English import hats

[oiffirefighter]

I know that the south relied heavily on Imported English arms and equipment. How common do you think English imported hats would have been in the confederate armies?

 

[RedRover]

Fred Adolphus has an excellent article on the subject, and he notes the Confederacy sought to import them throughout the war:

Adolphus: Two Reb Hats...

The Confederates, however, were always scarce of any surpluses to meet the government's needs for the troops. The cheap and unpopular army caps were issued in quantities but the men would discard them, and prefer even ragged or makeshift hats instead...
Washington Ives with the Army of Tennessee at Chattooga recorded a large army wide issue of uniforms in late 1863 which included caps which he damned as "miserable."

A year later not much different. A Union prisoner described the headgear of that army marching into Tennessee. A johnny took his US issue army hat and gave him an old "quilted cloth" hat. This was next taken by a reb who gave him a worn out "broken billed gray cap." Another took that and left him with a makeshift made from a floppy hat brim, whose crown was a piece of federal army overcoat cloth "whanged on" with cotton cord. The brim was also looped up on all sides by the same cord to keep the brim from flopping down...

Another Johnny noted his own quilted brown jeans hat, but also the wool felt hats of others;

"My equipment the last two years was a blanked rolled up and carried across my shoulder, and it contained a change of underclothes. Then shoes would wear out, and toward the last we were almost barefoot. As to hats, their variety of form and material was marvelous. Mine was made of brown jeans quilted. It could easily hold a quart or so of water soaked in on a rainy day. Some of the wool hats issued to the boys readily lent themselves to various attractive shapes; by pushing out the crown it became a high, peaked sugar loaf shape, which was often adorned with artistic figures according to the owner's taste, capacity, and coloring matter. With charcoal and pokeberry juice he could produce wonders of beast and bird architecture, and if he could adorn the apex with a bright colored ribbon he was the observed of all observers. When it came to jackets and trousers, the least said is the easiest understood."
Confederate soldiers at Pensacola in April, 1861:

Army of Northern Virginia, Sept., 1862:

Army of Northern Virginia Prisoners, May, 1864:

 

[Pollaco]

How many hats in the previous pictures do you think are British?

 

[iron bender]

How many hats in the previous pictures do you think are British?

zero

 

[oiffirefighter]

How many hats in the previous pictures do you think are British?

was going to ask the same question.

 

[oiffirefighter]

Reading the info from Adolphus ir seems maybe they were a little more prevalent than i originally thought.

 

[tullock]

zero

Wrong. Thousands of British hats were imported into the Confederacy and distributed to the Army. In 1864 alone $450,000 was set aside to buy 300,000 hats, one of which survives to this day. it belonged to T.V. Brooke of the 3rd Co Richmond Howitzers.

 

[major bill]

Wrong. Thousands of British hats were imported into the Confederacy and distributed to the Army. In 1864 alone $450,000 was set aside to buy 300,000 hats, one of which survives to this day. it belonged to T.V. Brooke of the 3rd Co Richmond Howitzers.

In1864 300,000 British hats would have almost provided one hat per Confederate soldier. 300,000 hats is a fair amount of headwear.

 

[iron bender]

Wrong. Thousands of British hats were imported into the Confederacy and distributed to the Army. In 1864 alone $450,000 was set aside to buy 300,000 hats, one of which survives to this day. it belonged to T.V. Brooke of the 3rd Co Richmond Howitzers.

I'm curious what sources you're using. I've only found evidence of 'cloth and parts' for manufacturing hats making it through blockade. I have no doubt that a wide variety of headgear 'British Made' made it's way into the South. Judging the above photos I wouldn't think any of this headgear to be made in England/Ireland. Always looking for good info. Thanks!

 

[Old Soldier]

Britsh wool hats could and would be imported, but they would have had to run the blockade - which was difficult in the later years of the War. Apparently, the black felt hats made in Britain were used by Virginian and Texan units probably before 1863 when the Blockade was not at it's peak.

Col. Julius A. Andrews, 32nd Texas Cavalry - POSSIBLE British hat.
(from: https://www.adolphusconfederateuniforms.com/two-rebel-hats.html)

There are a number of older threads on this site which have discussed it.

As in the case of rifles, they may have been imported for federal forces, but it may well be that the North already had an effective home source of hats. British industry was the origin of many imports to both sides, but not the only European source.

 

[ArroyoCostilla]

While records are fragmentary, between March 1863 and December 1864, vessels such as the Phantom, Wild Dayrell, and Alice delivered at least eighteen cases of wool & felt hats to Wilmington. While the size of packing containers varied, one shipment contained eighty dozen hats per case. Entrepot: Government Imports into the Confederate States (Edinborough Press: Roseville, MN 2010), pp. 100-128. Charleston likewise received large amounts of headwear: by way of but one example, the steamer General Beauregard delivered 120 cases of "hats and caps" to the city's docks on May 20, 1863. Entrepot at p. 152. These numbers do not include hats furnished the C.S. Quartermaster Department by the State of North Carolina. The State transferred at least 13,045 hats to the central Government between September 1861 and March 1864. Fayetteville Semi-Weekly Observer, June 20, 1864. Many of these hats may have been imported via State-owned steamers such as the Advance. Newspaper advertisements of the time likewise reflect substantial quantities of English wool and/or felt hats brought into the South on private account.

 

[tullock]

I'm curious what sources you're using. I've only found evidence of 'cloth and parts' for manufacturing hats making it through blockade. I have no doubt that a wide variety of headgear 'British Made' made it's way into the South. Judging the above photos I wouldn't think any of this headgear to be made in England/Ireland. Always looking for good info. Thanks!

The information you request is located in Quartermaster General Alen Lawton's papers, found in the Compiled Service Records. Besides the orders for the hats Lawton also estimated for the following British items... $787,000 worth of cloth for jackets, 200,000 pairs of blankets, $400,000 for shoes and leather, $125,000 flannel for shirts and $20,000 for thread and buttons.

 

[Old Soldier]

The various states of the Confederacy also ordered their own weapons and equipment, not just the Confederate Ordnance/Defense. However, with all these blockade-running vessels there was only a few ports that they would offload - and be recorded doing so. Wilmington was the main one, but others were used, especially Charleston, New Orleans, Mobile and Galveston. These reduced as the Federal forces captured the ports. No record seems to have been kept or survived for the vessels that navigated the wider rivers and offloaded at the smaller ports well inland.

Once off-loaded, they had to be distributed and the dire situation of the Confederate railways limited their distribution, the home state of the port being the obvious benefactor.