Captured Stationary?

[rbruno]

As I was going through OR for the 1st Va Cav, I came across the following requisition. I found it interesting that the US was crossed out and the CS written over top especially in 1864. I could see this in maybe early war when there could be leftover US paperork around military arsenals etc. But '64 seems late. I have seen CS documents on scraps of paper, completely hand written, all the way to completely typed. This is somewhat a tongue and cheek question, but could this be an example of "captured stationary"? Has anyone else seen an example of this late in the war?

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Captured Stationary?

Yes, it definitely looks like captured stationery.

A friend of mine had an entire morning report book printed for a northern regiment that a southern regiment had appropriated somewhere on the Peninsula. On every page some clerk had ruled out the original unit name and written in that of his own.

Just as Confederate details scavenged ordnance from the battlefield, they seem to have picked up as much else of use as possible.

The Roy Bird Cook collection has a nice collection of original Confederate documents, but all the ones I recall were printed by the CS government or ruled out by hand -- the latter seems increasingly the case as the war goes on. http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/Roy_Cook_JPG/index.htm

No telling how long they had that -- the "Special Requisition" form is one of the more widely used. Given the date, I wonder if they picked it up from Sigel or Hunter.

Quite a find -- thanks for sharing that!

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Captured Stationary?

Captured? How about "left over".

North Carolina used very similar forms. NCDoA&H holds countless Form 40's and 20's printed with NC,CS or US on the header. There are more than a few there too that are entirely hand rendered on scrap.

Good example of valuable, but mundane, wartime paperwork.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Captured Stationary?

This comes from War talks of Confederate Veterans by George S. Bernard, United Confederate Veterans, p. 64, describing the aftermath of the battle of Chancellorsville:

At every turn of every road we came upon long squads of prisoners and wagon trains of guns and accoutrements, while so precipitate was the retreat that at every step we found the most valuable articles thrown away in the flight. Nearly every man in the regiment supplied himself with a rubber cloth, and a Yankee 'shelter tent,' and the camp is supplied with an unlimited assortment of Yankee stationery.

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Captured Stationary?

I don't consider military paperwork or forms "stationary" (sic).

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Captured Stationary?

But they did consider them stationery, and I'm willing to let a common misspelling slide if the meaning is otherwise clear.

Here's an excerpt, for example, from Hazen's A Narrative of Military Service:

MCDONALD'S STATION, EAST TENNESSEE,
April 27, 1864.
During the coming eampaign but one wagon will be allowed each regiment. In this must be carried ten days' forage for the team and horses of officers, and such cooking utensils and officers' blankets and clothing as are indispensable. Officers will at once see that there are no trunks, mess-chests, or boxes earried, excepting one box for each regiment, in which there must be blanks and stationery sufficient to make the required company and regimental reports and returns, which in future will be required on the march.

The Regulations, para. 1135 state that "Regimental, company, and post books, and printed blanks for the officers of the Quartermaster and Pay Departments, will be procured by timely requisition on the Quartermaster-General." This comes under the heading "Stationery."

Kautz, in para. 211 of The Company Clerk states that "Blanks and blank-books furnished by the Quartermaster's Department are classed under the head of stationery."

Part Second ordnance stores -- Materials, Miscellaneous Stores, and Tool, includes a section titled "Stationery" which includes books, manuals, regulations, "Blank forms, various" and the like, in addition to pens and pencils, writing paper &c. See Instructions for Making Quarterly Returns of Ordnance and Ordnance Stores.

There are numerous other examples, but I hope these will do.

The statement I previously quoted would not be definitive in itself, but I think that since the author referred to "Yankee stationery" and put it in the context of other captured stores, such as shelter halves and blankets, it just might explain why Mr. Bruno came across a US form used as CS.

I also think it's more likely that a US form in use by the Confederacy in 1864 was captured in '63 or later, than that it would simply have sat around unused for three years. But I admit that I can't prove it.

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Captured Stationary?

I've learned something new. I guess I simply saw it as its defined today. Thanks for setting it straight.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Captured Stationary?

Thanks for the thumbnails. I've learned some stuff, too.

[David Fox]

Re: Captured Stationary?

Dick Ewell, whilst campaigning near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in late June, 1863 captured the paper making and printing concern of Kempton & Mullen. There he "bought" $5,000.00 worth of U.S. Army forms for subsequent Confederate issue. (Stephen Sears, "Gettysburg", p. 134).

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Captured Stationary?

Dick Ewell, whilst campaigning near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in late June, 1863 captured the paper making and printing concern of Kempton & Mullen. There he "bought" $5,000.00 worth of U.S. Army forms for subsequent Confederate issue. (Stephen Sears, "Gettysburg", p. 134).

Thanks for that reference, Mr. Fox. I checked out the cite -- turns out Ewell paid with a CS government voucher for the amount.

The poor owner, had he found himself able to collect, would have received for his $5,000 Confederate dollars about $1,000 in greenbacks or $700 in gold. A pretty steep discount. In any case, Ewell got himself and the Confederate cause a nice deal.

What's kind of cool about that story is the very fact that they would have bothered. I mean, here they are, in the heart of enemy territory, leading up to one of the great showdowns of the war, and someone -- maybe not Ewell, maybe his AAG or a clerkly type further down the food chain -- thinks, hey, we can pick up some forms!

And I thought the Gettysburg campaign was all about shoes... :)

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Captured Stationary?

...C S government check...

Sorry about the poor quality image.

[David Fox]

Re: Captured Stationary?

Remember, comrade Schaffner: as Dick Ewell himself said (to paraphrase badly): from long service prior to The War, he'd forgotten everything else about military science not connected to leading fifty dragoons. 'Most all the general-professionals in 1863 were a mere handful of years away from captain's bars or majour's leaves. Officiously keeping paperwork in triplicate was yet serious business to them; Stonewall Jackson was especially fastidious in this regard.
If you think the Gettysburg Campaign was just about shoes (and I know you were being puckish), read Kent M. Brown's "Retreat From Gettysburg". Lee conducted his campaign, perhaps unfortunately, with an eye to amassing and preserving the vast stocks of supplies his boys were acquiring in Pennsylvania. A reason he rejected Longstreet's sage advice to swing around Meade's left at Gettysburg was that it would leave his growing train of loaded wagons exposed...ironically one of JEB Stuart's excuses for being tardy arriving at Gettysburg himself.
Brown's book sheds much light on a neglected reason for Lee's great Pennsylvania raid: to forage as long as possible in enemy territory while giving Virginia agriculture some chance to recover for a growing season. The statistics of the loot the ANV seized in Pennsylvania, carted south in stolen wagons drawn by stolen horses, sometimes driven by stolen negros, is almost incomprehensible: end-to-end, some of these wagon trains took days to pass a fixed point. Vast herds of livestock mooed, baaed, and oiked their way south across the Potomac to feed the Confederate Army for the balance of the year. It makes the capture of Manassas Junction in 1862 mere child's play by contrast.
A few hundred pounds of U.S. Army forms were a miniscule addition...and useful for keeping the gray army's "clerk-typists" accounting (in triplicate) for months thereafter for this vast Rebel Christmas in July.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Captured Stationary?

"I had learned all about commanding fifty United States dragoons and forgotten everything else."

Thanks, Vuhginyuh, for the check, and thank you Mr. Fox for the further reference!

[rbruno]

Re: Captured Stationary?

Thanks for the info. Sorry for the spelling mistake. I posted this on a whim when I saw the form I posted. The day in and day out parts of a soldier's life is becoming more and more interesting reading the OR. The paperwork is unbelievable and amazing any of it survived. The other unbelievable thing is how much is missing. I am refering mainly to the CS side.
I must agree that Brown's book The Retreat from Gettysburg is one of the best books I have ever read about the logistics and behind the lines of any battle/campaign. Full of details and many times I was thinking how did they ever pull that off. Anyway, good read for anyone.