""Confederate grey"" Topic

Recently visited the Appomattox historical site. If you have not been there, do visit. It is a lovely and emotionally moving place.

Anyways ….. There is a very nice little museum nearby – The Museum of the American Civil War – which features a fine array of historical artifacts (almost all Confederate). Among the exhibits is a large selection of original Confederate campaign uniforms (mostly officers' uniforms). What struck me was the VAST range of grey shades represented – from a pale greenish-grey to a dark bluish-grey. Moral to the story? Don't angst too much about the shade(s) of grey you select to paint your Rebs.

Sorry for lack of photos! My bad.

B

Thank you, Blutarski. I've been fighting the "one color to rule them all" fetish for years, but entirely too many wargamers can't seem to shed their late 20th Century (peacetime) prejudices. Color uniformity was bad enough in nations with centralized procurement before widespread use of chemical dyes. In "get whatever you can, where ever you can" cases like the CSA (and to a lesser extent) the USA during disruptive wartime, it was a complete crapshoot.

Not to mention colors fading, dirtied uniforms, etc.

Blutarski is quite right – the Appomattox museum has
an excellent collection, some of it (don't know how
much) relocated from Richmond's Museum of the Confederacy
where I spent quite a bit of time as an 11 and 12
year old.

Some of the best information regarding Confederate uniforms on the web:

link

Agree!!

With there being no standardization of colors between the various uniform manufacturies, you can go with just about any shade.

And Fred Adolphus' work is momumental. It is the best, IMHO, uniform reference on the Confederate Army.

Jim

Yes, and I thought "50 Shades of Gray" was a uniform book.

Apologies for the length of this posting.

Another good source is Ben Tart: bnbtart.com/jeancloth.html Check out the sumac and logwood dyed samples… he shows the degradation and fading. His website used to have a much more comprehensive explanation on dyes used and the processes.

In short, and I'm by far from an expert on this, vegetable dyes (in general) are not always colorfast meaning they will degrade over time and exposure to sunlight. With the use of a mordant, the color range can shift. Sumac and logwood, when used with an iron mordant (could be an iron kettle) will produce a shade of grey, depending on the material and time in the bath. However, being a vegetable dye, it isn't stable (or colorfast) and with exposure to sunlight, will degrade over time and fade.

I have experimented with this process using linen and sumac (staghorn sumac here in Ohio) and a large iron kettle. I got a nice, dark grey that with sun exposure faded to a lighter grey with hints of brown. I would suspect that with more exposure, it would go to a brown shade. Same thing with a canteen cover made from some of Ben's logwood dyed jean cloth. What was once a mid range of grey is now a greyish-tan. Areas under the canteen strap itself are still in a grey shade.

When painting CS uniforms, at least ones that aren't from the British cloth, I like to mix a medium grey and tan to get, at least to my eye, that grey-tan or tan-grey look.

Another factor in the shade of the material, whether wool or a wool/cotton (jean) mix, is the color of the sheep the wool comes from. A friend of mine has a woolen blanket he calls "Zelda" that was from a dark colored sheep and not dyed at all. "Natural" or "unbleached" wool would be in a natural state and have a variety of shades. Not recalling which depots had that, but thought there may have been some produced from one or two of the deep South depots.

Again, I'm not an expert on this and if there are any inaccuracies, I'm hoping someone will be kind enough to clarify or correct them.

The various CSA depots each produced a distinctive shade of gray. Not on purpose but based on the dyes available in that region. Officers grey varied from very dark to light. These were often were made to order from a Taylor.

The various CSA depots each produced a distinctive shade of gray. Not on purpose but based on the dyes available. Officers grey varied from very dark to light. These were often were made to order from a Taylor.

Another complexity here is the influx of British Kersey Wool products into the late-war ANV shell jacket issues. This appears almost blue to me, adding to the battlefield confusion.

link

I always use a variety of greys/browns/butternuts to represent confederate uniforms. Looks great on the table.

Foundry's quagmire set makes for an excellent British Kersey "grey that's blue"…