Tin Cups: Regulations? Issued? Etc.

[zrpittard]

Hello all,

A colleague asked me today about tin cups and whether or not the AC had a research thread going in regards to them. The question: were tin cups generally issued items, were there regulation sizes, were they mostly just private, and things of the like. I am sorry to say I could not give him a sound answer. Something as commonplace as tin cups never led me to question them. So, in short, is there any information on the AC regarding tin cups that someone can direct me to or is it a pot of coffee and an open afternoon of hunting kind of task?

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Tin Cups: Regulations? Issued? Etc.

"Knives, forks, tin cups and tin plates for volunteers" are among the items "properly chargeable against the fund 'for collecting, drilling, and organizing volunteers'" according to the Regulations for the Recruiting Service of the Army of the United States published in 1862 and updated the following year.

The list of articles sutlers are authorized to provide in the Revised Regulations is broad enough to include them, too, and of course soldiers could buy their own.

The Quartermaster Department did not have tin cups on the list of Camp and Garrison Equipage, but the 1865 Manual of the QMD, compiled by Fred Gaede and Earl Coates provides specifications developed during the war, i.e.:

Tin cups,-- to be made of "I.C." tin, to hold 1 quart, and to be well and strongly made, with a swan neck handle which should project 2 1/8 inches from outer side of the cup, firmly soldered and riveted at both ends with 2 iron rivets each; the heads of the rivets to be covered with tin solder; the top rim of the cup and the edges of the handle to be wired with No. 13 wire; diameter o cup 4 1/4 inches, and depth not less than 4 3/4 inches; length of handle 7 inches, width at upper end of handle 1 1/4 inches and at lower end 3/4 of an inch, and so fastened on the cup as to allow of convenient handling of the same.

Hope this helps!

[James Brenner]

Re: Tin Cups: Regulations? Issued? Etc.

CPT Kilpatrick, B Company, 5th Ohio Regiment, published an open letter in the 2 June 1861 edition of the Cincinnati Daily Press about tin cups and plates. His letter was in response to a lady who was collecting money to buy a flag for the company. Kilpatrick thanked her, but said the money would be put to better use, "if you will buy about thirty tin cups and twenty tin plates and then as many shirts as you can with the money." He added that "tin plates, cups, and shirts are always necessary."


I hope this helps a bit.

[zrpittard]

Re: Tin Cups: Regulations? Issued? Etc.

A lot of awesome stuff going on in these accounts. Thanks guys. I also found in a previous thread some returns posted from the 3rd Louisiana Cavalry and the 16th Georgia (do not recall what branch of service they were) listing 80 and 50 tin cups, respectively. Another thread posted a Cincinnati Clothing Depot report listed nearly 48,000 tin cups. Who knew something so commonplace could render such neat accounts. Thanks again fellows for the help.

[NMVolunteer]

Re: Tin Cups: Regulations? Issued? Etc.

A one-quart cup? Does anybody sell those?

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Tin Cups: Regulations? Issued? Etc.

A one-quart cup? Does anybody sell those?

I forgot to point out that the QM specs were developed later in the war and don't necessarily reflect what was standard all the time during it. The authors note that besides the deviations from what later became the standard, there wasn't a standard for a lot of items early on, or for those provided by the state, or the individual. And in fact the QM standards wouldn't necessarily control what was purchased locally by recruiting officers, who were the ones most responsible for providing tin cups, plates, and cutlery. There are a lot of surviving 4" x 4" "regulation" cups, for example, which would obviously not hold as much as the larger one described.