Federal use of captured Confederate Garments/Equipment

[Eric Burke]

I know Bob Streamer breeds on the fact that rebs occasionally picked up Federal gear, but my question has to do with the opposite. Charles Wills (8th IL) mentions several times Jeff Thompson's troopers dropping hats, weapons, equipment, gear, etc. on the run, and in fact also mentions the capture of extremely large amounts of equipment, food, and gear after the capture of New Madrid.

He mentions, "We also got a big lot of ammunition, lots of mules and wagons, and the boys are now fishing out of the river whole boxes of quartermaster's goods ---clothing, blankets, etc., that the secesh rolled in as they ran. The general is better satisfied than if he had taken them prisoners."

My question is, what becomes of all of these supplies? How much of it was actually picked up/used by Federal soldiers? Obviously the supplies were not thin during alot of the Western Federal campaign, so there wasn't any direct depserate need for these supplies, but still I'm baffled as to how they were used? Was everything but the ammunition disposed of in some way? Are there any accounts of Federals using Confederate gear in the field?

I apologize if this topic has been brought up before, but with the recent loss of the post archive, I'm kind of at a loss ...

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Federal use of captured Confederate Garments/Equipment

"When we struck the crest I never halted, for my mind was set on some rebel knapsack... ...I found an opportuntity to make a good choice of knapsacks, as the ground was literaly covered with them as though the rebels had been perfectly panic stricken, and in their haste to get away had divested themselves of every pound of wieght they could possibly spare. After looking over a few I chose one which I thought would supply all my needs. Upon examiningmy prize I found a good government blanket, two shirts, two pairs of drawers, a pair of light summer pants, a night cap, a plug of tobacco, and a cornpone."

Levi Wagner
1st Ohio
After the Battle of Missionary Ridge


"...the first thing I did after the rebels skedaddled was grab a full haversack and jerk it off a wounded rebel captains neck. He was shot in the shoulder and his hand lay on the open mouth of the haversack on the downhill side. I opened it and divided its contents with my comrades. It was saturated with the rebel captains blood, but we ate it all the same."

Sgt. Thomas Ford
24th Wisconsin
After the Battle of Missionary Ridge


Hon E. M. Stanton:

Permission is requested to ship thirty cases of condemned (CS) muskets per ship Suprise to Hong Kong sailing Saturday (From San Fransico). Please answer emmediatly.

A Baldwin Co.
S.F. CA.
July 1, 1863

[marlin teat]

Re: Federal use of captured Confederate Garments/Equipment

There was an article in the Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune dated June 20, 1943 that reported the finding of "several hundred old Civil War canteens" buried in a gully near the Coosa River. Unfortunatly there was very little description other than that they could not be used because they all had "small holes in them". I've never been able to track down any of these and assume that they were melted down for scrap during WWII.

If these were indeed C.W. era canteens they were probably punctured to keep them from being re-used.