Possible Memphis Arsenal Cavalry Equipment sets?

[Ken Knopp]

Gents,
We have covered some of this Spanish Moss information in other AC threads however, as a review and re-cap ............

the use of Spanish moss in American culture goes back at least three centuries when immigrant Europeans settling the coastal south used the green moss as a livestock feed. By early 1718 a significant commercial moss industry had appeared in the southern marketplace, curing and baling the green moss’’s black fiber end-product for use as a substitute for the more expensive horsehair. Its most common early application was as a stuffing for mattresses, furniture, saddle-seat pads, and, mixed with mud, to make mortar and bricks. Frequent pre-war use as horse equipage included spinning and braiding or weaving moss into bridles, cinches, reins, horse collars, and saddle blankets.
The Spanish Moss blanket while today perhaps the best known item made of this material was just one of its many, many uses. For over two hundred years it was considered not just a “poor man’s” economic substitute but incredibly serviceable for needs and even fashion for all Antebellum economic classes. Just a short list found them made into belts, cinches, bridles, reins, harness equipment such as collars and straps, toys, dolls, various articles of clothing such as vests, tops for shoes and hats, bed and mattress stuffing as well as paint and mortar mixture, etc. In short, anything ....limited only by a lack of ingenuity.

In August of 1855, the U.S. Army experimented with Spanish Moss blankets by issuing them to cavalry troopers in the field.. The "regulations and Notes for the Uniform of the Army of the United States, 1857" found the following.... General Orders No 13, Aug 15, 1855....

1. On recommendation of a Board convened for the purpose in this City, and composed of field officers of two regiments, the Sec. of War directs that the 1st and 2nd Cavalry be armed and equipped, provisionally, as follows: etc. etc. (but cool, detailed information)

Four squadrons of each regiment to be furnished with the Grimsley equipments used by the other mounted corps; the remaining (or fifth)squadron, as follows:

Horse Equipments.

8. Saddles- Campbell's with the following modifications, viz: the pommel and cantle to be more nearly vertical, and the point of the cantle cut off and made to conform to the curves of the sides; the saddle to be brass mounted, with woodend stirrups; all buckles to be barrel buckles, and brass mounted.

10. Saddle Blanket to be of moss, but of stronger warp than that in the pattern submitted to the Board.

In subsequent reports, the army reported them as very serviceable with many officers recommending them over saddle blankets made of wool..

Then in 1859, Capt Randolph B Marcy noted the following in his government authorized book for westward bound settlers..... THE PRAIRIE TRAVELER, (quote)... the Spanish moss blanket, “is regarded by many as the perfection of this article of horse equipment. It is a mat woven into the proper shape and size form the beaten fibres of moss that hangs from the trees in our Southern States. It is cheap, does not chafe or heat the horses’s spine like the wooolen blanket. Its open texture allows rapid evaporation, which tends to keep the back cool, and obviates the danger of stripping and sudden exposure of the heated parts to the sun and air. The experience of our officers who have used the mat for years in Mexico and Texas corroborates all I have said in its favor; and they are unanimous in the opinion that a horse will never get a sore back when it is placed under a good saddle.”

The Confederacy used it for saddle blankets, belts including slings and artillery collars perhaps other usages. The necessity of Confederate ersatz adoption of some of its many applications revived the industry that the devastating economic ruin of Reconstruction only extended- well into the 20th century.
Around 1910 Henry Ford found it the best material for the seat stuffing of his Model T then Model A automobiles, at least until the 1920's when he discovered cheaper foam rubber. Although the Spanish Moss industry survived many booms and busts through the centuries it finally began dying out during the Depression and was by the early 1960's almost completely extinct except limited local uses in rural South Louisiana. Today, it’s industry is defunct except as limited use as bedding for flowers at nurseries and shipping crate packaging but little else.

Larry is right about the LSU Rural Life Museum. If you ever get to Baton Rouge stop there. Its literally one mile off of I-10 and worth the time. There you can see moss blankets, collars and a host of other items of this material as well as other rural Louisiana items.

Best,

Ken R Knopp
www.confederatesaddles.com

[Ken Knopp]

By the way,....here is a little information on Col. Phillip Stockton, the Ordnance Officer of this report......(Another "good" Yankee that found his way into the Confederate service)

Born in New Jersey appointed from that state to the USMA entering in July 1848. Graduating thirty-third in his class in 1853. Commissioned 2nd Lt of infantry he transferred to the famous 1st Cavalry in March 1855. Commissioned 1st Lt. in Oct. 1855. Stockton resigned the U.S. Army to join the Confederate service on Feb. 27, 1861. Appointed from S.C. as Capt. of Artillery March 16, 1861. Undertook various assignments and recruiting service including supervising the building of river fortifications above Memphis in April and until August 1861 when he is detailed as Inspt. Gen. for Gen. L. Polk. In Feb. 1862 now Col. Stockton was assigned as Chief of Ordnance in the Army of the West and also on the Staff of Gen. Van Dorn.
On Oct. 15th 1862, Col. Stockton is assigned to Ordnance Duty commanding the arsenal at Jackson Miss. Then, temporarily commanded the Ordnance Depot at Demopolis Alabama until July 10, 1863 when he was ordered west across the river to relieve Major Maclin as commander at C.S. Arsenal at San Antonio Texas. Granted a leave of absence for unclear reasons from May 27, 1864 through Sept. 25th 1864. No record is found of Stockton's whereabouts from then until March 15, 1865 though he is likely serving as Gen. E. K. Smith’s Commissary of Substenance. Died March 25, 1879.

Sometimes putting a real, flesh and blood human behind these stale, numerical reports adds some life to them. Stockton was a very intelligent, capable and obivously interesting man. It is not clear why he decided to forsake his promising career, northern family and friends to cast his lot with the South. Perhaps he married a Southern girl which was a very common occurance but it is not known for sure. Regardless of how one might feel about this decision today, it takes alot of fortitude, guts and will to make a bold move that big in one's life.


Ken R Knopp

[Mississippian]

I wanted to bring this back up to the top. I've done a little digging in my books to come up with more information about the Memphis Arsenal. I found a few firms that were listed as supplying horse equipment there, including W.P. Lewis Co. and Edmundson and Armstrong of Memphis. I looked online for information about these firms but found nothing.

Of note was a little blurb from June of 1861 where there was a protest over the state of Tennessee placing contracts for saddles and other horse equipment from makers in St. Louis!

Will MacDonald

[GAR]

I'm glad you did as I missed this on the first go around.
What struck me about Ken's post about Col. Stockton was the variety of service he achieved. Commissioned 2nd Lt of infantry, then became a 1st Lt in the cavalry for the US, Captain of artillery for the CS, "supervising the building of river fortifications above Memphis" which sounds more like the Corps of Engineers, goes from captain to colonel in less than a year, becomes Inspector General for Gen. Polk, then Chief of Ordnance in the Army of the West, and commands three different CS arsenals before becoming Commissary of Substenance (Sustenance? Subsistence?). What a remarkable man. I found out more detail and pasted it below:


Military History. — Cadet at the Military Academy, July 1, 1848, to July 1, 1852, when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to
Bvt. Second Lieut., 8th Infantry, July 1, 1852.

Served: in garrison at Ft. Columbus, N. Y., 1852; on frontier duty at Ft. Chadbourne, Tex., 1852, — Scouting, 1852‑53, — San Antonio,
(Second Lieut., 8th Infantry, Oct. 11, 1853)

Tex., 1853, — Scouting, 1854, — Ft. Worth, Tex., 1854, — and Ft. Davis, Tex., 1854‑55; on Recruiting service, 1855; on frontier duty, on Sioux
(Second Lieut., 1st Cavalry, Mar. 3, 1855)

(First Lieut., 1st Cavalry, Oct. 1, 1855)

Expedition, 1855, — Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., 1855‑56, — and in quelling Kansas Disturbances, 1856; on Recruiting service, 1856‑57; on frontier duty on Cheyenne Expedition, 1857, being engaged in the Combat on Solomon's Fork of the Kansas, July 27, 1857, and in the Skirmish against Kiowa and Comanche Indians, near Grand Saline, Kan., Aug. 6, 1857, — Ft. Riley, Kan., 1857, — Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., 1858, — Ft. Smith, Ark., 1858‑59, — Ft. Arbuckle, I. T., 1859‑60, — Kiowa and Comanche Expedition, 1860, — Ft. Arbuckle, I. T., 1860, — Expedition against Kiowa and Comanche Indians, 1860, — and examining Road to Ft. Smith, Ark., 1860; and on leave of absence, 1860‑61.
Resigned, Feb. 27, 1861.

Joined in the Rebellion of 1861-66 against the United States.

Clerk in the Engineer Bureau, Washington, D. C., July 3, 1878, to Mar. 25, 1879.
Died, Mar. 25, 1879, at Washington, D. C.: Aged 47.

[Mississippian]

I did a quick search on Ancestry.com for Stockton and Found a Philip Stockton who was born in New Jersey living in Florida in 1870, his wife was born in North Carolina. Perhaps our boy?

Will MacDonald

[Mississippian]

Ok, we have more evidence as to what was coming out of Memphis/Columbus MS.

CSR of Maj. N. Chambliss,

Ordnance Stores received at Grenada MS, May 24th 1862 from Capt. Logwood, MSK

401 Saddles
401 Bridles
401 Halters
401 Valises
401 Holsters
401 Breast Straps
401 Gun Boots
401 Cruppers
401 Surcingles

Now just a few days before, on May 20th 1862, our friend Capt. Stockton sent to Grenada, among other things, 498 "Cloth" Valises.

I seem to recall that Ken's site has a pic of a cloth Valise on it?

Will MacDonald