ARTICLES

• Introduction
  byNiccolò Ferrari
• Officials
  byNiccolò Ferrari
• Soldiers
  by Niccolò Ferrari
• Headgears
  by Niccolò Ferrari

These articles can be found in a more extended version in the book in italian language: "La Civiltà Perduta: gli Stati Confederati nella guerra civile americana"-Niccolò Ferrari 2013)

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The uniforms of the Confederate Army

Foreword by Niccolò Ferrari

Opposite to what commonly thought the Confederate Army was endowed with equipments and uniforms produced either on his own territory or imported from foreign countries and, in a smaller measure, of federal origins. The confederate soldier's image suit in casual way does not correspond to reality and is therefore a mistake partly derived from cinema or from some inexact illustrations. It is then easy to fall in some errors. It is also true that the serious provisioning problems of fabrics, the shortage of hides in the late phase of the war, caused partly by the Northerner naval block and partly by the physiological problems that tormented industry facilities built by scratch almost on one day and easily envoy in crisis from the adversities of the conflict, forced the workshops to employ different shades of grey and material of poor and different quality. This is the reason for the heterogeneity, more on the appearance that in the facts, that characterized the confederate soldiers uniforms. It should also be considered the fatigue to produce and supply the uniforms which often caused the soldiers to wear them for more than the established time with quite easy understandable consequences.

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The Officers

by Niccolò Ferrari

At the outbreak of the civil war, in April 1861, many officers of the United States Army remained loyal to their states of origin which were joining the new Confederation and they enrolled to the new forming army. Until June no type of uniform was still consolidated so some of the graduated of the south continued to wear the blue federal uniforms. Finally were published in the same month by Nicola Marshall, of German origins, the rules for the uniforms, defining as it would be the one for the confederate officers.

( left: Confederate officers prisoners at Fort Delaware; 1862 ca. right: Officers in full dress, early war )

From an aesthetical point of view it resembled in the cut to those of the Austrian army with the badges of rank on the collar of the double breast frock coat, but as it regarded the stripes on the sleeves and the kepì they was of evident French influence. The ranks consisted in one or two horizontal gilded bars for first and second lieutenants, three for the captains, a star for the majors, two stars for the lieutenant-colonel, three stars for the colonels and three stars surrounded of laurel for all the general ranks. These were brought on the collar while the sleeves were thickened hand hand that increased in rank: a stripe for the lieutenants, two for captains and majors, three for lieutenant-colonel and colonels four for the generals. The colors of the collars and the cuffs were distinctive of the army corp and they were: white (was employed tonality by buff to the candid white) for generals, general staff officers, engineers and signalling corp, blue for the infantry, red for the artillery, yellow for the cavalry and black for the medical. Was brought then in waist, under the belt, a sash of silk bordeaux or yellow for the generals (green for the medical). For the headgear instead, according to the rule, the beret prescribed was the kepì with the gilded stripes as on the sleeves but many officers preferred to adopt for convenience and practicality a slouch hat, the styles were different.
Many officers followed the indications furnished by the war department even if, being tailor works financed to own expenses, were effected in some cases variations in comparison to the native model. A type of variation enough diffuse, especially in battle in substitution of the frock coat, was the sack coat, that is not staved, with an only line of buttons and the label on which there were the badges of rank; it was wearing for example by the Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill and the Mj. Gen. P. R. Cleburne. Another type, enough diffused in cavalry, was the shell jacket that was noting that a frock coat shortened up to the waist; this was worn among the others by the Lt. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart and from the Brig. Gen. W. Barksdale

( left: Cavalry officers, in center Colonel Mosby; 1863 ca. Right: Staff officer )

These uniforms were certainly showier than the federal counterpart and more evident sights still resulted together the troop even if shortly the conditions of the life on the field wore out making them less evident. Some officer of line (lieutenants or captains) nevertheless they preferred to wear an estate “smaller” (fatigue dress) during the campaigns consistent in a short jacket as that of the soldiers with the badges of rank on the collar and not always on the sleeves.
As deducible the cost of these uniforms was elevated and as the war continued so do the price that increased to arrive to almost 900 CS $, when the salary of a first lieutenant was of 80 $ for month and that of a general about 300 $!
We are at the end of 1863, the year of the turn: to the military decline of the confederation inevitably follows the economic one dragging with him the illusions and the certainties of the first years of the conflict.
Many officers, particularly of low rank, could not sustain anymore the expense of a complete uniform, so in March 1864 a General Order allowed them to purchase the same clothing of the soldiers and the fabric from the Quartermaster Department at the same price which were sold to the government.
A special commission of the Congress looked in the first part of 1864 to resolve the problem of the uniforms purchasing a big lot of fabric by the Quartermaster Department. Nevertheless the greater part ended to the officers that served in the back areas and only a small part went to those in first line. In this way were manufactured in Montgomery, Alabama, about a thousand of uniforms destined to the officers of the Army of North Virginia and others 6000 would have been ready for the end of the year. Despite this many attempt they were not able, or didn't want, more to give the regulation uniform. So we arrived to the beginning of 1865, the Confederation was prepared to live the last action of its existence. In the conclusive months of the war the officers, except for those higher in rank, wore the same uniforms of the soldiers, they had only some stripes on the collar and that made them distinguish from the troop was simply their sabre and the revolver. On April 9th 1865 General R. E. Lee wearing an impeccable uniform, almost to underline not only the military but principally the epochal contrast with the northerner Gen. U. S. Grant, which wore a soldier coat with the ranks on the shoulders, surrendered himself near Appomattox. It was the past that surrendered to the future. As last concession to the officers of the falling nation the union commander granted them to hold his own sword, last memory of sumptuous times before one of the bloodiest wars of the history brought to the cancellation of an epoch, of her values as well as to the downfall whose everything had given for remaining in the past, in their own world that would not be more risen… the Confederate States of America.

( left: Louisiana officers, 1865. right: General R. E. Lee sit in the center, his left, Gen. Custis Lee, his right Lt.Col. W. Taylor, Richmond 1865 )

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Soldiers

by Niccolò Ferrari

At the moment of the constitution of the Confederate States of America there were no regulations prescribing the clothing of the soldiers in the regular army. However, in June 1861, a publication was issued containing the specifics of the army’s uniforms by rank. This publication was the work of a German, Nicola Marshall inspired by Austrian uniforms  seen in Verona.

The prescribed uniform consisted of a gray double breasted frock coat, kepi and trousers. In order to predominate the differentiation from soldiers of the United States of America, the colors chosen for the respective branches of military were azure for the infantry, yellow for the cavalry, red for the artillery, white for the staff officers, green for the riflemen and black for the medical.

Almost immediately the challenges of material acquisition and production in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of the high number of volunteers enjoining the new army were overwhelming.

The first problem was the manufacture of the uniforms, at the moment of the secession in fact the workshops and the Confederate departments were not yet operative and were not able to handle the dressing of the volunteers.

Therefore, the Confederate Congress was charged with responsibility of arriving at a solution to these challenges. In a short time, the Congress established and organized the necessary departmental offices to address the acquisition of material and contracting for textile production facilities, as well as contracting for manufacturing operations to produce the much need uniforms for the Confederate States Army.

During the interim, until material and manufacturing of uniforms could be brought to some capacity, the Confederate Government provided a uniform allowance of 21 Confederate dollars every six months ( after 25 ). This allowed the soldiers to commission tailors to provide their uniforms or to have them made and sent from home.

( Confederate soldiers stationed in Charelston; 1861-62 ca. )

At the first great battle of the War Between the States, 1st Bull Run in July 1861, there was a wide variety of uniforms represented. The soldiers had equipped themselves with uniforms of various colors, patterns and from a plethora of sources. Some obtained their uniforms from their home, some from local tailors, some wore the Federal blue uniform. Chaos reigned sovereign. The uniforms varied from those of the Continental Army in the "American Revolution" with two-horned hat and tail coat, from the uniforms of vague Napoleonic memory. Uniforms ranged from those who donned flannel shirts, to those that were able to acquire a frock coat inspired by the government directives.

The first uniform department to be operational was that of Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy. The first winter was near and the adequate supply to the troops was urgent, but the fabric was scarce and the manufacture of uniforms was still not enough in number to be adequate to the demand. The government made a popular appeal to commercial and individual sources to find garments, blankets and fabrics to meet demands of the fighters. The answer was impetuous and allowed so a period of breath, at least for the North Virginia army, and the Richmond depot. was so able to produce and distribute a good number of kepi, trousers and shell jackets called "1st types."

The jackets produced from the Richmond Depot. were of three types or issues. The "second types" were produced by the spring of 1862 to mid 1864. The "third types" were issued from the beginning of 1864 until the end of the War. The variation of the appearance in these jackets was also mostly due to the chronic shortage of fabrics that tormented the Confederate States, which resulted in the increasing reliance upon importing the necessary resources. Despite the increase in production of the uniforms, it was necessary not only import fabrics but to also import jackets manufactured mostly in Great Britain and Ireland.

( Confederate prisoners in Gettysburg; 1863 )

The jackets produced by the Confederate Depots were clearly different from those prescribed in the 1861 regulations. The frock coat was not only uncomfortable and warm in summer, but it was very expensive to be produced because of greater quantity of fabric required. The Confederacy could not afford it. This type of jacket was immediately set aside and the manufacturers of the uniforms concentrated on the production of short jackets referred to as the “Shell Jacket”.

In the west, it took much longer to arrive at a point where the depots could begin supplying the Army of Tennessee while in the "trans Mississippi" the six-month indemnity lasted up to 1864.

In Georgia there were three departments for the production of jackets. They were in Athens, Columbus and Atlanta. These manufacturers were destined to supply the troops of the Army of Tennessee and the departments of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. The jackets produced by these Depots were similar in style to those of the department of the Virginia, introducing some differences such as the number of the buttons (9 for the Richmond Depot, 6 for the Columbus, Atlanta and Athens Depots). The Georgia Depots did not have shoulder straps and belt loops. The jackets of the Columbus Depot had a blue collar and cuffs, while the jackets of the Army of

North Virginia were completely gray with a gray collar and cuffs. However, the Virginia jacket for the first type did introduce some black edgings (or less frequent azure, red or yellow, according to the army branch) on the collar, shoulder strap and cuffs.

Every confederate army was supplied and equipped from the offices of the departments in which

the Confederacy had been divided and in which these were found to fight. Therefore, this gave rise to a great number of offices for the production of uniforms. In addition to Virginia and Georgia, there existed important departmental offices in Alabama (Montgomery, Tuscaloosa and Marion), Tennessee (Nashville which fell soon to the Northern invader), Mississippi (Jackson and Enterprise), Texas (Houston), South Carolina (Charleston) and others.

Between the end of 1863 and the beginning of 1864 the departments reached a level of sufficient

production to satisfy the applications of the troops. In 1864 the Confederate soldiers could enjoy, for the first time, a suitable uniform worthy of their northern adversaries that would always be superior in uniforms and supplies.

Unfortunately, the ascending climax of the production of the uniforms eventually met with the same fate as that of the descending fates of the war. In July 1863, the army of General Robert E. Lee was forced to retire to Virginia, the fortress at Vicksburg, Mississippi fell to Northerners forces leaving the Mississippi River to the enemy and geographically dividing the Confederacy into those areas east and west of the Mississippi River.

As if it was not enough in June 1864 Gen. Sherman began the march toward Atlanta that fell at the end of August. With the loss of Georgia and her deposits of weapons, equipments and provisions the Confederate States started the slow agony of decline that brought about the capitulation of the Confederate States armies and government.

The lines of communication were interrupted or severely damaged, and the use of the railroads was greatly diminished due to their status of near collapse because of four years of intense exploitation. A bitter fate for the Confederate soldiers was that while they were in the ranks of the armies until the very end they were not able to enjoy the uniforms that lay in the Depots due to the lack of transportation and freight.

In April 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia evacuated Richmond, which was burned by the Northern invaders. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox, Virginia.

Was practically everything ended, the dream of independence was enfeebled, the confederacy together with his worn-out and greys uniforms stopped existing but entered forever in the myth and in the legend.

( Confederate prisoners in Cold Harbor; 1864 )

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Headgear

by Niccolò Ferrari

The confederate soldier is often represented wearing a cap generically named kepi. In the reality nevertheless the great majority of the confederate soldiers wore the slouch hat and only a small part wears the beret. Therefore is right to shortly analyse the confederate headgear to try to make things clear.

 

At the break out of the war in 1861 many confederate soldiers, that had to handle theirs own equipment and armament ( waiting for offices of the quartermasters were operatives ), wore a beret entirely similar to that of their Northerners adversaries but grey. Here is necessary a brief excursus on the headgear of the United States army in the period immediately precedent the civil conflict. The beret of which above, denominated forage cap, had been adopted in fact in 1858 by the army of the United States as fatigue beret ( a second type of forage cap will be adopted during the war and was characterized by a larger top disk respect to the first type ) in substitution of the shako 1851, that underlined the French stylistic influence on the uniform of that period. Despite for the new federal uniform immediately before the civil war was prescribed the Hardee hat that had to replace, for the cavalry since 1855, the shako of the ’50 years, during the battle of Bull Run (July 1861) more than few units of the union and confederate militia still wore the shako and some regular unit will continue to provide that kind of headgear ( eg. U.S. marines ).

[ From left: Marine shako and Hardee Hat officer ]

A variation to the forage cap, more diffused among the confederates in the first months of war, was the McDowell cap know also as "bummer" which, taller, differentiated because it fell down mostly on the visor in comparison to the regular forage cap and the visor had a different form, rounded off, while the forage cap had a rectangular visor with smooth angles.

Sometimes were present, and in very limited measure they will be also it on the following kepi, brass decorations that represented the branch of service (eg. horn for the infantry) or the regimental number or the letter company. During the first fights was also diffuse, not given to know in what measure, a cover beret in white linen or cotton similar to that very famous of the French foreign legion, thought for the summer period. This accessory had a very short life and ends to serve as filter of coffee boilers…

[ from left: union forage cap first type and confederate early war McDowell "bummer"]

The confederate army in 1861, at the moment to emanate the rules for the uniforms, prescribed the adoption of a cap denominated kepi and very similar to that in use in the French army of Napoleon III.

It was grey with a lower band of the colour of the branch of service ( sky blue for the infantry, red artillery, yellow cavalry, black medical, buff or white for the staff and genius, green for the sharpshooters ), the visor was rectangular, flat and the beret was endowed with extensible chin-strap that was brought, when was not extended, above the visor. The confederate kepi were countersigned because the chin-straps had no brass buckle (while the northern ones had it).

This model of kepi was replaced by the model 1862 that had to be of the colour of the branch of service (eg. sky blue for the infantry) and it brought a blue lower band ( for all the branches ). However the kepi mostly used was more often completely grey without any coloured lower band. So this was the kepi that, finished the "commutation system", was produced and mainly distributed to the confederate fighter even though in smaller diffusion in comparison to the slouch hats.

With the spend of the war the leather availability became least and toward middle of the conflict, also following the total loss of restocking of hides from Texas owed to the complete fall of the Mississippi in hand of the Union forces, the kepis that were produced from the offices of the quartermasters had replaced the leather visor with one of cloth tarred black and the chin-strap was only a black false stripe, always of cloth, not extensible. The buttons employed were often flat and smooth (or sometimes with small motives) said "penny" or “coin” buttons and of civil derivation.

[ from left: confederate soldier and officer kepi]

[ from left: officer and soldier slouch hat ]

Were present on the Confederate territory some deposits in charge to the manufacture of slouch hats, to use of the Confederate army, one of these models were for example the so-called "beehive hat" that took the name from his form that remembered that of a nest of bees.

Nevertheless frequently the soldiers and almost always the officers provided privately equipping their self with civilian slouch hats; as it regards the kepis of the officers the models were those of the 1861 rules and subsequently 1862 with additionally the braids of rank, exception for the kepis of the Generals for which was prescribed a completely blue kepi with the braids of rank. The discourse for the officers caps would be lent however to an ampler close examination since they were of private manufacture unlike those of the troop, and for this reason there were present numerous variations, even if with some stylistic prevalence.

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