High-Resolution Selections from Confederate Prisoner Groups

[1stMo Drummer]

Re: High-res selections from Confederate prisoner groups

Johan,
As far as your refrence to the "myth of the ragged reb" I have to dis-agree...I have read many acounts of the ragged reb from various sources.
One which always comes to mind is how civilians could tell the rout taken by the southerners on the march to Franklin by the bloody foot-prints in the snow...Also another, which I cant for the life of me remember where I read it, was of the Missouri Brigade when a witness saw them march past they stated that they had Not seen such a rag-tag group of men, with very little clothing and most without shoes, looking very un-soldier like...
Then again it could be that I have spent FAR more time reading and studying the Missoura Confederates than any others, who seem to have not been issued clothing/footwear as other units.
Just my .02 cents.

[Pvt. Middleton]

Re: High-res selections from Confederate prisoner groups

Really like these pics!! thanks for posting!

[FortyRounder]

Re: High-res selections from Confederate prisoner groups

The hat brass on the Federal troops is really striking to me. I know it goes back to the unit and time you are portraying, but the more pics I look through, the more I am seeing it. I wonder if the guards in these are more of a "rear echelo0n" type. The Five Forks photo looks to have artillery brass. The photo from Aldie the Feds look to have the horns on their caps.

And yes, the one Federal guard looks to be smiling.

One often sees images of the Heavy Artillery wearing insignia in the field. My guess is that they wanted to set themselves off from the "ordinary" infantry.

[FortyRounder]

Re: High-res selections from Confederate prisoner groups

I would venture to say that the Fed arty guys with the hat brass are probably from a heavy artillery unit....and thus probably have not seen much action compared to veteran infantry regiments.

I love these scans. Thanks to all for doing them.

Mike Willey
late of the 49th Ohio and Coffee-coolers

By Five Forks the Heavy Artillery regiments with Grant's army had seen as much action as just about anyone (Cold Harbor, Petersburg assaults, etc). There were comparatively few vets of '61-'63 left in the ranks of the infantry. For reference see Col. Wainwright's account of the Grand Review in A Diary of Battle when he says that most of the men had been in the service for less than a year. The Western theater, where casualties were generally lower, was a different matter, but the Army of the Potomac man who lasted through all four years was a rare bird indeed.

[PogueMahone]

Re: High-res selections from Confederate prisoner groups

I noticed the majority of hats had the crowns punched up. You can see the line where they were shaped to fold in at the crown.

I've discovered that it helps keep the head dry during a rainstorm to punch up the crown. The water doesn't collect in the crown and soak through so bad. I have wondered if it made the hat cooler in the summer, and have tried it, but haven't reached that conclusion solidly yet.

Something we don't see enough of at events. We spend so much on the hat, we hate to ruin the shape.

[Gallinipper]

Re: High-res selections from Confederate prisoner groups

So true about "conditioning" the hats. Plus, I'd venture to say most LHs aren't sleeping outside in the yard 7 days out of the week either. A felt hat will tend to break down surprisingly fast at that rate. It would be great to see a photo enlargement of the Cold Harbor prisoners. There appear to be some really beat up hats and caps in that image, plus a good deal of hat cords too.

It's also interesting how bloused trousers show up in the "Punch Bowl" photos, now that it has been sufficiently magnified.

[18thredneck]

Re: High-res selections from Confederate prisoner groups

Facinating photos, seen them and similar before of course but the high res blow ups open a whole new ball game. The old magnifying glass simply don't cut it.
Can't help but notice that the boys look (reasonably) fit and well fed, especially on the Five Forks photo (although they have plenty of kit with them therefore could be deceiving). Not much emaciation to be seen in any of the photos though that would separate these men physically from any other photos from the 19th Century, civvi or military. Makes a good case against poor supply to the ANV.

Great work with the photos Sir, my prowess with photo technology wouldn't be too dissimilar to the guys in the photos. With that in mind, would it be rude to request more of the same?

Thanks
Darren Bond
18th VA
UK