing" beyond the 28,000 he mentions in his report or a total of approximately 200,000 in that 12 month period. The Richmond shops employed between 3500 and 4000 seamstresses in the assembly process in the same period.

Dick Milstead