Great Coat Documentation

[Sanssouci]

Gents,

Is there documentation of CS troops using/wearing US great coats? If so, can someone point me in the right direction.

Very Respectfully,
John Turner

[AZReenactor]

Re: Great Coat Documentation

Yes there is, as well as documentation of them not wearing them.

But heck, there is documentation of US soldiers wearing captured CS jackets too. With anything like this time, place, specific circumstances, and the particular impression you wish to recreate are paramount.

[lukegilly13]

Re: Great Coat Documentation

What theater/year are you looking for? I have several pieces of documentation in my library/study at home....I can post this afternoon!

[MickCole]

Re: Great Coat Documentation

See http://www.murfreesboropost.com/news.php?viewStory=7494 for the fate of one Southern patriot caught wearing a Federal greatcoat that had been dyed by his own mother.
Mick Cole
37th VA Co. E

[Edwin Carl Erwin]

Re: Great Coat Documentation

John,

The following excerpt regarding Federal coat capture & usage by troops of Walker's Texas Division is drawn from the letters of Virgil Sullivan Rabb, Captain, Co. "I", 16th Texas Infantry, C.S.A.

"Camp on Bayou Flacon. La., July 9th/64
...I still have my old Pony so I can ride whenever I want to. He is a great institution to have along. You see, I can ride him and also carry all of my Blankets on him. I have got me a splendid Fed overcoat which I am going to have for winter. If I had it in Texas now I could get $75 dollars for it. The Boys got a good many of them in our fight at Milikens Bend."

The Battle of Milliken's Bend (7th June 1863) was part of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi efforts to relieve Vicksburg. www.nps.gov/vick/vcmpgn/la_bttl/mlknsbnd.htm

https://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lamadiso/articles/battle_of_millikens_bend.htm

How you doin' Marine? Happy Christmas to you & yours!

Regards,

[Edwin Carl Erwin]

Re: Great Coat Documentation

From the journal of A. B. Peticolas, Co. C, 4th Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers.

Peticolas receives a Federal overcoat taken at the Battle of Valverde,
"Saturday, 22 February 1862
We took supper last night on provisions abandoned by the Abs in their flight...Davis got two horses and 3 overcoats. He gave me a horse and overcoat...We got about 130 stand of small arms, several six-shooters, and a considerable number of cast-off overcoats. Williams found a silver watch and overcoat"

Warm in the snow.
"Thursday, 13 March 1862
Woke this morning with beds covered over an inch deep in snow...I got in one of the large wagons belonging to Burgess' train, and with my feet plunged into a mess of blankets and my overcoat on, I spent the time very comfortably."

Peticolas' wearing of the captured overcoat saves him from capture/death in the Battle of Glorieta, when he is mistaken for a Federal Captain by the commander of the Federal left.
"Friday, 28 March 1862
Now I must tell just here of a very singular incident that befell me. I was in the extreme left of the charging party...I thought that the enemy had been forced back...I was thus slowly advancing…was loading my gun when on turning 1/2 around...saw that I was in two feet of 100 men, all strangers to me. Another glance...convinced me that they were Pikes Peakers and enemy. Before I could act upon this conviction; in fact before I had decided what to do with 50 men looking at me and possessing the power to riddle me with pistol balls or minie balls or plunge a bayonet in me-the major of the enemy nearest me…said, looking straight into my face, “you had better look out, Capt., or those fellows will shoot you.” Now though I knew that he referred to our men and mistook me for some on his own side, I felt puzzled to say anything save to look inquiringly at him and ask,” Who will?”…He answered, Why, those fellows over yonder,” pointing in the direction of our boys. “There are two or three of them over there shooting at us.” “Is there,” said I; “Then I’ll go over that way and take a shot at them.” I started off with my gun at charge bayonets, walking cautiously…and as I thus walked off, I looked anew over my shoulder at the man who had been talking to me. He was watching me very closely and I felt some uneasiness lest he should shoot me in the back as I went off, but his honest eyes looked no suspicion, and in a dozen steps further I was out of sight and over in our own lines once more. I felt joyous that I was not a prisoner and thanking an overriding Providence for my escape.”

Peticolas looses the overcoat on the return to Texas.
“Saturday, 19 April 1862
At last we reached the main camp…I was leading our packhorse and lost blankets, overcoats, and everything that was under the pack."

[Guy Gane III]

Re: Great Coat Documentation

I posted this reply on Szabo's. Saw that the same question was asked here, so here is my response...

I heartily advise picking up "Cadet Gray and Butternut Brown" 'Notes on Confederate Uniforms' by Thomas M Arliskas. Chapter 2, Part 4 (pages 63-66covers this question extensively.

As most of us know, the supplying of the CS army was shakey at best. Too many men and too few ways to procure all the necessary equipment. In a pinch, why not turn to the most well-supplied army in the field... the US army!
(My comments are in parenthesis...)

(Page 63):
"Rosecrans suggested in a letter dated December 10, 1862 (to Gen. Bragg), "that to prevent [any further] mistakes otherwise avoidable, it is highly desirable that your troops should at once be required to wear some badge to distinguish themselves from citizens."

Bragg's response was the ultimate contemporary Civil War comeback. It read: "As to your suggestion that our troops should be more particularly distinguished from citizens by a well defined uniform, I will merely state that we aim to clothe them as uniformly as the exigencies of our situation will permit. Whenever you afford us the facilities to obtain the requisite material, we shall be most happy to make the desired change. In the meantime, we shall use the best to be procured!"

(What musketballs!!! hahahaha )

(Page 63):
...Scarcity of clothing that winter led to a black market trade among the CS camps in Tullahoma for US goods and uniform items. A private in the 33rd Alabama remembered: There was a class of men with us who would rob the dead and did so at Murfreesboro... (cont. on page 64) ..."and [there were] those who had not picked up a US blanket, good black hat, BLUE OVERCOAT, or a shelter tent could usually buy such cheap if needed of men who had more than one."

(Page 64):
Another Confederate soldier, one year later in December 1863, said that, "Federal overcoats were selling for $200 to $300," among the men of the 15th Arkansas Infantry of Cleburne's Division."


(To wear these, also came retribution from Federal officers and soldiers... they would be treated as spies, if caught. The following order was essentially aimed at the CS guerilla forces who would actually use the captured stuff to intentionally mislead US troops.)

Out of the Adjutant Generals' office in Washington came General Order No. 100, the following April, stating under Section 63: "Troops who fight in the uniforms of their enemies, without any plain striking or uniform mark of distinction of their own, can expect no quarter."

(Page 65/66):
...Historical references exist in Confederate letters and diaries to Federal clothing being altered. Union OVERCOATS and pants which were a light blue colored wool were easily re-dyed, and sometimes the buttons were removed and CS issue buttons were substituted. A common method for dying in the field was to soak the clothing in an oozing vat of water stained with walnut hulls, butternut bark, coffee, or rusty iron. A shade of brown from mustard to cinnamon would be the result.


There you go... hope that helps and for gosh sake, please pick up the above book. It's roughly less than $20 and distributed by Thomas Publications, Gettysburg, PA.

Happy holidays!!!