"1863 Confederates in Blue Jackets!" Topic

Interesting piece on how dark grey can be too blue!

Put that Butternut paint away for a minute and read this – a good way to create a talking point in your miniature army!

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Some of the English Kersey wool was very blue in appearance. Combined with liberated light blue trousers, the CS boys could easily be mistaken for Yanks.

i have, in my personal collection, a note from thr anv's quartermaster. sent to gen. hill just before the start of the march north to gettysburg.
it made referance to to use of captured union uniforms. it said "tho the trousers may remain without dye, the jackets needed to be turned in or died."
it mentioned mcgowens brigade as having a great amount of the jackets.

It is a good article and has been available for sometime now.For more juicy stuff I implore you to read the whole article. The "blue" that we read about isn't really blue as it compares to Union Dark and sky blue. It was usually a bluish-gray. Viewed from a distance it might appear 'Union blue' because of overhead shade, smoke, humidity and just plain a long way off.

I liked this bit the most:

" A survey of the (admittedly fragmentary) records of every regiment that went west under Longstreet reveals no evidence whatsoever of a large-scale issue to the entire corps in the weeks before Chickamauga. Any such issue would have been beyond the capacity of the Richmond Clothing Bureau. The Bureau dispatched clothing to the front almost as quickly as the seamstresses turned it in, and did not stockpile uniforms by the thousands. The clothing was dispatched on a daily basis and was broken down into smaller and smaller batches as it passed down the supply chain, arriving at the regimental level in what one inspecting officer described as "driblets." It is highly unlikely Richmond could have issued more than 10,000 uniforms at once. The only exception to this was when imported ready-made clothing was received by blockade runner, but there is no evidence for that being the case in September 1863. Many regiments do show evidence of drawing small amounts of clothing in the usual manner, often only days before or after Chickamauga."

Don

Wasn't this a thing at Waterloo too?

Nappy kept insisting the Prussians were Grouchy.
Although I suppose wishful thinking was in play there as well.

Thank you for sharing such an interesting site There is a lot of good info there

Where the greatest number of those English Army cloth made uniforms, and ready-made uniforms, could be found were in Hood's Division. From the accounts I have read, it seems quite likely that the new clothing began to be issued with the Texas brigade and spread from there.

In Harold Simpson's books, as well as the history by JB Polley, who served with the 4th Texas, the clothing began to be issued while the Texans were bivouaced at Fredericksburg.

The Texans also account, from several sources, how their brigade, and most of their division, were mistaken for federal troops at Chickamauga and fired upon by Florida troops.

While this article is an excellent reference, I would point out that with the discovery of the McRae papers in South Carolina (he was the CS agent in Britain) it is possible to look more carefully at what WAS coming into southern ports, and the reality is that English Army cloth and ready-made uniforms were arriving MUCH sooner than had been believed.

Were I able to finance the work, I would love to be able to compare McRae's information (he kept manifests of every ship that left and from where those goods were purchased) to the info on hand in Hamilton Bermuda, at the CS museum there. THAT place has copies of the mainfests as well, and also many many images of the blockade runners taken while in harbor.

By comparing those two sources with the lists of ships captured and/or sunk by the federal navy, it would be quite possible to have an almost definitive list of what arrived, when and where.

Here is an image of a P. Tait jacket made from English Army cloth and imported to the Confederacy. Most were in infantry trim with the dusty medium blue collar and epaullets. SOME, however, had paiping of that color on the collar and tabs instead of solid color. There is at least one known example with artillery red solid color collar and tabs. Anecdotal evidence suggests that they were almost as common as the infantry pattern.

Having said that, you will note the blue/grey shade of the material.

Here is a repro CS kepi of a pattern known to be issued through the Richmond Depot. It is made from English Army cloth newly-woven by Abimelich Hainsworth, of England, who made the original material. It is still used by English Guard units for their overcoats, according to their rep.

a note from thr anv's quartermaster. sent to gen. hill just before the start of the march north to gettysburg.
it made referance to to use of captured union uniforms.

I recall reading somewhere that Hill's Corps arriving at Antietam (from Harper's Ferry) caused confusion because a (large?)number of the Rebs had availed themselves to the Union supplies at the armory before setting off to reinforce the army at Antietam?

Cheers,

I recall reading somewhere that Hill's Corps arriving at Antietam (from Harper's Ferry) caused confusion because a (large?)number of the Rebs had availed themselves to the Union supplies at the armory before setting off to reinforce the army at Antietam?

My understanding was that a large number were wearing federal greatcoats, and threw them off just before attacking. The federals facing them were uncertain which side those troops belonged to, and it gave Hill a little more time to get his force into position.

Some of Hainsworth's cloth.

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Easy to see how the Medium or Dark Grey could be mistaken for blue at a distance.

the note i have was sent to hill on june 16th, 1863. so gettysburg, just before.

I had read that some of Longstreet's units at Chickamauga had that happen(fired on by their own or mistaken for Yanks by the Yanks).

The Texas brigade was fired on by Florida troops who mistook them for federals because of their newly-issued uniforms.