Entrepot is for those who have an interest in CS material culture. What was imported to the various Confederate Armies, where those items were manufactured, and how they got there.
Lon has info that every WBTS Living Historian, Reenactor/enthusiast would benefit from. Lon’s book gives specific sizes to British Knapsacks produced, gives accounts of the battle between having a knapsack, vs. blanket roll, the size of a Confederate produced ground/oil cloth…
Page after page of lists of items shipped in through the blockade will give you an idea of how England, (and other countries) were the arsenal of the Confederacy.
Lon’s book WILL challenge many preconceived notions about equipment carried by Confederate soldiers, what was popular with the ranks, and what was often discarded. Book is full of notes to back up what Lon is writing about, and information comes from every source imaginable…some we would never have known about.
An example of this is the account that Lon gives us about a receipt/invoice book (carried home as a souvenir, and was used as a scrap book for newspaper clippings after the war) for the Columbus Arsenal, dated Oct.8th, 1862, that lists the Arsenal received English accoutrements sent from the Charleston Arsenal…same records show that same month the Military Store Keeper at Columbus shipped to a Major J.D. Alexander at Little Rock the following…
50,000 musket caps
500 cavalry sabers
675 knapsacks
16,950 haversacks
1,908 canteens
3,600 wood canteens
2,918 canteen straps
1,124 mess tins & covers
Now, the list will leave someone asking what type of canteens were those shipped, or how those haversacks were made…we will never know, but at least in one shipment, we know what, and how many specific items were received.
Here’s the order of the Chapters:
1. The Arsenal of the World
2. Savannah, New Smyrna, Nashville and Beyond
3. Wilmington
4. Charleston
5. Mobile
6. Over the River and through the Woods: The Trans Mississippi Dept.
Appendix 1. Knapsacks and Mess Tins in the Cis-Mississippi
Appendix 2. English Horse Equipment
Appendix 3. Richmond Arsenal Store House: English Mess Tins
Appendix 4. Receipts, Issues and Memoranda: Richmond Arsenal Store House
Appendix 5. Testimony of Mr. Peter Tait
Appendix 6. Summary of Small Arms Importations
This is a must have book.
Kevin Dally