Early War CS Issue Uniforms

[TGreene]

I work at Endview Plantation, a historic house in Newport News, VA. The owner of the house during the Civil War was originally the Captain of Company H, 32nd VA Infantry. In reading through Les Jensen's Virginia Regimental History Series book on the 32nd VA, I came across a passage mentioning this company receiving in August of 1861, "75 coats, 75 pairs of pants, 75 pairs of drawers, 75 pairs of socks, 50 caps, a number of shirts and 55 knapsacks from the Confederate government." I looked through his article on CS issue jackets and "Johnny Reb: The Uniform of the Confederate Army, 1861-1865" as well as using the search feature and could find no reference to when it is thought the Richmond Depot Type 1's were beginning to be issued. Would these jackets issued in August, 1861 be Type 1's or would this be something else entirely? Any information given or information on where to search would be greatly appreciated. (By the way, there is a picture of Dr. Curtis, the owner of Endview, in uniform in "Johnny Reb" on page 44.) Thank you again for your help.

Tim Greene

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Early War CS Issue Uniforms

Hallo!

A tough one, IMHO...

In brief and to over-generalize...

The problem of resupplying Confederate volunteers in the early summer and summer of 1861 grew out of the Confederacy's view that they did not want to assume the expense of uniforming a temporary army for a War that would be soon over. So, the Commutation System afforded an allowance for the volunteers to purchase their own clothing and then be reimbursed.
But the defects of the Commutation System quickly became apparent, and there was a shift around July of 1861 to supply some of the volunters starting with the neediest. By September, a clothing "factory/arsenal" system had been set up in Richmond, followed by major others in Athens, Atlanta, and Columbus, and minor ones elsewhere.
By October 1862, the success of the "depot system" was such that the CS government moved to take over the responsibility for all clothing (although it did not always replace the "from home" and "private purchase/tailor made stuff).

IMHO, it is possible that the jackets received from the CS government might were the ancestor, prototype, or even what we now call RD "Type I's." Of course, specific research and documentation, dated photographs, or provenanced jackets would be needed (and there are no known RD TYpe I's....).

For general info, Les Jensen's three part "monograph" from the Company of Military Historians of the late 1980's is still considered a decent start, but what we know in detail is still limited (or at least what I know)...

Curt