Butter - Nut Jeans

[boozie]

While reading the book "Diary of a Confederate Soldier, John S. Jackman of the Orphan Brigade", I found Jackman's views on butter-nut jeans and his thoughts on the "caliber" of person that was uniformed in them to be somewhat unique. This is by no means pointed at anyone or any region, I just wonder if this was a common view that was shared by some of the upper southern states towards some of the lower southern states.

I believe it was the color of the jean and not the jean alone that he stereotyped these people by . In 1861 the commanders of the 5th and 3rd Kentucky (C.S.A.) had a small fight at Camp Boone over 1,722 1/4 yards of "jeans", which Loyd Tilghman tried to liberate from the 5th KY. So "jeans" were not uncommon to theese men, although it was never stated what the jean from Camp Boone was specifically used for.

This observation was made at the battle of Shiloh on April 6.

"Diary of a Confederate Soldier", edited by Wm. C. Davis
University of South Carolina Press
Page 31

"I met a fellow dressed in a suit of "butter-nut" jeans, who was limping, but I don't believe was scratched. He asked me in a whinning way: "Has you'ns been in the fight yet?" I thought he meant some general, and asked my "brown" interrogator what troops General "Youens" commanded. He seemed astounded, and at last made me understand him. I told him "no" and went on. I afterwards got quite fimiliar with the "youens" and "weens" vernacular of "Brown Jeans."

[Hank Trent]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

I found Jackman's views on butter-nut jeans and his thoughts on the "caliber" of person that was uniformed in them to be somewhat unique. This is by no means pointed at anyone or any region, I just wonder if this was a common view that was shared by some of the upper southern states towards some of the lower southern states.

I'd guess he was using the old pre-war civilian stereotype of the backwoods country hick being clad in butternut and/or jeans. I haven't seen it as an upper/lower south stereotype, so much as a city/country or sophisticated/crude stereotype.

For example: "[In Alabama] our judges, as a class, are practical, intelligent, well-informed, and common-sensed, having no aristocratic notions, fearing no harm to their ermine from contact with Kentucky jeans or butternut homespun." (Editor's Drawer, Harpers February 1860)

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[boozie]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

Here is another butter-nut observation from the Murfreesboro,TN. region. A March 28, 1863 letter home from Ambrose Remley, 72nd Indiana Mounted Infantry, describing the people in the region.

'Battles,Skirmishers,Events and Scenes: The letters and Memorandum of Ambrose Remley"
Published by, Montgomery County Historcial Society,Inc.
Page 51

"All of the southern people that I have seen on our marches are nearly all clothed in butternut suits. If it were not for the butternut trees they could not color their own clothes."

[Pat.Lewis]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

Good day all,

Johnny Green of the 9th Ky. (along with Jackman) also had some comments on jean cloth later on in the war. Green places this incident in Nov. 1863 around Chattanooga, but he was writing well after the war and was also known to insert himself into some stories which he knew to have happened, just not to him. Take it for what it's worth.

The Alabama boys were on guard & our fellows bargained with one of these boys who had just been relieved from duty that if he would help carry it [a package to an unknown soldier which they had stolen] down into the woods they would divide it with him…It proved to be a rich haul indeed, three hams, delicious pickles & preserves, nice warm wollen socks, two coats, a pair of shoes & various other good things…the socks & other things were pretty fairly divided but finally they came to a letter at the bottom of the box…Alabama soon grew serious & he turned to the end of the letter to read the name when he exclaimed, ‘Look here boys, dern my fool skin! This box is from my mother, sent to me. Now look here, youens aint going to keep my things is you?’…they said that after a Yellowhammer’s trying to go back on a bargain like he had done they would not wear an old Coperas Jeans coat for fear they would run away from the next battle they went into.

Johnny Green of the Orphan Brigade; the Journal of a Confederate Soldier. Edited by A.D. Kirwan. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1956), 106-7.

Also some more interesting usage of "youens".

I am interested in the incident at Camp Boone as well. Was this 5th KY the regiment that would eventually be redesignated the 9th.? If so, that would make Mr. Jackman and Mr. Green's later opinions on jean cloth and those wearing it quite intriguing. I believe one of them mentions a lack of weapons and equipment at Boone but a large supply of gray uniforms. Unfortunately he doesn't go into more detail than that from what I remember. Can't remember which author it was off the top of my head, I'll look and see.

Best,

Patrick Lewis

[ewtaylor]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

In Eastern Ky "wee'uns and you'ens" is still spoken. I'd never encountered tis until I moved to SE Kentucky.
everett taylor

[boozie]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

Patrick,

Yes, it was Hunt's 5th Kentucky. Chapter 3, "The Orphan Brigade, by Wm. C. Davis has alot of good stuff on clothing, arms,and all of the power struggles at Camp Boone.

[MissouriStateGuard]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

From The Lyon Campaign and History of the First Iowa Infantry, by Eugene Ware, 1st Iowa Infantry, published in 1907, pp 207-8:

The people in the neighborhood of Camp Mush [Springfield, MO]... were dressed in the homespun garb of the country. The women here carded wool and cotton together and spun it into yarn. Then they dyed the yarn with walnut or butternut bark; it was called "butternut"; then it was woven on home-made looms into cloth. The cloth was then dyed again, and became a reddish brown. Only two colors did I see made: a light indigo blue and the "butternut." This cloth was firm and durable... The war put indigo out of the market, and as the other color remained abundant, the rebel uniform for Missouri and Arkansas troops became "butternut"; hence, "butternut" became a synonym for disloyalty.

I will see what other butternut references I can find, too.

V/R,
Kip Lindberg

[MissouriStateGuard]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

Near Nashville, TN, December 1862, from History of the Thirty-sixth Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, during the War of the Rebellion by Lyman Bennett:

The inhabitants had been previously warned against harboring "bushwackers"... Every trooper knows the nature of such service. Many hundred times have they seen from one to three gaunt specimens of the genus "butternut," often shoeless, hatless, and coatless, break for the nearest timber on the approach of cavalry to some suspected house...

Kip Lindberg

[Seamus]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

I've seen a pre-war reference to butternut that also carried an uncomplimentary tone. speaking of volunteers involved in the Okeechobee Expedition during the Third Seminole War in Florida. In the summer of 1857 one observer noted "a sorry looking set of ragamuffins alongside of Uncle Sam's troops [the regulars]. Nearly all of them shook with the ague, were raw-boned, had yellow, emaciated faces and were clad in home-dyed butternut suits. Their hair was long, thin, and straight. Their head coverings were old broad-brimmed hats. Mounted on wretched-looking beasts, both men and animals appeared as if they were in the last stages of consumption. The morning they came into Fort Center they resembled a ragged funeral procession. The animals were picketed to ropes the men carried with them and they talked to their horses in a confidential manner about rations."
Account of Captain James Murphy published in the Philadelphia Times, 1886.
It seems that many times when butternut is mentioned, it is somewhat derogatory.

James Permane

[roundshot]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

This description of the 5th Kentucky and their clothing/arms in 1861 is quite interesting and corroborates the initial post:

“ . . . On the 1st of November 1861 Brigadier General Humphrey Marshall was sent by the Confederate Government to take command of certain troops at Prestonburg, Ky., then under the command of Colonel John S. Williams. These consisted of a regiment and a battalion on the bank of the Big Sandy . . . The regiment was the 5th Kentucky, the famous ‘Ragamuffin Regiment’ composed almost exclusively of mountain men, and one of the finest corps of soldiers ever enlisted in the army. They were hardy, raw-boned brave mountaineers, trained to hardships and armed with long rifles . . .”

“It was a very severe winter, and Marshall’s men were poorly clad, and many of the soldiers were nearly naked. One regiment had 350 barefooted men and not over 100 blankets for 700 men.General Albert Sidney Johnston . . . sent them one thousand suits of clothes, including hats and shoes. These supplies reached the army at Whitesburg, Ky. . . When the quartermaster distributed the clothes among the soldiers, it was noticed they examined with suspicion the peculiar color and texture of the cloth. General Marshall discovering that it was cotton, and fearing the result of such a discovery by the men, rose to the occasion by a stirring speech . . . and relieved their fears as to the quality of the goods by assuring them they were ‘woven out of the best quality of Southern wool, with which, doubtless, many of the Kentuckians were not acquainted.’ The men took the general’s word for it (with a grain of salt) and walked off to their quarters with their cottonade suits . . . the army was not only badly clothed, but in general badly armed. Many of the men carried only shot guns and squirrel rifles . . .”

From “ Marshall and Garfield in Eastern Kentucky, Battles and Leaders of the CW,” Vol. I, pp. 393-394.

[arthurlee]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

This answers an earlier post of mine regarding the issue of cotton uniforms. Though considered of a lesser quality, cotton seems to have been used more often than is represented in our events today. I have read the account of undyed cotton in "The Life of Johnny Reb", but found little in the way of outfits that were issued dyed cotton uniforms. I will keep looking. I have heard family discussions about using an old cast iron pot for boiling and dying cloths "back in the old days". I still have the old pot.

Art Maxwell
Shepherd TX.

[boozie]

Re: Butter - Nut Jeans

This answers an earlier post of mine regarding the issue of cotton uniforms. Though considered of a lesser quality, cotton seems to have been used more often than is represented in our events today. I have read the account of undyed cotton in "The Life of Johnny Reb", but found little in the way of outfits that were issued dyed cotton uniforms. I will keep looking. I have heard family discussions about using an old cast iron pot for boiling and dying cloths "back in the old days". I still have the old pot.

Art Maxwell
Shepherd TX.

Art,

Pick up a copy of "Cadet Gray and Butternut Brown" by Thomas M. Arliskas. The questions of supply, manufacture, materials, and the diffrent dyes used is great. It pertains mainly to the uniforms of the ANV & AoT, I only wish they had something a little more on the Trans Miss, but, otherwise is a very good book on Confederate uniforms.

Respectifully,