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Re: Mississippi Uniforms
In Response To: Re: Mississippi Uniforms ()

As far as uniforms are concerned, clothing worn by soldiers in the field appears to have been anything but uniform. Uniforms issued to certain bodies of troops from time to time have been discussed on this board and others. For the most part, Fremantle's remarks about the typical Confederate soldier preferring to wear clothing from home are probably accurate.

Before passing the topic to someone else, I'll offer a description of Confederate soldiers on the march which appeals to me:

Old men and young boys, rich planters on blooded horses and Negro laborers on foot; farmers and clerks; grizzled hunters and tough keel-boat men; prosperous merchants and plain backwoodsmen.... Some wore black, full citizen's clothes, with beaver hats and frock coats; some in drab; some in gray, blue and streaked, some in red shirts, pants and high top boots; some in the old-fashioned militia uniforms of their forefathers. On they came, glutting narrow roads, overflowing into the forest; undulating, talking in smooth drawls or emitting shrill, terrifying cries -- as strangely assorted and colorful an army as ever human eye rested upon.

How's that for diversity? This is a description of troops who marched with the Army of the West under Van Dorn and Sterling Price in September of 1862, just prior to Battles of Iuka and Corinth. The quote appears in William M. Lammers, "The Edge of Glory; A Biography of General William S. Rosecrans, U.S.A., p. 100.

If I may offer one other quote to illustrate my point, here's Robert E. Lee's response to A. P Hill concerning the military deficiencies demonstrated by General Ambrose R. Wright during the Battle of Spotsylvania --

These men are not an army -- they are citizens defending their country. General Wright is not a soldier; he's a lawyer.

The soldiers know their duties better than the general officers do and they have fought magnificently. Sometimes I would like to mask troops and then deploy them, but if I were to give the proper orders, the general officers would not understand it; so I have to make the best of what I have and lose much time in making dispositions.

You understand all this, but if you humiliated General Wright, the people of Georgia would not understand. Besides, whom would I put in his place?

You'll have to do what I do: when a man makes a mistake, I call him to my tent, talk to him, and use the authority of my position to make him do the right thing the next time.

Douglas Southall Freeman, Robert E. Lee, vol. III, p. 331.

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