Essential books for Confederate uniforms.

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Forum Host
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Aug 25, 2012
I have been thinking about expanding the Confederate uniform books in my library. I have a reasonably number of books on Confederate uniforms but probably am missing a few. What are the essential Civil War uniform books? I will post some suggestions for members building a reference library. These are in no particular order and i wanted to see what other forum members think of the information in these books.

Book one to is to better understand Confederate uniforms worn at Gettysburg. The information is scholarly and not hard to understand. The book at 124 pages long has 220 foot notes which is fairly good for a book of this type.The book has a extensive Nice Bibliography. the book has a helpful Glossary of terms. This book is fairly low priced and affordable to everyone. The down side is the book is in black and white and several photographs, uniforms on bodies, are not clear enough to be very useful.

I put this book into the "got to have" column.



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Book Two. This is a reprint of the Confederate States 1861 uniform regulation.

The book has nice color illustrations and has the Confederate States army and navy uniform regulations. The down side is the nice color illustrations do not truly match what was usually worn.

I put this book in the 'nice to have" column.

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Now two books from the Osprey Men-At-Arms series. These are early Men-At-Arms books and although they give some information about the Stonewall brigades and The Army of Northern Virginia they are short on information about uniforms. The Army of Northern Virginia has some nice color illustrations.

I would put The Stonewall Brigade on my "not really needed" column.
I would put The Army of Northern Virginia on my "nice to have list" due to the color illustrations

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Entrepot, by Lon Webster III
Imported Confederate Uniforms of Peter Tait & Co., Limerick, Ireland, by Frederick Adolphus
Suppliers to the Confederacy, Vols. I & II, by Craig Barry and David Burt
Echoes of Glory, Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy, by Time Life Books

For other more detailed articles on specific depot uniforms check out Frederick Adolphus's and Chris Daley's websites at:
http://adolphusconfederateuniforms.com/index.html
http://www.cjdaley.com/research.htm

Cheers,
Garrett
 
Leslie D. Jensen had articles in the Company of Military Historians Journal by the title A Survey of Confederate Central Government quartermaster Issued Jackets. These were published in the fall of 1989 issue and Winter 1989 issue. The Company of Military Historians & Collector does not have any back issues but you can go to their web site and down load these articles.

Click on "publications" then click "click here for more information" and look for the articles.

I would put these in the "got to have" column.
 
Leslie D. Jensen had articles in the Company of Military Historians Journal by the title A Survey of Confederate Central Government quartermaster Issued Jackets. These were published in the fall of 1989 issue and Winter 1989 issue. The Company of Military Historians & Collector does not have any back issues but you can go to their web site and down load these articles.

Click on "publications" then click "click here for more information" and look for the articles.

I would put these in the "got to have" column.

You can read Les Jensen's three part article online.
 
Now two books from the Osprey Men-At-Arms series. These are early Men-At-Arms books and although they give some information about the Stonewall brigades and The Army of Northern Virginia they are short on information about uniforms. The Army of Northern Virginia has some nice color illustrations.

I would put The Stonewall Brigade on my "not really needed" column.
I would put The Army of Northern Virginia on my "nice to have list" due to the color illustrations

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A kepi/forage cap found in the Stonewall Brigade field hospital after the battle of Kernstown, has glass buttons, leather brim, cotton batten and what appears to be a lining made from a fleur de lis pattern drapery material.

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@major bill ,thanks for the sources in this thread but I was wondering, do you happen to have any sources for the origin of Confederate army officer rank insignia? One of those issues that I have been curious about, but have never found any definitive sources for. I’ve always wondered if they had any connection to the Mexican army due to the experiences of so many CW officers in the war with that country.
 
Great thread! How are the Ron Field books on the individual states?

I will mention all the Confederate Faces books. It doesn't give any written info about the uniforms, but just looking at the hundreds of different types of clothing the Confederates had is mind boggling. Other than the main Richmond and Columbus Depot issues, it's hard to find two uniforms alike.
 
For those who are not sure what GMSorrel is talking about he is asking about the Six osprey books Ron Field wrote about the Confederate states uniforms. Reviewing six books is a bit hard. Let us discuss what Mr. Field did.

Mr. Filed gives some of the uniforms of each state Antebellum militia at the start of the war. Then Mr. Field goes on the tells how the states provided the uniforms and then what the uniforms were and how they changed. He then goes into the arms and equipment provide. Each book has 24 or so uniforms in plates rendered by Richard Hook. There are also many photos.

I like this series and think the best part is how the states provide uniforms and what those uniforms were. The down side is there is not much information presented after the first year so as most states were issuing uniforms from the Confederate depots. This is the Book for South Carolina & Mississippi.

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Philip Katcher did a five book Osprey series about Civil War uniforms. He had the plate done by Ron Volstad and each book shows 24 uniforms and the series has 51 Confederate uniforms in color.

I like this series as well and would generally suggest it. The down side is there is not enough space to fully cover the subject and each state so the books lack too much detail. Only one book is completely about the Confederate uniforms so you will have to by three books that cover Union and Confederate uniforms. Still one should probably get them. The one shown below is the best one for the Confederacy and does a fair job. like all Osprey books there are no end notes so you can not verify the sources.

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Although a bit old this is a must have book. These came out in a four volume set and a two volume reprint. Sorry these are not cheep, but worth the investment.
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Although a bit old this is a must have book. These came out in a four volume set and a two volume reprint. Sorry these are not cheep, but worth the investment.

Speaking both about this set and the Osprey books at-large; you´ll find both previews and a sizeable (and searchable!) portion of them at google-books ... and alternatively many of the picture pages at pinterest (though mostly missing detailed description).
 
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