Ross,

Could you please provide me with a proper source for this reference to the 3rd being barefoot and in tatters? I am familiar with Watson, but I do not recall him saying that the 3rd were anything but foot sore after marching over Boston Mountain.

Since my probing into the 3rd began about a week or so ago, I have heard many thing: Co. K, the Pelican Rifles (or sometimes Pelican Guards) were the company that William Watson belonged to, and it is he who mentions that his company - the only company of the 3rd that existed before the War - changed their green uniforms to a fatige uniform. In May it is said that Co. K had grey caps, but this would not prove that their uniforms were also grey.

The Iberville Greys had a zouave style uniform that they changed to a grey one, but a grey what? Grey zouave style uniform, solid grey? There is, however, a photo of a member of Co. A (Iberville Greys) with the caption of Captain ______ . However, this man did not become a Captain until after Gettysburg, and in the photo he wears no distinctive rank. Therefore, it might be that this is a photo of a man in uniform that would have been on the battlefield of Wilson's Creek. It is a solid grey uniform with applied pointed cuff; 8 button front with a button on the point of each cuff. He kepi appears to be dark blue with a black band around the bottom. A newspaper account of the Iberville Greys says that they also had a stripe of red going down the legs of their new uniform.

It was only these two companies - the Iberville Greys and the Pelican Rifles (or Guards) - that came from southern Louisiana; i.e. the Baton Rouge area. All the other companies were from northern parishes, which would have an affect upon their choice and availablity of cloth. Just because Louisiana was the 2nd wealthiest State in the Union at the start of the War did not mean that this wealth was evenly distributed. For the most part, in my research, those soldiers that came out of north Louisiana seem to have been a bit poor compared to their southern neighbors. A company that came out of Claiborne Parish were photographed with blue kepis and simply grey overshirts. Pvt. Rubin Nations of the 12th Louisiana (also made up of central and northern parishes) was photographed wearing a dark blue cotton jacket, as was another member of this same company.

Nic Clark