Socks and Brogans

[ds1999]

I was wondering what socks the original soldiers would have worn. I have seen reenactors wear just cotton socks or just wool socks. I have also seen guys wear cotton under wool. I am wondering which way is period correct.

[rmilstead]

Re: Socks and Brogans

Daniel,

You do not specifically state whether your question is related to Federal or Confederate troops and during what period of the War. I would first off suggest that you attempt to contact Karin Timour as to the specifics of the types and styles of socks worn in the period. She has a wealth of knowledge on period socks and other knit items besides being the maker of phenomenal reproductions of period stocks and stockings. Much of the information below was gleaned from my conversations with her on the subject. I will let others address the Federal side of things and stick to the Southern side.

Confederate soldiers received socks from numerous sources. Wives, mothers, sisters and others provided these basic items to them from the “Home Front”. Patterns for knitting socks for soldiers were published in newspapers for their use in making them but many already were prolific knitters and had made socks for use at home before the conflict. After Gettysburg, when soldier’s needs were high, newspapers in South exhorted “state bureaus, the Associations, and the Ladies’ Societies …to be engaged heart and soul, in supplying … (the troops) for the coming winter”. Such societies collected large numbers of items like socks and forwarded them for distribution in the field throughout the War. Robert E Lee’s wife was a prolific knitter of socks for her husband’s troops sending bundles along for the General to distribute. She even received shipments of woolen and cotton yarns from the Richmond Depot to facilitate her sock knitting activities.

The Quartermaster Department, of course, also provided socks to troops through the requisition and issue process. The principle sources for QM issue socks were mills within the South and importation through the Blockade. Contracts with sock factories in Georgia and South Carolina supplied large numbers of socks for the Army. Due to domestic wool shortages, however, most of the socks from these producers, at least in the second half of the War, were undoubtedly cotton. At the end of 1863, Confederate authorities were negotiating with English brokers for “strong woolen socks”. The CS Quartermaster’s agent in England was instructed in October 1863 to procure as many as 600,000 pairs for delivery through the Blockade. Most of the English sock manufacturing operations were located in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Factory manufactured socks at this time in both the South and Britain were being partially made on knitting machines but were finished by hand. Period circular knitting machines were developed and widely marketed in the 1850’s but, unlike today’s versions, were not capable of completing the heels and toes. These had to be completed by hand. Typically, partially finished socks were provided to “home workers” who would do the heels and toes as piece work. The methods used in finishing to toes and heels differed from common finishing method adopted in the late 19th Century and still used today which uses a seamless construction but instead involves “bind-off” techniques that produce a little ridge that looks like a tiny braid on the side of the toe and a seam on the underside of the heel.

While others opinion may vary, if you talk with Karin she will, I believe, strongly suggest that you stick with woolen socks as opposed to cotton (at least she did with me!). I tend to agree with her having worn both. I have never read accounts of soldiers wearing both wool and cotton at the same time while that doesn’t say that such never occurred. Perhaps there is some benefit but I would personally stick with a pair of correctly made, properly fitting woolen socks.

Just my $0.02

Dick Milstead
Hardaway’s Alabama Battery
The Company of Military Historians

[ds1999]

Re: Socks and Brogans

Thank you for the response and sorry for not clarifying. I portray a Federal soldier.

[rmilstead]

Re: Socks and Brogans

Daniel,
Again if you can contact Karin I'm sure she has good info. Generally, wool was not a problem in the North. The "Home front" was still a major source for soldier's socks including Soldier's Aid Societies. I am attaching two pictures from the Danish Museum collection of pre war Federal issue socks. Probably they are very similar to many contracted for by the Union for issue to the troops in the field. Others may be able to add further information on that was being provided.
Good luck.
Dick Milstead
Hardaway's Alabama Battery
The Company of Military Historians