On the West...

[Mcouioui]

I would like to know if somebody has statistics on the proportions, (a percentage), of jacket roundabout or other, frock coat, Schuylkill Arsenal Fatigue and the other contract blouse, etc. In the federal army on the West?
Thank you in advance for your answers!:)

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: On the West...

Hallo!

IMHO, that is a big answer to a small question, between several states, the federal government, and an 1861-1865 time frame... so I will start with some 1861 Ohio references:

"Clothing the Department of the Ohio"

On April 23, 1861, General George B. McClellan wrote from Columbus Ohio to Lieut. Gen. Winfield Scott a letter describing conditions in the command that had just been offered him by the War Department. Among other things, McClellan asked General Scott for staff officers, and particularly a Quartermaster officer, naming Capt. John H. Dickerson, explaining:

I find myself general, in the position of a command with nothing but men-neither arms or supplies. (1)

The request was granted and Dickerson soon found himself at Cincinnati Ohio, headquarters of the newly created Department of the Ohio.

Headquarters, Department of the Ohio,
Cincinnati, Ohio,
May 13, 1861,
General Orders, No 1,

By General Orders, No. 14, dated War Department, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, May 3, 1861, the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois have been embodied in a new military department called the Department of the Ohio, the distinguished honor of commanding which has been assigned to the undersigned, who hereby assumes command.
All reports required by the Army Regulations will hereafter be forwarded to the headquarters of the Department of the Ohio.

Geo. B. McClellan,
Major General (2)

On May 10, 1861, Dickerson, already in Cincinnati, received the following from E. S. Sibley, acting Quartermaster General.

Capt. John H. Dickerson
A. A. Quartermaster
Cincinnati, Ohio
May 10th, 1861

Sir;

I have received your letter of the 4th instant and have required a remittance in favor of the Assistant Treasurer of the United States in New York of $30,000, to be placed to your credit, for the service of the Quarter Masters Department. This is all that can be supplied at this time, owing to the exhausted state of our appropriations and the lack of money in the treasury.
When funds are required, an estimate in detail should be forwarded. No part of this remittance can be applied to the purchase of clothing, as the money appropriated for that object has all, or nearly all, been drawn from the treasury. (3)

Realizing that Ohio volunteers needed clothing, Ohio Governor William Dennison offered Dickerson a position with the Ohio Quartermasters Department, heretofore much of state clothing procurement having been done by Dennison himself.

Columbus, May 3,

Gov. Dennison has appointed Captain Dickerson, USA, Quartermaster General and Captain Burns, USA Commissary General of the State forces. They exercise the active duties of these positions, while at the same time they exercise similar functions in relation to the Ohio volunteers mustered into the US service. (4)

Because of criticism of the efforts made by the Ohio Quartermaster's office from newspaper editors and others, a military board was formed in early June 1861 for the further procurement of supplies. Cincinnati Commercial Agent, and former wool merchant, A. D. Bullock was appointed Assistant Quartermaster of Ohio. Bullock related what happened in his testimony before a Congressional committee investigating the purchase of army supplies in March 1862.

Before my attention was called to the matter by the authorities at Columbus the business was transacted here by the United States Quartermaster, Captain Dickerson. there appeared to be considerable newspaper talk, and considerable complaint from camp in regard to the quality of goods furnished by Dickerson. The governor requested me to act as such an agent, and in that capacity I first acted. (5)

Several contracts signed by Dickerson are recorded in the Ohio State Contract Book for 1861, Series 1382, of the Ohio Adjutant Generals Records housed at the Ohio Historical Society. Only one advertisement however, has been found placed by him during this period as a dual procurement officer.

Ad to contractors:

Sealed proposals for 2,500 blouses, pairs Pants, pairs Drawers, Hats, Blankets, 5,000 Shirts, 5,000 pairs Socks. These supplies must conform in every particular to the supplies in my office at no. 34 Broadway.
Jno. Dickerson
Lt. Col. and Asst. QM Gen'tl OVM (6)

Dickerson later explained his method.

Q. Will you state in the manner in which supplies have been generally procured by your department in this city: whether by contract, open purchase in the market, or by requisition on particular parties?
A. Supplies have generally been procured by me by purchase in the open market. I have made but few contracts for anything. When supplies have been wanted, I have generally advertised to get the lowest market price, and then distributed my orders among parties dealing in the kind of supplies wanted. If I want thirty-thousand suits of clothes, I advertise for say, five thousand suits. The lowest responsible bidder gets the amount called for in the advertisement, and the remainder wanted is distributed among the clothing houses which do the best work, at the same prices at which the award was made. (7)

By late June or early July, Dickerson was procuring clothing for the USQMD only:

June 14, 1861

Sir;

A remittance has been required in your favor of $141,000 for the service of the Quarter Master's Department on your estimate for the present month.

M. E. Meigs
QuarterMaster Genl. (8)

It should be noted that in Quartermaster Support of the Army, Erna Risch makes mention that a special session of the Congress convened in June 1861, in order to allocate funds for purchases by the Quartermasters Department.

By August, Dickerson was requested by Genl. Meigs to provide clothing to Ohio regiments being organized. Two letters in Series 147, dated August 9, outline suggestions for the governor by Dickerson, on how to direct mustering officers to supply him with the names of both field and staff of regiments mustering into service in order to provide both clothing and camp equipage (see Series 147-4: 78 and 79).

On August 24, 1861, Dickerson again wrote to Dennison stating that starting on August 26, he would commence issuing knives, forks, spoons, tin cups, and plates. and that he would issue these items as fast as possible without interfering with the issuing of other supplies. Dickerson advised Dennison that he was not only responsible for volunteers organizing in Ohio camps, but also with the army in Western Virginia, as well as volunteers organizing in Indiana. He requested of Dennison to make demands in such a way as to advise him of where there was the most pressing needs for goods. He stated that Genl. Rosecrans requisition was for 20,000 men and that there were nineteen regiments of Indiana troops to be supplied. He also made mention that he would be able to send several thousand overcoats to Western Virginia during the next week (see Series 147-5: 123).

Capt. John H. Dickerson
Cincinnati, Ohio
August 20, 1861

Telegraph

Fill governor Dennison's Requisition for tin cups, plates, iron spoons, knives, and forks-charge to appropriations for equipping troops.

Signed,
M. C. Meigs
QuarterM. General (9)

It is unclear at this time as to what degree Dickerson supplied Indiana volunteers with clothing and equipage. Indiana's Governor O. P. Morton in late August, received a letter from Meigs advising him that Major Alexander Montgomery had been ordered to Indianapolis in order to assist or take over procurement for volunteers by the Federal government. Until this time, Indiana had provided for her volunteers, at least at their initial camps of instruction.

Captain Montgomery had arrived in Cincinnati on July 7, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, ordered to act as an assistant QM to Dickerson. The facts regarding his promotion and the exact duties of his new assignment are not as yet completely understood. In another installment of this series, I hope to include a complete listing of contracts made in Indianapolis for this period which are listed in House Executive Document 101. Of some note is that the very first contracts signed by Montgomery, in late August 1861, were let in Cincinnati.


In November of 1861, The Department of the Ohio was re-organized under Genl. Buell (General Orders 97, 9 November 1861). Col. Thomas Swords was sent to Louisville from Fort Scott, and assumed command as Quartermaster General of the Department.

Captain John H. Dickerson continued on as Chief Quartermaster of the newly established principle depot at Cincinnati.

Abstract of clothing and camp equipage purchased at Cincinnati, Ohio, by Capt. Jno. Dickerson, A. Q. M., U. S. A., from May 22 to December 28, 1861, inclusive.

33,000 hats
90,000 caps and covers
185,000 blue kersey pants
20,000 reinforced pants
165,000 blouses, lined
15,000 cavalry jackets
5,000 artillery jackets
159,700 pairs, pegged shoes
128,595 regulation 5 lb. blankets
225,000 pairs of drawers, canton and flannel
235,000 shirts
93,600 infantry overcoats
7,750 cavalry overcoats
375,000 pairs of stockings
65,200 knapsacks and straps
80,000 canteens and straps
94,000 haversacks
3,200 wall tents, pins and poles, complete
5,677 bell tents, pins and poles, complete
3,624 Sibley tents, pins and poles, complete
300 hospital tents, pins and poles, complete
14,000 camp kettles
35,000 mess pans
13,800 axes and handles
13,800 picks and handles
13,800 spades
13,800 hatchets and handles
17,000 pairs of boots
45,000 regulation frock coats
25,000 not regulation

John Dickerson,
Captain and A. Q. M. (10)

List of prices of clothing and camp equipage and garrison equipage issued to the troops in the "Department of the Ohio" previous to the 31st of July 1861.

Hats.............................................. ......................$ 1.00
Blouses, lined............................................. ...........$ 3.12 1/2
Pants, gray satinet........................................... ..... $ 2.60
Shirts, gray mixed............................................. .....$ 1.32
Drawers, gray mixed............................................. ..$ . 54
Blankets.......................................... .....................$ 1.75


Price list from 31 July to 30 September shows;
Black hats, both felt and wool
Caps and cover
Pants, dark blue kersey, light blue kersey, light blue kersey, reinforced.
Blouse lined
Blouse unlined
Drawers gray, mixed
Drawers cotton flannel
Canteens with leather straps
Canteens with duck straps
Knives
Forks
Spoons
Tin cup
Tin plate

Prices since 30 September, following also mentioned
Overcoats, blue satinet
Overcoats, steel mixed
Overcoats cavalry (11)

(1) OR's, Series 1, Vol. 3, Pg. 333.
(2) " " " Pg. 376.
(3) NARA Publications, M-745, Roll 36, Pg. 364 entry 127/382.
(4) Cincinnati Daily Commercial, May 4, 1861 Pg. 1.
(5) Serial Set, Vol. 1143, Pg. 939
(6) Cincinnati Daily Commercial, June 5, 1861 Pg. 2.
(7) Serial Set, Vol. 1143, Pg. 743
(8) NARA Publications, M-745, Roll 37, Pg.440, entry 411/447.
(9) " " " Pg. 737
(10) Serial Set, Vol. 1143, Pg. 747
(11) " " " Pg. 748

One note; an article published by Cincinnati USMSK (United States Military Storekeeper) Captain Gill in Nov. 1861, outlines in a tabular statement what exactly had been issued from his warehouses as opposed to what had been purchased and in storage. The one important point from this is that under blouses, he mentions that right around 100,000 had been issued from the warehouse to the date of the article, which again was in November. During the same period, only 12,000 uniform coats had been issued. From early November to late December, some 35,000 uniform coats were added to the list, or on hand not accounted for in this notice. Overwhelmingly, the garment available to the soldiers of the National Army in Western Virginia, was the humble blouse.

Curt
Ohayah Esoterica Mess

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: On the West...

Hallo!

And a passing snippet on Illinois:

The Quatermaster General reports from April 26, 1861 to July 1862, "...the following items within the principal categories were purchased: 25,044 dress hats, and 9,080 brass figures and letters; 59,172 caps, 3,432 cap covers with capes (havelocks); 19,046 frock coats; 64,412 jackets; 11,072 blouses; 112,287 pairs of pants; 21,878 pairs of boots; 93,148 pairs of shoes; 72,866 overcoats; 95,967 woolen blankets; 20,637 enameled or rubber blankets; 35,223 knapsacks; 45,925 haversacks; 54,740 canteens."

Illinois continued to order and issue clothing on its own at least through 1862, even after the Feds asked the state to turn over all property on hand in September 1862.

Curt
Not an Illinoian mess

[mslaird]

Re: On the West...

Curt,

Thanks for the information concerning Illinois. I have been looking for this information myself.

[Mcouioui]

Re: On the West...

Thanks to you for this big answer:wink_smil:cry_smile:tounge_sm

It is correct, to say, that blouses takes away the "golden palm" and it dices the beginning of the conflict for Ohio?
While for the Illinois, approximately 20 % of frock coats; 68 % of jackets and 12 % of blouses?

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: On the West...

Perhaps my bulb is short a few watts today, but what is the "Federal army on the West"?

Federal forces in New Mexico? In the Trans-Miss? Between the Appalaichin Mountains and the Mississippi River?

[Mcouioui]

Re: On the West...

You are right to underline that to say, front, it is not so simple...:wink_smil
I try to make an idea on all " these western fronts "...
If it is common to say that in the East, the blouse takes him.
Can we say on the West (generally) the ....... take him?
Or it is too much complicated to establish one generality?

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: On the West...

Hallo!

Herr Kevin...

He does far better asking in English, than I could ask in French. ;)
C'est vrai, mes amis.

Curt
Pauvre Soldat du Guerre Civile Mess

[Mcouioui]

Re: On the West...

I understood all that you have write in French, but I am not still sure that we indeed understand everything that I write in English, not as well as I understand your French in any cases...
We have, a language of barbarian we French, but we are small and kind:), safe in our car there we become again barbarians:angry_smi:D

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: On the West...

Hallo!

You are doing just fine, mon Ami!

Curt
Je suis désolé que deux années de High School "Français," et hurler insultes à travers la No Man's Land, seulement va si loin Mess

Bon Curt

[Mcouioui]

Re: On the West...

Merci Curt!!!

It is already "enormous" your French Curt.
I did not like English to the school, I preferred the Latin and Italian, especially I did not love my professors of English (too British).:cry_smile
I recovered in English ten years ago for the CW, necessary for Drill and for ten years I travel in the world for the work, the holidays and the hobby a lot, English is inescapable, you have the chance to have English as to speak about nursery school, Certainly, French is a very beautiful language, but that beauty does not make everything.:wink_smil
Otherwise when I have a doubt with words by writing, there are the on-line translators …:wink_smil