Now would be a good time to get a CD

[Daryl Black]

Re: Now would be a good time to get a CD

Fellows,

I thought I'd jump in a play the devil's advocate for a bit concerning clothes for Chickamauga. There were most certainly blue trimmed jackets being worn by C. S. troops. At least one description of Stewart's division seems to suggest that at least a large body of those men were wearing Columbus type jackets. The jacket Joe Walker mentions is likely a Chickamauga relic worn by a man in a cavarly unit serving on escort duty with one of the high ranking C. S. officers (Polk, I think?).

On the other hand, the descriptions Lee has posted suggest a "come as you are" appearance. Indeed several of the quotes posted in the event folder come from troops serving in the units surrounding the 7th Texas. Without doubt there were issues of clothing made in Columbus going to the troops in Mississippi around the time of the fall of Jackson. But unless my memory fails, that was July 1863. That is a long time before these fellows got on the trains heading to Tennessee. Two other units (41st TN and 60th NC) serving in the same area of operations and that ended up at Chickamauga experienced problems with clothing issues through the summer of 1863. My overall sense based on my own reading, Lee's research, and Tom A's work is that a more appropriate unit impression would be a WIDE mixture of issue clothing, civilian attire, homemade military clothes all in a fairly well worn condition.

Daryl Black

P. S. The barefoot men of the army were assigned duty with the QM wagon trains. Bragg didn't want them impacting the army's ability to move quickly.

[coastaltrash]

Re: Now would be a good time to get a CD

Daryl,
One of the surviving jackets that was used during the campaign and well into the Siege of Vicksburg is still in relatively good shape and it saw some good usage. I would say that July-September 63 is not that long of a time for a garment or a company to be in absolute shambles or a mixed rag tag of clothing. We could sit and debate it all day long, both sides having great historical points, but the guidelines are set as they are for reasons.

[HighPrvt]

Re: Now would be a good time to get a CD

Between July, and Sept the 7th was just lounging around Enterprise, Mississippi . So one could surmise that they didn't put much "wear 'n' tear" on their uniforms.

[Daryl Black]

Re: Now would be a good time to get a CD

Wear does not come only from campaign activity. Camp duty, drill, etc. leads to everyday wear. Unless I'm remembering wrongly pants usually lasted about a month and a jacket about three -- I believe this pattern was mentioned in Jensen's old article and quoted a soldier source (Dickertt maybe?). Of course we could speculate all day long. However, we do know from brigade mates of the 7th and men in units surrounding the 7th getting issue clothes was a problem; and at least one Federal officer fighting in front of Gregg's brigade (Hinman, 65th Ohio) and one in a brigade that followed in Gregg's wake during the fighting on the 20th (3rd SC) noted the lack of uniformity of the western men.

Daryl

[LWhite64]

Re: Now would be a good time to get a CD

Not concerning wear or no wear, there should be more than just CDs being worn, we need more of a mix than that, too many accounts refer to the haphazard appearance of the western men.

Lee

[CYoungJSU]

Re: Now would be a good time to get a CD

I whole-heartedly agree with Lee and Daryl on this subject. Not being able to access any of my resources at the moment, I can give no specific accounts. The majority of accounts I have read concerning "western" troops engaged at Chickamauga show that a lack of uniformity prevailed. Remember Fremantle's comments about the "westerners" during the Tullahoma Campaign. Although there are accounts of companies being fairly well uniformed with CDs or the like (i.e. a letter from a captain, I believe, in the 13th/15th Arkansas), I am not a fan of the 1.2.3. method of preference. As Daryl stated, clothing did not last very long even when "active" campaigning did not occur. I think one also must take into consideration the availability of clothing provided by private citizens. Those soldiers from trans-mississipi states cut off by Federal control of the Mississippi River, must have needed to rely more heavily upon government clothing issuances than those from states not cut off or under total confederate control. I mean, let's look at Pvt. Johnson's (29th Ala.) frock that his mother provided that he was killed in at the Battle of Peachtree Creek in 1864. My opinion is not to hold too tight to those "rules" but allow a well defined mixture of clothing in the ranks. Just my humble observations from several years of research on western soldiers and Chickamauga.

Chris

[coastaltrash]

Re: Now would be a good time to get a CD

All,
I'm not disagreeing with the mixture of uniforms, but aren't the jackets listed in order of preference on the guidelines with resulting choices in case #1 is not available- that's why they are called guidelines and not standards. If someone does not have a CD, which not all people do, then follow the guidelines. If you go by that method you'll no doubt end up with a good variety although I felt the uniform appearance at the Chickamauga event in 2003 was mighty impressive.