Rebs in Green,Yanks in Red

[SCTiger]

The wrong Andrew

So the Pvt. Andrew wasn't the same one. There are two Andrew's in "Wandering To Glory" . The one that made the reference (supposedly) to Hood's men wearing dark-green was Pvt. Welburn Andrews "Sketch of Co. K, 23rd South Carolina Volunteers, in the Civil War, from 1862-1865." Richmond, VA.; Whittet and Shepperson Printers, no date. Now I have to track this article down.

Interestingly, the "Footprints of a Regiment" by W.H. Andrews, 1st Sergeant, Company M, is full of details, that I have rarley seen elsewhere. Check out this detail on page 11 (July 17th, 1861) in Savannah, Georgia:

"On arriving at Savannah we marched through the city and pitched our tents on the commons, where we drew new uniforms, shoes, caps and overcoats. All having previously had their measures taken by a tailor. Our uniforms were of Confederate gray, single-breasted frock coats with Georgia buttons, black cords down the outer seams of he pants. Caps were gray. Overcoats extending to the knees, with large capes. Altogether we were nicely fitted up. Besides we had a fatigue uniform consisting of jacket and pants. The Regulars were armed with muskets, and drilled in Hardee's tactics for heavy infantry."

Good detail of an early war uniform, I 'd say!

G

[SCTiger]

Rebs in green, Yanks in red. Part II

Comrades:

On the old site version 1.5 or 1.9. before the great data loss of 2003. I had made a post concerning a eyewitness report from Pvt. J. W. Andrew of Co. K 23rd South Carolina Volunteers concerning Hood's men at the battle of Second Manassas.

I went to the South Carolinana Room Library at USC and laid eyes directly on the original publication. Nine survivors of the company gathered at the Sumter, SC Courthouse on May 18, 1909 to recollect and record their war experiences.

Here again is the statement from Page 12, "Sketch of Company K., 23rd South Carolina Volunteers in the Civil War from 1862-1865." South Carolinana Library # 975.70744J23 An2s.

"At 2 p.m. Saturday, July 30, 1862, General Evans, commanding our division an Colonel Stevens our Brigade. Hood's Brigade was sent to skirmish in our front. They met Yankee Zouaves dressed in red. Hood's men wore dark-green uniforms. The red furnished a bright, shining mark at which to shoot, and judging from the number of red-clad bodies left on the ground, their slaughter must have been great. We advanced over the same ground soon after, hence our knowledge of the skirmish."

I copied this from the original text by Ward and Ward Offset Printing of Sumter, SC, circa. 1909. It doesn't appear to be a gross typo.

I interpret the purpose of the paragraph was to show the contrast between the colors of the uniforms. If Hood's men had dark-grey uniforms on (like many CSA troops) then why mention it? Why not just a plain comment on the Zouave uniforms? I also propose that another reason they were making a comment on the green uniforms; they were illustrating about how harder it was to see and shoot at versus the red Zouaves.

On the old database, someone had identified the Zouave unit in question, did they leave any reocord of what happened? Would they have made note of the Texan's in dark-green?

Also someone mentioned that the uniforms that Hood's men had received while in Texas could have oxidized to the dark-green color.

Not that I advocate a great drive to outfit every Texan in a dark green jacket, it just corresponds to what happened to the "nicotine green" Bomar frock coat at the South Carolina Relic Room, it was originaly gray.

[Charlie]

Re: Rebs in green, Yanks in red. Part II

The Zouave unit in question is the 5th NY Duryee Zouaves. Along with the 10th NY they were hung out to dry by the rest of the army on that fateful day in 1862. There is a well written account of the battle in the 5th's Regimental History by Alfred Davenport. His is a first hand account as well as accounts he recorded from his other comerades who survived. Of the 500 5th NYers on that hill, 330 were put out of action in just under ten minutes, 120 were killed. This battle represents the most casualties taken by a single regiment in a single engagement at anytime during the war. They did manage to defend Hazlett's battery long enough for the guns to retreat to the rear.
I hope I didn't go on to long.
Just my two cents.