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Were tents made by the Confederacy with “C.S.” woven into them? How common was this? Has anyone ever seen or found similar documentation suggesting their manufacture or use? If so, what would they have looked like? I submit the following for your thoughts and comments:
According to a book written by Edwin Bears (BATTLE OF, SIEGE OF JACKSON, Gateway Press, Baltimore, 1981) when Grant took Jackson Mississippi during the campaign on Vicksburg, upon occupation of the city, Grant and Sherman apparently walked into a cloth factory engaged in the business of making tent cloth with “CS” woven into it. Using excerpts from Grant’s Memoirs in the book Bears relates the following.....
”During the morning (the 15th) Grant and Sherman visited a large textile factory owned by Joshua dn Thomas Green. The plant manager and the employees, most of whom were women, simply ignored the presence of the two generals and went on working . Looking on, the officers saw the ten-cloth the women were making roll out of the looms with C.S.A. woven into each bolt. Grant meditated on this industrious scene for a few minutes, then turned to Sherman and suggested that the girls had done work enough. The employees were told that they could leave and take with them all the cloth they could carry. It finally dawned on one of the Green brothers that the plant was going to be destroyed. He hastily appeared and remonstrated to the Federals basing his appeal on the fact that his factory “gave employment to very many females and poor families, and that, although it had woven cloth for the enemy, its principal use was in weaving cloth for the people.”
Sherman, no doubt remembering the C.S.A., decided that “machinery of that kind could so easily be converted into hostile uses that the United Stated could better afford compensate the Messers, Green for their property, and feed the poor families thrown out of employment, than to spare the property.” The factory was burned"
By the way, for those that lament the wholesale destruction and tragedy of Sherman’s “March to the Sea” in the fall and winter of 1864/65, I might note that Sherman got ample incendiary/destructive practice in his march across Mississippi in early 1864. He did his work well. From Vicksburg to Meridian nearly every town was burned and there are virtually no Antebellum structures surviving today. In fact, Jackson alone was burned no less than three times earning the nickname “Chineyville” for its post war stark forest landscape of burnt chimneys .
Sorry had to add the above. We Mississippians tend to get lost in the wake of the infamous “March to the Sea.”
Ken R Knopp
According to a book written by Edwin Bears (BATTLE OF, SIEGE OF JACKSON, Gateway Press, Baltimore, 1981) when Grant took Jackson Mississippi during the campaign on Vicksburg, upon occupation of the city, Grant and Sherman apparently walked into a cloth factory engaged in the business of making tent cloth with “CS” woven into it. Using excerpts from Grant’s Memoirs in the book Bears relates the following.....
”During the morning (the 15th) Grant and Sherman visited a large textile factory owned by Joshua dn Thomas Green. The plant manager and the employees, most of whom were women, simply ignored the presence of the two generals and went on working . Looking on, the officers saw the ten-cloth the women were making roll out of the looms with C.S.A. woven into each bolt. Grant meditated on this industrious scene for a few minutes, then turned to Sherman and suggested that the girls had done work enough. The employees were told that they could leave and take with them all the cloth they could carry. It finally dawned on one of the Green brothers that the plant was going to be destroyed. He hastily appeared and remonstrated to the Federals basing his appeal on the fact that his factory “gave employment to very many females and poor families, and that, although it had woven cloth for the enemy, its principal use was in weaving cloth for the people.”
Sherman, no doubt remembering the C.S.A., decided that “machinery of that kind could so easily be converted into hostile uses that the United Stated could better afford compensate the Messers, Green for their property, and feed the poor families thrown out of employment, than to spare the property.” The factory was burned"
By the way, for those that lament the wholesale destruction and tragedy of Sherman’s “March to the Sea” in the fall and winter of 1864/65, I might note that Sherman got ample incendiary/destructive practice in his march across Mississippi in early 1864. He did his work well. From Vicksburg to Meridian nearly every town was burned and there are virtually no Antebellum structures surviving today. In fact, Jackson alone was burned no less than three times earning the nickname “Chineyville” for its post war stark forest landscape of burnt chimneys .
Sorry had to add the above. We Mississippians tend to get lost in the wake of the infamous “March to the Sea.”
Ken R Knopp
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