Tweet
While the previous moccasin thread got shut down, below is a brief article I wrote a while back for our regimental newsletter on "Longstreet Moccasins," and their brief use in Confederate service:
"On October 9, 1862 the Richmond Daily Dispatch made editorial comment on the subject of clothing in General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia following the Battle of Antietam: “Posterity will scarcely believe that the wonderful campaign which has just ended with it’s terrible marches and desperate battles, was made by men, one-fourth of whom were entirely barefooted, and one-half of whom were ragged as scarecrows . . . We cease to wonder at the number of stragglers, when we hear how many among them were shoeless, with stone bruises on their feet.” In North Carolina, Governor Zebulon Vance appealed directly to its citizens for shoes, blankets, and clothing of any kind for Lee’s destitute troops. The scarcity of footwear was so severe that individual soldiers in the field sought to alleviate their suffering by wrapping blankets, pieces of rug, straw, rags, and even old hats around their feet in cold weather and on cross country marches. But it was Major General General James Longstreet who at this time came up with a corporate improvisation for footwear that was often irreverently remembered by many veterans in post war years: using freshly skinned commissary hides for moccasins!
As a member of the 1st North Carolina State Troops recalled: “we were commanded to cut up green cowhides and tie the hairy side to our feet. This was the latest novelty in footwear, and being the first exhibitors of the newest ‘fad,’ we were duly proud. Perhaps it may be interesting to know that, whereas some of the modern shoes are unendurable and adapted only to rug-clad floors, our ‘cowhides’ were both comfortable and serviceable.” A Virginian was more lengthy but less flattering in his description: “They were made from the green hide of cattle killed for food, sewed up with thongs or strips cut from the hide, the hair side being inside, next to the foot. These moccosons (sic), or whatever you may call them, were about 16 inches long, and the beef was on them. The men put them on while green, and in a few days they dried, and there was no getting them off without cutting them. It was lucky there were no dogs in camp or they would have given us trouble.”
While utilized by many, this mode of foot covering was quickly found to be impractical for the reason that “the moist, fresh skins slipped about in the mud and slush of Virginia roads as if on ice.” And, in a classic contemporary description, Confederate John D. Hancock noted a couple more drawbacks to the ersatz shoes in a letter to his parents dated November 11, 1862: “[They] stretch out at the heel . . . [and] whip me nearly to death they flop up and down they stink very bad and I have to keep a bush in my hand to keep the flies off them.”
Yet, however short lived their usefulness in waning months of 1862, the colorful (and aromatic) story of “Longstreet Moccasins” has become indelibly woven into the rich fabric of lore surrounding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. For further reading see: Bell Irwin Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb; Harold Simpson, Lee’s Grenadier Guard: Hood’s Texas Brigade; and Philip Katcher, The Army of Robert E. Lee."
Bob Williams
Reilly's NC Btty.
"On October 9, 1862 the Richmond Daily Dispatch made editorial comment on the subject of clothing in General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia following the Battle of Antietam: “Posterity will scarcely believe that the wonderful campaign which has just ended with it’s terrible marches and desperate battles, was made by men, one-fourth of whom were entirely barefooted, and one-half of whom were ragged as scarecrows . . . We cease to wonder at the number of stragglers, when we hear how many among them were shoeless, with stone bruises on their feet.” In North Carolina, Governor Zebulon Vance appealed directly to its citizens for shoes, blankets, and clothing of any kind for Lee’s destitute troops. The scarcity of footwear was so severe that individual soldiers in the field sought to alleviate their suffering by wrapping blankets, pieces of rug, straw, rags, and even old hats around their feet in cold weather and on cross country marches. But it was Major General General James Longstreet who at this time came up with a corporate improvisation for footwear that was often irreverently remembered by many veterans in post war years: using freshly skinned commissary hides for moccasins!
As a member of the 1st North Carolina State Troops recalled: “we were commanded to cut up green cowhides and tie the hairy side to our feet. This was the latest novelty in footwear, and being the first exhibitors of the newest ‘fad,’ we were duly proud. Perhaps it may be interesting to know that, whereas some of the modern shoes are unendurable and adapted only to rug-clad floors, our ‘cowhides’ were both comfortable and serviceable.” A Virginian was more lengthy but less flattering in his description: “They were made from the green hide of cattle killed for food, sewed up with thongs or strips cut from the hide, the hair side being inside, next to the foot. These moccosons (sic), or whatever you may call them, were about 16 inches long, and the beef was on them. The men put them on while green, and in a few days they dried, and there was no getting them off without cutting them. It was lucky there were no dogs in camp or they would have given us trouble.”
While utilized by many, this mode of foot covering was quickly found to be impractical for the reason that “the moist, fresh skins slipped about in the mud and slush of Virginia roads as if on ice.” And, in a classic contemporary description, Confederate John D. Hancock noted a couple more drawbacks to the ersatz shoes in a letter to his parents dated November 11, 1862: “[They] stretch out at the heel . . . [and] whip me nearly to death they flop up and down they stink very bad and I have to keep a bush in my hand to keep the flies off them.”
Yet, however short lived their usefulness in waning months of 1862, the colorful (and aromatic) story of “Longstreet Moccasins” has become indelibly woven into the rich fabric of lore surrounding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. For further reading see: Bell Irwin Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb; Harold Simpson, Lee’s Grenadier Guard: Hood’s Texas Brigade; and Philip Katcher, The Army of Robert E. Lee."
Bob Williams
Reilly's NC Btty.
Comment