Confederate Impression question

[High-Private]

Hi,

I have been doing Federal for quite sometime now and I have been toying with the idea of going to the darkside... Nothing personal. How common was it for ANV soldiers to have matching jacket and trousers? I have seen guys with mis-matched stuff, but have also heard that it was quite common to have matching clothing articles. Figure if I am going to do this, I must do it correctly.


Thanks,

Kevin Coyle

[JimConley]

Re: Confederate Impression question

Kevin,
You can start by using an easy method of research by looking through some original photographs. The Library of Congress has over 1,000 images available online. And there is a good number of images that show fallen Confederate soldiers at Antietam, Gettysburg, and Petersburg-related fights.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html

Also, read this article. This will give you a good starting point for doing a Confederate impression:

http://www.military-historians.org/company/journal/confederate/confederate-1.htm

AND, there are two books out there now which would help you out too. I haven't had a chance to pick them up just yet, but I'm getting weekly e-mails from friends that entail really good information from these books:

Cadet Gray and Butternut Brown: Notes on Confederate Uniforms by Thomas M. Arliskas
-and-
Confederate Industry: Manufacturers and Quartermasters in the Civil War by Harold S. Wilson

[Jimmayo]

Re: Confederate Impression question

Very broad subject but here are some things to think about.

Wilson's book is going to tell how uniforms were procured and made and sometimes issued. What you have to do with that information is to determine what the chances are that the ANV soldier would get issued both a jacket and trousers at the same time and what is the possibility that these two garmets would come from the same material lot. With so many suppliers to the quartermaster dept. the chances that material would match in color is pretty slim. Also, soldiers were only issued the garmets that they needed. They might get a new jacket to wear with their 4 month old trousers.

"Cadet Gray and Butternut Brown" will go more into what was seen on the soldiers and the short story there is most in the AOT did not come close to matching in any manner.

Finally you can look at period photographs taken at Gettysburg, Antietam and Petersburg. Don't use the individual ambrotypes or tintypes as many of these were probably early war and the uniform style seen may not have been what would have been issued later.

Ironically the best time for a Confederate to have a matching uniform color would be late war with the common use of English Kersey. One of those uniforms is shown in the post war photo below.

[Garrett Silliman]

Re: Confederate Impression question

Kevin,

Welcome to the AC. You'll find a lot of great information here if you poke around a bit. Up top you'll find the recently added link to research articles. This one inparticular may be of particular help to you in addition to the Jims' pointers

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/8577/unfrm.html

As grisly as it sounds, photos of CS dead and POWs offer a rare glimpse of what they were actually wearing in the field and are really invaluable when putting your impression together. Good luck,

[paulcalloway]

Re: Confederate Impression question

Kevin,

Welcome to the AC. You'll find a lot of great information here if you poke around a bit. Up top you'll find the recently added link to research articles. This one inparticular may be of particular help to you in addition to the Jims' pointers

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/8577/unfrm.html

Excellent replies here - thank you all.

Garrett -
I wanted to thank you in particular for this informative reply to a new users post. You went the extra mile to show him a researched article applicable to his request. I like to see that rather than just simply telling the user to hit the search button.

[pvt. hardscrable]

Re: Confederate Impression question

If you are reenacting in a North Carolina group then you could definatley use a matching coat and trousers due to the fact that NC was able to break the yankee blockcade and get matirials so they could open textile mills. This didn't happen until late in the war though. It would also be correct to have a matching coat and trousers in an early war portrail due to the pre-war militias. Hope this helps

[paulcalloway]

Re: Confederate Impression question

If you are reenacting in a North Carolina group then you could definatley use a matching coat and trousers due to the fact that NC was able to break the yankee blockcade and get matirials so they could open textile mills. This didn't happen until late in the war though. It would also be correct to have a matching coat and trousers in an early war portrail due to the pre-war militias. Hope this helps

Matching coat and trousers? Can we be a little more specific?

[SKIP-34TH VA CAV]

Re: Confederate Impression question

I see no problem with a matching uniform either personally or as a unit. Having read the volumes previously mentioned and done extensive research I do agree that the material of jacket and trousers may not be the same but the style must be within the time period portraid. I find there is much too much individuality in later war impressions and yet it can be documented that there was much uniformity in the ranks.

SKIP MCLEAN
34TH BTN VA CAV