Milledgeville Depot Jacket Pattern

[Robert Saye]

Guys,

I am trying to locate a pattern for a Milledgeville Depot Jacket. I have searched the forum and web with no luck. Can someone point me in the right direction, as to who is selling this particular pattern?

[Southron Sanders, Sr.,]

Re: Milledgeville Depot Jacket Pattern

A few years ago I spent a lot of time at the Georgia Archives in Morrow, GA researching the Georgia Armory Rifle manufactured in Milledgeville during 'The Late Unpleasantness Between the States,' Back then, Milledgeville was the Capitol of Georgia. It was only after the war that the Georgia Carpetbagger government moved the capitol to Atlanta.

Located, literally across the street, from the Governor's Mansion in Milledgeville was the Georgia Penitentiary. The inmates worked at a variety of different jobs. For examples inside of the penitentiary was: (1) A wagon shop (2) A shoe shop (3) Furniture and Coffins shop. (4) A blacksmith shop. (5) After the outbreak of the war, the inmates sewed powder bags for cannon and loaded them with powder. (6) The inmates also made haversacks and canteens, etc.

Amazingly, in the late 1850's a railroad spur track from the Milledgeville Depot was laid to and into the penitentiary. Inmates constructed flatcars, boxcars and even passenger cars for the state owned Western & Atlantic Rail Road INSIDE the penitentiary!

At much expense, an armory was constructed INSIDE THE PENITENTIARY! This is where the Georgia Armory Rifles were turned out. In 1863 production of those rifles ceased (by then the central C.S. Government was supplying arms to the Georgia Regiments) and the armory was turned into a factory where cotton cards were made! The cotton card factory was a pet idea of Governor Joe Brown. The theory was that the state could sell cotton cards at a reasonable price to the ladies on Georgia who would use them to card, spin and weave cloth to be made into clothing and uniforms. Sale of the cotton cards would also help pay off Georgia's bond issues and war debts.

By the way, I did compare a list of the armory workers and inmates. NO INMATES WERE CARRIED ON THE ARMORY'S LIST OF WORKERS. This makes sense because the armory needed skilled machinists. If any inmates did work in the armory, I am sure they were confined to jobs requiring little or no skills.

I confined my research to the Adjutant General's records and those of the penitentiary. My feelings are that IF uniforms were made in Milledgeville-they were probably made in the penitentiary simply because the state had a large pool of free labor in the inmates. (Yes, I seem to recall several obscure references to uniforms being made in the penitentiary.)

What I did run across in the archives was something of a "Cottage Industry" uniform manufacturing operation that took place in Madison, GA (Madison is about 40 miles North of Milledgeville.) In this particular case, the ladies in town went to a central office ran by the state where they were issued cut out garments, buttons, thread, etc. They then carried those "kits" home and sewed them up into complete garments. They were paid so much for each garment they sewed up and returned to the central office. This had to be a State of Georgia operation simply because all of the records are in the state archives.

I would like to see some documentation on the "Milledgeville Depot" uniforms. I assume that since uniforms were made at Madison, GA, there would be a "Madison Depot" pattern also.

By the way-while the old Governor's Mansion still stands proudly, but the penitentiary is long gone. Today Georgia College and University stands on the site formerly occupied by the old prison!