Question about brogans?

[the Tennessee Confederate]

I am looking for brogans issued and used in the Army of Tennessee. I have seen a brogan called the New Orleans kip brogan but I don't know if it was issued through out the war. Would it be a good brogan for a in general confederate AoT impression or just a early war impression? My main question is what brogans were used in the western theater, particularly the Army of Tennessee? Thanks in advance.

[rmilstead]

Re: Question about brogans?

Hunter,
While I am sure that there may be exceptions I would presume that by mid war a lot of the domestically produced "Depot" shoes for the AOT were coming out of the government manufacturing facility in Atlanta. In April 1863 a report from the head of the Clothing Bureau in Atlanta estimated that in the next year they would produce 130,000 pairs for Army (as compared to Richmond's estimate of 125,000). Columbus and other Deep South Clothing Bureaus such as Athens and Selma may also have been sources but I do not have data on them. Also throughout the 1863-1864 period the CS QM was importing truly huge numbers from England through the Blockade. In October 1863 Alexander Lawton, the Quartermaster General requested that his agent in England purchase 300,000 pairs of shoes for the Army. Records from the period indicate that while many of the attempted shipments through the Blockade were intercepted by Federal Naval forces, large numbers still made it through to either Charleston or Wilmington for Army use.

If I were considering shoes for a mid to late war AOT impression I would tend, therefore, to choose either Atlanta Depot (before mid 1864) or English (mid 1863 through the end of the War) unless you have specific documentation relating to the unit you are portraying. Also remember in active service shoes were quickly "rubbed out" so often that non Depot foot ware was worn by necessity.

Just my $0.02. Others opinions may vary.

Dick Milstead
Hardaway's Alabama Battery
The Company of Military Historians

[the Tennessee Confederate]

Re: Question about brogans?

Thanks for the help.

[the Tennessee Confederate]

Re: Question about brogans?

Does anyone have pictures of original brogans used in this theater of the war. thanks.

[Darby24]

Re: Question about brogans?

There is also many newspaper clippings of army shoes for sale. These adds started prewar all the way to the end. What I'm saying is the federal issue Jefferson bootee's would have been very common in civilian use and would say also in confederate use as well. More so then what we think.

[the Tennessee Confederate]

Re: Question about brogans?

As far as the Jefferson bootee, doe's that refer to federal captured or just the type of brogan? Sorry if it sounds dumb but I've not searched enough on brogans.

Thanks

[Darby24]

Re: Question about brogans?

Jefferson bootee's is the style of shoe that the federal army issued. They started making them in the 1850s.

[Regimental Colours]

Re: Question about brogans?

Click on the following link for a short article on Confederate footgear with photographs.

http://26nc.org/blog/

[the Tennessee Confederate]

Re: Question about brogans?

Thanks for the help.

Adam, that's a good read. A question I had after reading this is, are the Columbus shoes it mentions the same as the Georgia depot shoes or is the Georgia depot brogans identified to another depot?

[rmilstead]

Re: Question about brogans?

Hunter,

A little quick research and yes there was a shoe "Factory" associated with the Columbus Depot run by Francis W. Dillard the AQM who was in charge of all of the operations there. I checked Dillard's service records enough to verify that he was dealing in a lot of shoe leather and sending finished shoes to other AQM's. Apparently it was in operation until April 1865 when the facilities in Columbus were apparently destroyed by Federal forces. Some indication of it's size is given by Harold Wilson in "Confederate Industry" (pg 222) which indicates that the Union troops removed 8000 pairs of shoes from the Factory which were distributed to "troops and negroes or destroyed". The number of 130,000 pairs quoted above (and shown in Jensen Part 1) is specifically for Atlanta and is the estimate made in April 1863 for the projected output through April 1864 from that facility. If Atlanta worked the same way as Richmond and Columbus that would say that they had a large production capability run by the Government's Quartermaster Department there as well. Could Athens (the other Government Depot in GA) have had a shoe making capability as well? Possibly and the Georgia State Government may also have made shoes for its troops. Incidentally, Atlanta obviously was captured in early September 1864. I am not sure whether the "shops" there moved their operations elsewhere before the City fell but assume some of it did.

Not exactly an answer to your question but I hope it helps. Unfortunately loose terms like "Columbus Brogans" really are just common terminology and are not necessarily historically correct.

Dick Milstead
Hardaway's Alabama Battery
The Company of Military Historians

[GenuineInformation]

Re: Question about brogans?

The following passage was excerpted from E. Merton Coulter's "The Confederate States of America, 1861-1865," Vol. 7, p. 210 (LSU Press, 1950).

"The problem of providing shoes for soldiers, as well as for civilians, was never completely solved. Leather was always scarce, largely because of the carelessness of people in not saving the hides of slaughtered animals; but of the amount produced, the government requisitioned two thirds. Much of the leather came from Tennessee as long as the Confederates controlled that region. Contracts for shoes were made with private factories, which were aided by government exemption of cobblers from military service. The Quartermaster Department ran a shoe factory in Richmond which was producing 800 pairs a day in June, 1864; but the largest establishment of this kind in the Confederacy was in Columbus, Georgia, where 5,000 pairs a week were being made in November, 1863. A shoe factory was set up in Atlanta the same year, which accumulated enough leather from Middle Tennessee to produce 40,000 pairs during the first month of its existence."
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However, this doesn't address your specific question, which I think is what those shoes looked like. Because shoes commonly continued to be worn until they were worn out, then discarded, they don't survive in the kinds of numbers or with the sort of provenance necessary to link any particular pattern to a certain depot/government manufacture site other than the English import shoes, federal manufacture/contract shoes, and possibly the "Georgia" shoes which were supposedly found in Georgia at war's end.

I wish I knew of shoes that were documented to have been produced in a Southern government factory, but I don't. I also am not aware of any technical drawings of those shoes. Does anybody know if these items exist anywhere?

[Mississippian]

Re: Question about brogans?

Joe,

I once came ever so close to what you asked. My ex gf's extended family was supposed to have a pair of shoes made and brought home by her GGG Grandfather at the close of the war. He had been a member of the 11th Mississippi Infantry and had been severely wounded and crippled at the Wilderness. as he recovered he was sent to the Choctaw factory in Mississippi to make shoes in the government shop. At the close of the war he brought home his uniform and shoes, which were kept by the family. My ex's grandmother remembered seeing the uniform before it was damaged in the 1930's. The shoes are somewhere with an extended family member somewhere in Alabama. I never got the chance to see them. Oh well.

Will MacDonald