Artillery shirt?

[James Brenner]

What is an artillery shirt, does anyone know?

An entry in the Ohio QMG Order Book, July 1861, Series 1381, lists the following items for the consolidated Cotter/Williams Battery then with Cox on the Kanawha campaign: 84 caps and covers; a similar number of artillery jackets, 84 white shirts, 84 artillery shirts, 15 pair reinforced pants, 69 pair of pants, 84 drawers, 84 black overcoats, and 168 pairs of socks.

 

[Dan Kohli]

I don't know what it means by artillery shirts, but my guess is that it's a Ohio militia/volunteer issue uniform thing. The U.S. Regular Army did not have such a shirt particular to artillery in the uniform regulations.

 

[James Brenner]

I don't know what it means by artillery shirts, but my guess is that it's a Ohio militia/volunteer issue uniform thing. The U.S. Regular Army did not have such a shirt particular to artillery in the uniform regulations.

Thanks. I wondered about that, too. Both Cotter's and Williams Batteries were pre-war militia units, but they were one-gun sections with perhaps 20 men in each. Would there be that many non-standard, militia-specific shirts in Columbus?

I wonder if artillery shirts might be red Garibaldi shirts.

The only other reference I've found is from the Stark County Republican which noted that there were twenty-six men "fully equipped and uniformed" when Williams joined Cox's brigade. (11 July)

 

[Dan Kohli]

I wonder if artillery shirts might be red Garibaldi shirts.

While I think that they would probably be an over shirt it, it might not exactly the same as a Garibaldi shirt.