Uniforms Overcoats during the summer.

[major bill]

During much of the year soldiers needed overcoats, however during the summer months in some areas overcoats would not be needed. So were overcoats turned in or were the soldiers expected to retain their overcoats all summer long?

 

[Rusk County Avengers]

Probably worn out by the time spring came. They were outside in the elements all winter wearing during fatigue duty, and such. When its remembered how low quality some Northern contract garments were it seems more likely they were worn out. If they still had them there were the baggage trains, if they didn't throw them away.

Confederate greatcoats sent to the troops during the winter by loved ones were probably sent home come spring if they still had them to get the next winter.

 

[major bill]

The Confederacy did issue a fair amount of overcoats. In some areas of the south I would wonder how much wear they would have gotten over the winter. I would guess that both Union and Confederate soldiers would have worn out their worn out by summer. Still soldiers can not toss out worn out clothing before new clothing is issued, could they?

 

[Lampasas Bill]

"Some three weeks ago we received an order allowing us to pack up our overcoats, extra blanket if we had them, and send them to Washington to be kept for us during the summer campaign.... The boys gladly availed themselves of this opportunity.... Last year's experience having taught us the folly of trying to carry more than was necessary." --Private Wilbur Fisk, 2nd Vermont, April 1863.

 

[Tom Elmore]

Overcoats and other superfluous items not needed for an approaching summer campaign season were typically turned over to the Quartermaster Department to be stored:

(Civil War Letters of Hezron G. Day, C/16th Vermont) June 16 [1863], we have just packed up our overcoats in a box to send to Alexandria to stay until we come home. We do not need them now and we do not want to lug them in case we have to march anywhere. This makes our knapsacks quite light.

(Frederick Watkins, 4th New York Battery) June 6 [1863], camp near Falmouth, Va – we have been ordered to turn all our surplus baggage over to the Quartermaster, knapsacks and all unless we choose to keep those knapsacks, but if we do, we shall have to carry on our backs. Gen. Hooker has issued an order in which he cuts down every man's allowance of clothing: ... cannoneers allowed one blanket and the drivers one overcoat. The cannoneers are not allowed any overcoats, nor the drivers any blankets. The drivers being expected to use their horse-blankets and overcoat to sleep in.

(Voices from Company D, 5th Alabama) March 30, 1863, extra baggage in the army sent to Richmond for storage [beginning of the campaign season].

Officers might retain their overcoats and keep them in a dedicated officers' baggage wagon, but there was a risk involved:

(July 31, 1863 letter of Lt. William F. Baugh, G/61st Virginia) The wagoner lost my uniform coat, overcoat and all my blankets [the wagon was probably seized or destroyed by the enemy during the retreat from Gettysburg].

Overcoats were expensive:

(Autobiography of George P. Metcalf, D/136th New York) [late 1862 or early 1863] He was charged $13 [a month's pay for a private] for a lost overcoat, plus $2.50 for a lost army blanket.

 

[Arioch]

Sometimes...they just shipped them home...I know of one incident / correspondence in which a whole company shipped them home to Lock Haven Pa., with a buddy who was going on leave and going home for a month....everybody in the unit packed up the overcoats and sent them with him.

 

[DaveBrt]

The Confederate QM General was insistent that overcoats not be retained by the troops, but returned to main depots in the spring. He also delayed newly arrived overcoats from being issued, when he thought the coldest weather had already ended.

 

[major bill]

I wonder if the quartermasters made any effort to return the overcoats to the same unit the next winter. They probably did not.

 

[DaveBrt]

I wonder if the quartermasters made any effort to return the overcoats to the same unit the next winter. They probably did not.

They were cleaned and repaired, according to the QMG, and placed in storage. I'm sure even the North did not have enough warehouse space to segregated the coats by regiment for future re-issue to them.