Canteen questions

[The Chesterfield Rifleman]

Hello,
I have a few questiins about canteen usage in the ANV. I recall an article was written, and posted, about this specific topic. My question is, what was the federal, confederate canteen ratios in the ANV from 63-64? If someone has this article of knows where it is, I would love to read it.

Also, what was the ratio of smoothside to bullseye federal canteens in the ANV 63-64?

Thanks,
All the Best

[Jim S]

Re: Canteen questions

Hi Rifleman,

I'm not familiar with such an article, but establishing a ratio of US/CS canteens in the ANV is problematic for a number of reasons. Photos are not going to give you a big enough sample, and ordnance records are not descriptive enough to be of use. And if you'll forgive me for saying it, trying to figure out an army-wide ratio is the wrong way to look at the problem, because even if you could find an answer, it wouldn't tell you a thing about any particular unit.

The number of US/CS canteens in a regiment would vary depending on a number of factors. How many battles has the unit been in and were there opportunities for pick-ups? How long since then? How many relatively new men are there in the regiment? These are all going to vary quite a bit.

Take the 9th VA, for example. If you're trying to picture them at say, Bermuda Hundred in the summer of '64, it might be reasoned that they would have fewer US canteens than regiments in some other divisions. The 9th missed Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. Before that it's very doubtful they benefited from Gettysburg at all. Before that, they missed Chancellorsville while at Suffolk with Longstreet. At Fredericksburg, they were on a quiet sector of the line. At Antietam they were kept busy running back and forth all day. It's possible that the last time the men of the 9th had a big chance to pick up Federal gear was 2nd Manassas. That's two years ago. On top of that, consider how the ranks had to be built back up after Gettysburg, and how many conscripts and long detailed men were joining the regiment.

On the other hand, a regiment in Rodes' Division that had picked up all they could need at Chancellorsville, and again with some chance on day one at Gettysburg, and present in the Wilderness, might have a lot more.

To throw a monkey wrench in all this is the possibility for issue through official channels of captured and recycled US canteens, but since records pretty much always just say "canteens", there's absolutely no way of knowing whether a regiment was issued any.

I hope some of this was helpful. I'd be interested in seeing this article, too. But if it's like some I've seen where someone tries to calculate the ratio of a particular item based on a photo or two, usually of unidentified units, I'd be cautious about considering it definitive.

For smoothside vs. bulls eye, I'd guess that it was about the same as the ratio in the Federal army. What that was someone else will need to answer.

[The Chesterfield Rifleman]

Re: Canteen questions

Jim,
Thank you very much. I will definetly look more into this.

All the Best

[Jimmayo]

Re: Canteen questions

Since many men of the 9th Va. Inf were captured at Five Forks, check out the picture of the prisoners taken after that battle. While you can not pick out individual men of the 9th you can see what canteen some of the same folks in the division were using.