TEXT: Lincoln’s 90-Day 
  Volunteers 1861
  From Fort Sumter to First Bull Run
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  Men-at-Arms
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  Lincoln’s 90-Day 
  Volunteers 1861
  From Fort Sumter to First Bull Run
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  Series editor Martin Windrow
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  3
  LINCOLN’S 90-DAY VOLUNTEERS 
  1861
  THE CALL TO ARMS
  O
  n April 15, 1861, Abraham Lincoln, the only recently inaugurated 
  President of the United States, issued “a Call to Arms” following 
  the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South 
  Carolina, and its surrender to troops representing the seven seceded 
  Confederate States of the lower South. In anticipation of a short 
  conflict, the president asked the loyal northern and border states 
  for 75,000 militiamen for just 90 days’ service to put down the 
  rebellion.1 Lincoln made this request under an act of Congress 
  dated February 28, 1795, for “calling out the militia to execute the 
  laws of the Union, to suppress insurrection, [and] to repel invasion.” 
  His call was rendered necessary by the fact that at the outbreak 
  of war the regular US Army numbered only 16,367 officers and men 
  in widely dispersed units, the majority in coastal forts or on the distant 
  Western frontier, while by April 15 the Confederate States already 
  had some 35,000 men under arms. The initial quota of troops required 
  from each state was as follows:
  Pennsylvania: 16 regiments, subsequently reduced to 14, then increased 
  to 25; New York: 11 regiments (one of which served for only 30 days); 
  Ohio: 13 regiments; Indiana and Illinois: 6 regiments each; New Jersey: 
  4  regiments; Connecticut: 3 regiments; Massachusetts: 2 regiments, 
  increased to 5, plus one battalion and a battery; Maine, New Hampshire, 
  Vermont, Rhode Island, Delaware, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa: a single 
  regiment each.
  Although not included in the Presidential call, Minnesota also offered 
  one regiment, which was accepted. The border “slave states” of Maryland, 
  Kentucky, Missouri, plus the upper slave states of Arkansas, North Carolina, 
  Tennessee, and Virginia – which at that date had not yet decided on 
  secession – also received requisitions for troops, but failed to comply.
  Each of the regiments received into Federal service was to be of 
  infantry or riflemen; although no cavalry were required, one Pennsylvania 
  troop was offered and accepted. As originally ordered, each of these 
  regiments, assembled from smaller volunteer units, was to consist of 
  an  aggregate of 780 officers and men organized into ten companies. 
  The total to be called out was thus 73,391. The remainder was made up by 
  the militia of the District of Columbia, which actually furnished 4,720 men. 
  In addition, western Virginia and Kansas supplied 900 and 650 men 
  respectively, making a grand total of 91,816 of these 90-day volunteers. 
  1 
  The initial call for the mobilization of volunteers in the South was rather more realistic; both six-month 
  and twelve-month terms of service were authorized by the Confederate States Congress on March 6, 1861. For 
  categories of Confederate militia and volunteers, see MAA 423, The Confederate Army 1861–65 (1): South Carolina 
  & Mississippi, page 4.
  Having enrolled in the Lowell 
  City Guard, 6th Massachusetts 
  Volunteer Militia on January 21, 
  1861, Luther Ladd was killed by 
  the pro-secessionist mob as his 
  regiment passed through 
  Baltimore on April 19. According 
  to a contemporary account, he 
  was shot in the thigh and “bled 
  to death at once.” He wears 
  the full-dress uniform still used 
  by the 6th Massachusetts after 
  its reorganization from the 
  5th Regiment of Light Infantry, 
  MVM, in 1855. This consisted 
  of an 1851-pattern cap with 
  pompon, a dark blue coatee 
  with white trim and fringed 
  epaulets, and light blue trousers. 
  Characteristic of Massachusetts 
  volunteers, his waist belt is 
  black while his shoulder belt 
  is whitened buff leather. 
  (Lowell Historical Society)
  i
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  fro
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  4
  CHRONOLOGY
  November 1860 
  Abraham Lincoln wins presidential election.
  December 20 1861 South Carolina secedes from the Union.
  January–April 
  Secession of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, 
  Louisiana, and Texas.
  February 8–9 
  Provisional Confederate States government is 
  established, and elects Jefferson Davis as president. 
  Widespread seizure of US military facilities in South.
  March 4 
  Inauguration of President Lincoln.
  March 6 
  President Davis calls for 100,000 Confederate 
  volunteers for 6 or 12 months’ service. 
  April 12–14 
  Fighting begins with bombardment of Fort Sumter 
  by South Carolina forces under BrigGen Pierre G.T. 
  Beauregard; Federal garrison surrenders.
  April 15 
  President Lincoln calls for volunteers for 3 months’ 
  service. 
  April 17–May 24 
  Virginia secedes, followed by Arkansas, Tennessee, and 
  North Carolina, and Kentucky declares its neutrality.
  April 19 
  President 
  Lincoln 
  declares 
  blockade 
  of 
  Confederate ports.
  May 24 
  Virginia militia occupy Alexandria area, and establish 
  batteries controlling Potomac River approaches to 
  Washington, DC.
  July 2 
  Lincoln calls for 300,000 volunteers for three years’ 
  service.
  June–July 
  Both sides assemble motley armies of ill-trained and
  Operations in 
  often inadequately officered troops between the two
  Virginia 
  capitals – Washington, DC, and Richmond, VA. 
  Brigadier General Irvin McDowell commands the 
  Union Army of Northeastern Virginia (later, “of 
  the Potomac”). Beauregard emplaces Confederate 
  troops around strategic rail hub of Manassas Junction 
  south of Bull Run River.
   
  Western Virginia campaign: Leading Ohio volunteers, 
  Union MajGen George B. McClellan clears western 
  Virginia; actions at Philippi (June 3) and Rich 
  Mountain/ Carrick’s Ford (July 17).
   Eastern Virginia: Skirmish at Big Bethel near 
  Union-held Fortress Monroe (June 10).
   Shenandoah Valley campaign, northern Virginia: 
  Confederate commander BrigGen Joseph E. Johnston, 
  with Col Thomas J. Jackson leading one of his brigades, 
  outmaneuvers the hesitant Union commander 
  BrigGen Robert Patterson.
   First Bull Run (Manassas) campaign: Prompted by 
  Northern political clamor for an advance on 
  Richmond, and the imminent end of his volunteers’ 
  90-day term of service, McDowell advances toward 
  Manassas Junction (July 16). Johnston’s Confederate 
  corps slips away from BrigGen Patterson’s surveillance 
  in the Shenandoah Valley and hurries east, arriving to 
  Photographed wearing full 
  dress in camp in 1860, the 
  7th New York State Militia was 
  one of the first regiments to 
  rush to the defense of the 
  Federal capital in April 1861, 
  having received a special call 
  from President Abraham Lincoln. 
  (Author’s collection)
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  5
  link with Beauregard at Manassas from July 20. On 
  July 21, McDowell – with only two experienced 
  US  regular battalions among his 28,500 troops 
  deployed – makes piecemeal attacks, and attempts a 
  right-flanking maneuver for which his staff and troops 
  are insufficiently trained. The attack is checked by 
  Jackson’s speedy movement, and by his  Virginian 
  brigade “standing like a stone wall.” The Union army 
  flees in confusion, covered by rearguard actions by 
  MajGen George Sykes’s regular infantry and Maj Innis 
  Palmer’s regular cavalry battalions.2 Union casualties 
  are some 2,700, and would have been greater had 
  President Davis authorized a pursuit; the Confederates 
  suffer about 1,980 casualties.
  2 
  The US Infantry Battalion comprised Cos C & K, 2nd US Inf Regt; Cos B, D, G, H & K, 3rd US Inf; and Co G, 
  8th US Infantry. Serving with it in Gen Porter’s 1st Brigade of Gen Hunter’s Second Division was the US Cavalry Bn, 
  comprising Cos A & E, 1st US Cav Regt; Cos B, E, G & I, 2nd US Cav; and Co K, 2nd US Dragoons. The US 
  Marine Bn which also served in this brigade was almost entirely composed of new recruits, so was not comparable 
  to these two units in terms of experience.
  Pennsylvania 
  Patterson’s Virginia campaign: Cavalry Troop, 1st–3rd Regts; 6th–17th; 
  20th; 21st; 23rd; 24th; 25th (and at Washington, DC) 
  Alexandria, Virginia: 4th, 5th
  New York 
  Garrison duty at/near Washington, DC: 5th (also Patterson’s VA 
  campaign); 6th (and guard duty in Maryland); 7th (30 days only); 12th 
  (also Patterson’s VA campaign); 25th; 28th
  Guard duty in Maryland: 6th (and at Washington, DC); 13th; 20th 
  First Bull Run campaign: 8th; 69th; 71st
  Ohio
  Western Virginia campaign: 14th–23rd
  First Bull Run campaign: 1st; 2nd
  Indiana
  Western Virginia campaign: 6th–10th; 11th (and guard duty in Maryland)
  Illinois
  Garrison duty, Illinois: 7th (Cairo and Mound City; and at St Louis, MO); 
  8th (Cairo); 9th; 10th; 11th (and at Bird Point, MO); 12th
  New Jersey
  First Bull Run campaign (uncommitted reserves): 1st–4th
  Massachusetts
  Garrison duty at Fortress Monroe, VA: 3rd; 4th (and Big Bethel 
  campaign)
  First Bull Run campaign: 5th
  Guard duty: 6th (Baltimore and Relay House, MD); 8th (Washington, 
  DC, and Relay House); 3rd Bn (Annapolis and Baltimore); Artillery 
  (Annapolis and Relay House)
  Maine Garrison duty at Washington, DC: 1st
  New Hampshire Patterson’s Virginia campaign: 1st
  Vermont Big Bethel campaign, and garrison duty Fortress Monroe, 
  VA: 1st
  Rhode Island First Bull Run campaign: 1st
  Connecticut First Bull Run campaign: 1st–3rd
  Delaware Guard duty in Maryland: 1st
  Michigan First Bull Run campaign: 1st
  Wisconsin Patterson’s Virginia campaign: 1st
  Iowa Wilson’s Creek campaign, Missouri (August): 1st
  District of Columbia Garrison duty, Washington, DC: 8 battalions
  Service of 90-Day Volunteers, 1861
  First Division (Tyler): 
  1st Brigade (Keyes) 
  1st–3rd Connecticut (all*), 2nd Maine (***)
  2nd Bde (Schenck) 
  2nd New York (***), 1st & 2nd Ohio (both*)
  3rd Bde (Sherman) 
  13th, 69th, & 79th New York (all*), 2nd Wisconsin (***)
  4th Bde (Richardson) 
  1st Massachusetts (***), 2nd & 3rd Michigan (both***), 
  12th New York (*)
  Second Div (Hunter): 
  1st Bde (Porter) 
  14th & 27th New York (both***), US Infantry Bn, US Marine Bn
  2nd Bde (Burnside)  
  2nd New Hampshire, (***), 71st New York (*), 1st Rhode Island (*).
  2nd Rhode Island (***)
  Note: Includes units raised for, or converted to, terms over 90 days.
  * = 90-day unit; **= 2-year unit; ***=3-year unit.
  Third Div (Heintzelman): 
  1st Bde (Franklin) 
  5th Massachusetts (*), 11th Massachusetts (***), 
  1st Minnesota (*** from May 10)
  2nd Bde (Wilcox) 
  1st Michigan (*), 4th Michigan, 11th & 38th New York (all***)
  3rd Bde (Howard) 
  3rd, 4th & 5th Maine, 2nd Vermont (all***)
  Fourth (Reserve) Div (Runyon): 
  No brigade organization 
  1st–4th New Jersey (all*), 41st New York (all***),
  Fifth Div (Miles): 
  1st Bde (Blenker) 
  8th New York (**), 29th, & 39th New York, 
  27th Pennsylvania (all***)
  2nd Bde (Davies) 
  16th, 18th, 31st, & 32nd New York (all***) 
  Union infantry at First Bull Run (First Manassas), July 21, 1861
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  6
  UNITS, UNIFORMS, & EQUIPMENT
  PENNSYLVANIA
  The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was required to provide 16 regiments, 
  although this was reduced to 14 several days later. Those accepted consisted 
  of the eight Philadelphia regiments, while separate militia companies 
  were recruited throughout the state. As the authorities were concerned 
  about the condition of these volunteers, amounting to over 400 companies, 
  permission was granted for the raising of new units. As a result, a total of 
  25 regiments were actually recruited, and the Federal government 
  was induced to accept them all. Those from Philadelphia consisted of 
  the 17th through 24th Infantry, while those organized elsewhere throughout 
  the state were the 1st through 16th and 25th regiments.
  The first State troops to reach Washington, DC, following Lincoln’s 
  initial call were from Pennsylvania. During the early hours of April 18, 
  five companies amounting to 530 men – composed of the Ringgold Light 
  Artillery, Logan Guards, Allen Rifles, Washington Artillery, and National 
  Light Infantry – arrived in the city. In the capital, the National Republican 
  of April 19 reported: “Some of the men say that they came off in 
  such haste that they did not take time to prepare for the journey, but 
  came off in their working clothes from their places of business.” Only 
  the Logan Guards, amounting to 34 men, carried Springfield muskets, 
  and these were without ammunition; however, one man carried a box 
  of percussion caps, which he distributed amongst his comrades. Hence, 
  with muskets capped and carried half-cocked at “support arms,” they 
  had fooled the pro-Confederate mob into thinking their weapons were 
  loaded while the militiamen passed unmolested through pro-secessionist 
  Baltimore, Maryland. The arrival of these troops caused great rejoicing 
  in the capital, and gained for them the title of “The First Defenders.” 
  These companies eventually entered three months’ service as part of 
  the 25th Pennsylvania.
  Many of the companies forming the three-month regiments from 
  this state wore prewar full-dress or fatigue uniforms. As the only cavalry 
  unit accepted at this stage in the war, the wealthy First Troop, Philadelphia 
  City Cavalry provided their own service uniforms, plus horses and 
  equipments, which cost between $300 and $500 per man. Other companies, 
  such as the Philadelphia Zouaves and the National Guards, also wore 
  distinctive uniforms.
  Uniform procurement
  In order to prepare for war, Pennsylvania set about clothing its volunteers 
  in uniforms based on Federal regulations. With the reorganization of 
  the State Military Establishment on April 12, Reuben C. Hale was appointed 
  Quartermaster-General. Challenged with the task of finding uniforms 
  for the flood of volunteers, Governor Andrew Curtin sent state agent 
  Robert Martin, with Capt George Gibson of the US Army, to Philadelphia 
  to purchase cloth. By April 23, Martin had established a “uniform 
  manufactory” at the Girard House, a recently vacated hotel off 
  Market Street in that city. Four days later the Philadelphia press was able 
  to report that about 23,000 garments had been produced by 30 cutters 
  and 525 females employed in sewing.
  A Pennsylvania rifle company 
  formed in 1858, the 
  Sarsfield Rifles became part 
  of the Rifle Battalion of 
  Philadelphia. Unusually, the 
  “hunting shirt”-style coat worn 
  by this enlisted man has a 
  2in-long fringe around the skirts 
  (see Plate A1). The Philadelphia 
  Rifle Battalion was expanded 
  into the German Rifle Regiment 
  or 21st Pennsylvania Infantry for 
  three months’ service in April 
  1861. (Author’s collection)
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  7
  Probably referring to the city regiments, the Philadelphia 
  Inquirer of April 30 stated: “Most of the volunteers who are 
  about starting South have been furnished with the new 
  regulation garments.” By the month’s end the same journal 
  commented that “The State order for 10,000 suits of clothing, 
  is rapidly approaching completion… Some of the garments 
  are entirely finished, and most of the hands are now busy 
  on sack coats and overcoats.” According to the Daily Patriot 
  of Harrisburg, dated April 23, the uniforms being made were 
  “neat, serviceable, becoming, and exceedingly comfortable. 
  Blue sack coats loose and easy to the form; blue pantaloons cut 
  large and free, gray flannel shirts, open at the neck, and fatigue 
  caps,” which contrasted “favorably with the tight padded coats, 
  leather stocks and hats, shakos, &c., of other times.”
  Several weeks later the volunteers began to receive 
  uniforms. Those at Camp Slifer, Chambersburg, were in 
  possession of some contract clothing by May 9, as two days 
  later the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that all the companies 
  composing the 7th, 8th, and 10th Pennsylvania had received 
  their “blouse, pants and gray shirts.” The 2nd Pennsylvania 
  at Camp Scott, York, received its issue on May 13; according 
  to a letter published in the Columbia Spy on May 18, this 
  consisted of a “blue blouse (coarse in material and make), 
  gray trousers, blue cap and gray overcoat.”
  Complaints soon began to be heard about the poor quality 
  of uniforms. A letter in the Pittsburgh Gazette on May 29 from an enlisted 
  man in the 12th Pennsylvania stated: “Of the clothing furnished us lately… 
  Our blouses are of every shade, dark and light blue, dark and light gray 
  – they are the only serviceable articles of clothing we have received, and 
  they are dear at a dollar and a half. I would not give a farmer’s ‘wamus’ 
  for two of them.” Regarding the pants, the correspondent complained that 
  they “gave way the first time I stooped, the waist or body band going up 
  with the suspenders, the seat and legs dropping down.” Some inferior 
  headgear also appears to have been produced; on May 30, the Philadelphia 
  Inquirer advised that the caps furnished the 1st Pennsylvania were “scarcely 
  a hue of their original color. The blue has entirely deserted them, and they 
  now have the foxy red appearance which common blue cloth colored 
  with logwood assumes after a few days exposure to wind and rain.”
  The poor state of clothing at the capital came to the attention of 
  Governor Curtin, who immediately dispatched Benjamin Haywood, a 
  “prominent citizen of Schuylkill county,” to observe the condition of 
  the Pennsylvania regiments. By May 28, Haywood reported that the 
  25th Pennsylvania quartered at the Arsenal were “not badly off,” having 
  received Federal-issue uniforms via a directive originally issued by 
  Secretary of War Simon Cameron on April 23. However, the 4th and 5th 
  Pennsylvania were found to be “suffering greatly” with blouses and pants 
  of “all colors, and made of damaged goods of inferior quality, mostly 
  of ‘shoddy’ and some of ‘Kentucky jean.’ ”
  As late as July 19, the 19th Pennsylvania paraded in Baltimore “still 
  clad in the miserable dirty gray, old pantaloons and roundabouts…”. 
  According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Quite a number of facetious 
  fellows… by way of practically demonstrating the swindle practiced 
  Organized into a regiment  
  of eight companies in 1860, the 
  National Guards of Philadelphia 
  had adopted a new uniform in 
  February 1859, which consisted 
  of a gray tail coat with black 
  and gold trim including fringed 
  epaulets, matching trousers with 
  a broad black stripe, and a black 
  dress cap with black pompon. 
  Note the chevrons-and-diamond 
  of this first sergeant. This 
  regiment tendered its services 
  to the Federal government on 
  April 16, 1861, and served 
  for three months as the 19th 
  Pennsylvania Infantry. (Anne S.K. 
  Brown Military Collection)
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  8
  upon them, had immense red patches conspicuously displayed 
  on portions of their garments. When drawn up in line these 
  scarlet appendages looked remarkably funny, and told more 
  forcibly than language how shamefully those exhibiting them 
  had been cheated.”
  Indictment of profiteers
  Much of the inferior clothing produced at the Girard House 
  factory in Philadelphia was the result of a contract issued by 
  Charles “Bucky” Neal, a lawyer and “special agent” of Governor 
  Curtin, to Frowenfeld & Morganstern, a group of Pittsburgh 
  businessmen, for $22,385-worth of uniforms to be made from 
  cloth purchased in Philadelphia. On June 16 this firm plus 
  “Bucky” Neal were indicted for fraud in furnishing inferior 
  clothing to the Commonwealth. Preliminary proceedings 
  were held on July 2; the case against them finally came before 
  the Criminal Court in Pittsburgh on April 2, 1862, when the 
  Morganstern brothers and two of the Frowenfeld brothers were 
  “ready and anxious to have their case disposed of.” As Emanuel 
  and Maurice Frowenfeld, plus “Bucky” Neal, were absent and 
  “supposed to be in Europe,” Judge Thomas Mellon stated that 
  “the parties who had fled to avoid a trial should be presumed 
  dishonest,” while those who presented themselves in court were 
  acquitted, being adjudged in the Pittsburgh Gazette of April 3, 1862 
  to have “borne up manfully under a tremendous pressure of 
  public opinion.”
  Meanwhile, by May 23, 1861, the Quartermaster-General’s 
  office at Harrisburg had issued further contracts to reclothe 
  about 15,000 volunteers, requesting “Indigo blue flannel blouses,” 
  “Blue Army Cloth Trousers,” “Blue Cloth Caps, Army Regulation,” 
  and “Light Blue Army Cloth Overcoats.” As a result, new uniforms 
  were issued to the 4th and 5th Pennsylvania, which were “in 
  actual service and in great need of proper clothing.” Both of 
  these regiments had been assigned to the 1st Brigade, Third 
  Division, Army of Northeastern Virginia. On June 15, the 5th 
  Pennsylvania was inspected at Alexandria, VA, and the Philadelphia Inquirer 
  reported on the changed appearance of the regiment, stating that it 
  was  difficult to believe they were “the same men who were formerly 
  designated as the ‘Ragged Fifth.’ ” On June 16, a member of the Eagle 
  Guards (Co H, 4th Pennsylvania), encamped outside Washington, wrote 
  a letter to the Central Press of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, stating: “The old 
  ‘uniforms’ furnished us by the State in the first instance have been 
  replaced by others of a substantial nature, together with cartouche-boxes, 
  knapsacks, provision sacks, canteens, &c.”
  NEW YORK
  The Empire State provided 11 militia regiments totaling 8,450 men. These 
  consisted of the 5th through 8th, 12th, 13th, 28th, 69th, and 71st regiments 
  from New York and Brooklyn, the 20th from Kingston, and the 25th from 
  Albany. All left the state for Washington, DC, Annapolis, MD, or Fortress 
  Monroe, VA, between April 19 and 27, 1861. As a result of a thriving 
  militia system, the New York volunteers were mostly well-uniformed.
  Entitled “Pair of Pantaloons after 
  Four Days’ Wear at Camp Scott,” 
  and “A White-Pine Sole Army 
  Shoe, after Three Days’ Wear,” 
  these engravings were published 
  in the Philadelphia Inquirer on 
  May 21, 1861 to expose the 
  “barefaced robbery” of the 
  military suppliers providing 
  clothing and footwear for the 
  troops at Camp Scott, near York, 
  Pennsylvania. (Author’s collection)
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  9
  The 5th through 8th New York State Militia
  Composed principally of Germans from New York City, the 5th New York 
  State Militia (NYSM), or Jefferson Guard, wore “dark gray pants, dark 
  blue coats and caps, and army overcoats” when they sailed for Fortress 
  Monroe on April 27, according to the New York Herald. The 6th NYSM, 
  or Governor’s Guard, left for Washington, DC, on April 21 wearing 
  “the  dress cap and pompon, the uniform frock coat and overcoat, 
  and pants” based on New York State dress regulations of 1858. Essentially 
  the uniform adopted by the US Army in 1854, this was composed of a 
  dark blue frock coat and sky-blue pants with an 1854-pattern dress cap. 
  Fatigue jackets were packed in knapsacks. Much of this clothing was soon 
  replaced by jackets, trousers, hats and overcoats supplied by the state.
  Departing New York on April 19 as the result of a special call from 
  President Lincoln, the elite 7th NYSM was mustered into service for 
  only 30 days on arrival at the Federal capital a week later. According to 
  the New York Times, this regiment left wearing a “full fatigue dress” 
  consisting of a “gray uniform, with black trimmings” plus “gray cap 
  and long blue overcoats.” During their stay in the capital the 7th NYSM 
  received a supply of “loose, dark gray, knit worsted jackets” called 
  “Aspinwalls” after their donor, retired businessman William Aspinwall. 
  This garment made a marked change in the appearance of the regiment, 
  as one militiaman wrote in the regimental history: “No more tight-bodied 
  dress-coats; no more pretty white cross-belts to hamper us down; no 
  more heavy, stiff caps; no more fashionable pantaloons. Give us a little 
  time after we get home – if we do get there – and we will show you 
  a serviceable, neat, and inexpensive uniform.”
  Known as the Washington Greys, the 8th NYSM was reported in 
  the Evening Star of Washington, DC, on May 18 to be wearing a uniform 
  “the same as the New York Seventh.” Some of the 8th NYSM were 
  photographed on July 17 in camp at Fairfax Courthouse, VA, prior to 
  the Bull Run campaign, wearing four-button gray sack coats issued 
  to new recruits by the state quartermaster department before departure 
  for the front.
  In “marching order” and wearing 
  “full fatigue,” this enlisted man 
  of 3rd Company, 7th New York 
  State Militia is uniformed in gray 
  trimmed with black, and armed 
  with the Model 1855 musket 
  received by the regiment in 
  1858. He is equipped with a 
  militia box-knapsack topped 
  with a blanket roll, a cartridge 
  box and bayonet scabbard 
  suspended from whitened buff 
  leather shoulder belts, a cap 
  pouch and a canteen. (USAMHI)
  Encamped at Arlington, Virginia, 
  during June 1861, some of these 
  volunteers of the 8th NYSM 
  wear the gray four-button sack 
  coats issued before departure 
  for the front. The man lying at 
  front left is showing off the 
  militia box-knapsack, with a 
  mess tin in its black oilskin cover 
  attached. Note the two African 
  American servants standing at 
  the left. The man at right is 
  seated on a barrel labeled 
  “W.G.”  and “8th Regt.” (Library 
  of Congress LC-USZ62-48411)
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  10
  The 12th, 13th, 28th, 69th, & 71st NYSM
  According to the National Republican of April 28, the 400-strong 
  nucleus of the 12th NYSM, or Independence Guard, arrived 
  in  the Federal capital wearing the uniform adopted by the 
  regiment in 1857: “a dark blue frock coat, trimmed with light 
  blue; blue pantaloons, with a white stripe; and the army regulation 
  cap.” The 12th received a new regimental uniform on May 9 
  after its arrival. The New York Herald commented that it was 
  “styled the Chasseur d’Affrique [sic], is something like the Zouave 
  costume, and will also be provided for the volunteers, as well 
  as for the regular members of the regiment.” According to 
  the  Evening Star of May 10, this consisted of a “bright blue 
  fatigue cap trimmed with white cord, short chasseur coat 
  with slashed skirt, the material being of dark blue set off at 
  the seams with white [actually light blue] cord.” The pants 
  were “wide Zouave of light grayish blue, made to buckle 
  around  the ankle under high Zouave leggings.” The 12th 
  NYSM was the first Union regiment to advance into Virginia 
  when it crossed the Long Bridge over the Potomac on May 23.
  Organized in Brooklyn, the 13th NYSM, also known as 
  the National Greys, wore the fatigue uniform detailed in their 
  “Bill of Dress” adopted in 1857, which required a fatigue jacket 
  of “cadet mixed gray cloth, the same color and shade as used 
  at West Point,” with black mohair binding around the collar, 
  black shoulder straps and cuff patches. Trousers were also gray 
  with black seam stripes. Gray caps had a black band and a “gilt 
  block number 13,” above which was pinned the company letter. 
  Overcoats were sky-blue. Impressed by the appearance of the 
  Chicago Zouave Cadets during their visit to Brooklyn in July 1860, 
  Co B of the 13th NYSM adopted a zouave uniform. This regiment 
  performed garrison duty at Annapolis, guarding railroads until it was 
  moved to Baltimore in June. The only action it saw was the capture of a 
  Confederate-held armory in Easton, MD, on May 18; this surrendered 
  without a fight, although one New Yorker was supposedly killed.
  Also organized in Brooklyn and composed mainly of Germans, the 
  28th NYSM spent most of their time in the Washington defenses, guarding 
  the bridge at Georgetown during the battle at Bull Run on July 21. On 
  the return of this regiment to New York seven days later, the New York 
  Herald reported that the “men looked exceedingly well by the light of 
  the street lamps, in their gray uniforms, which were not so much soiled 
  as those of the men who had been in actual conflict.”
  Classed as “Artillery doing duty as Light Infantry” in prewar years, 
  the 69th NYSM, or National Cadets, wore a uniform patterned on that 
  prescribed by the New York State dress regulations of 1858. For fatigue 
  purposes, this consisted of a dark blue frock coat with red trim and 
  shoulder straps, sky-blue trousers with red seam stripes, and a dark blue 
  forage cap. Recruits unable to acquire this uniform complete appear to 
  have been supplied with flannel shirts and dark blue New York State 
  artillery-pattern fatigue jackets. Joining the 69th NYSM as Co K on May 23, 
  the Irish Zouaves were reported by a New York Herald correspondent to 
  be wearing “a loose navy blue jacket fringed with red, and pantaloons 
  of  a bluish gray, with caps a la Sixty-ninth regiment.” On arrival in 
  This unidentified sergeant of 
  Co B, 13th NYSM, has a 
  “Union Cockade” pinned to his 
  breast in this photograph 
  taken in Baltimore; he wears 
  the 1857-pattern fatigue uniform 
  regulated before this company 
  adopted zouave dress in the 
  second half of 1860. He carries 
  a non-regulation militia officer’s 
  sword with Roman helmet 
  pommel in a dark leather frog 
  attached to his belt, the weight 
  of which is supported by a 
  leather belt loop sewn to 
  the waist of his jacket. Note the 
  black jacket trim including cuff 
  patches and chevrons, and 
  the very full cut of the pants. 
  (Michael J. McAfee Collection)
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  11
  Washington, DC, they were further described by the National Republican 
  as being uniformed in “a dark-blue Zouave jacket, gray Zouave pants, 
  all trimmed with red, and blue Zouave cap” (see photograph, page 44). 
  Upon return to New York City on July 26 following hard fighting at 
  Bull Run, the whole regiment was described by the New York Herald as 
  “woefully in want of clothing. The men were dressed in anything but the 
  uniform of the Sixty-ninth. Southern and Northern uniforms were in 
  their ranks, but, dressed as they were, they were the Sixty-ninth still, 
  and New York recognized and welcomed them in their disguise.”
  Formed among the American-born citizens of New York City in 
  the  early 1850s, the 71st NYSM or American Guard departed for 
  Washington, DC, on April 20 dressed in “full fatigue, with fatigue cap,” 
  consisting of “dark blue suits trimmed with black and gold, and blue 
  overcoats.” This was further reported in the National Republican on 
  April 29, as being a “dark-blue coat, blue pants with black stripe and 
  gilt borders, and blue fatigue cap.” The New York Herald stated that 
  recruits lacking a uniform were “dressed as taste and fancy dictated, 
  and presented a most motley appearance.” According to the regimental 
  history, when the 71st NYSM marched out of the Navy Yard to join 
  Ambrose Burnside’s brigade prior to Bull Run on July 16 its coats 
  had been exchanged for “a gray blouse.”
  According to Enos B. Vail, new recruits for the 20th NYSM, or Ulster 
  Guard, were given a fatigue uniform consisting of “a soft, light colored 
  Kossuth hat, and a leather collar [or stock] about two inches high.” After 
  arrival at Annapolis Junction on May 8, the Ulster Guard was described 
  as consisting of “countrymen from the interior counties of the State” who 
  wore “a blue-black frock coat, gray pants, and a dull white felt hat, now 
  so discolored that it would pass for brown, upon which is penciled in 
  charcoal, ‘Twentieth regiment.’ ”
  Also organized at Albany, the 25th NYSM wore gray frock coats 
  trimmed with red, medium blue pants with white seam stripes, and blue 
  forage caps. Mustered-in on April 23, the elite Albany Burgess Corps 
  (Co R of this regiment) was provided with “two full uniforms [including 
  dark blue frock coats].” On return to Albany on July 28 after service in 
  the Washington defenses, the regiment was reported by the New York Herald 
  as “tough and well, but much dilapidated as to clothing.”
  OHIO
  The 1st & 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry
  When Governor William Dennison, Jr, issued a call for volunteers, 
  20  companies offered their services, while countless other units were 
  recruited all over Ohio. By April 19 some of these troops had been 
  organized into the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, while others 
  would form another 11 regiments. Informed that they would be uniformed 
  by the Federal government, the first two regiments left for the front with 
  many men wearing civilian clothing. Some companies may have fitted 
  themselves out in a uniform based on the General Regulations adopted 
  by Ohio in 1859, which was patterned after that of the US Army but with 
  a sky-blue jacket for fatigue. The progress east of these regiments was 
  temporarily halted at Lancaster, PA, by news of the burning of the bridges 
  on the North Central Railroad and the pro-secessionist riots in Baltimore, 
  Mustering into Federal service in 
  April 1861 as a private in the 
  13th Regiment, NYSM, George W. 
  Scott is seen here wearing the 
  zouave uniform adopted by Co B 
  in 1860 in imitation of a Chicago 
  unit (see Plate B2). His belt plate 
  bears the company letter “B” plus 
  “National/Greys,” and his waist 
  belt supports a non-regulation 
  pattern cap pouch. (Anne S.K. 
  Brown Military Collection)
  A nurseryman in Fairfield, Ohio, 
  when he enlisted in Co A, 1st 
  Ohio Infantry, the 18-year-old 
  Benjamin F. Coffman probably 
  wears the Federal-style uniform 
  issued to his regiment by the 
  beginning of June 1861. Note 
  the  company letter, and the 
  regimental number in the curl 
  of the infantry buglehorn badge 
  on his forage cap. (Dr Stephen 
  Altic Collection)
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  12
  and new orders were received to purchase uniforms 
  from the Pennsylvania state clothing establishment.
  In a letter published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer 
  dated May 3, a member of the Cleveland Greys 
  (Co  E, 1st Ohio) wrote: “We have not yet been 
  uniformed, but probably will be tomorrow or next 
  day. We have received shirts (red woollen), shoes, 
  hats and haversacks, in which to carry provisions 
  while on the march, and expect to use the latter very 
  soon.” When no clear date for delivery of uniforms 
  via Pennsylvania could be confirmed, Ohio agent 
  James M. Brown was authorized to independently 
  purchase cloth and contract for making the uniforms. 
  By May 15, Brown reported that 1,720 suits had 
  been supplied to the 1st and 2nd Ohio, consisting of 
  “one black felt hat and ornaments, one black pilot 
  cloth overcoat, one blue flannel blouse… one pair 
  pantaloons … [and] one pair brogan shoes.” On 
  May 19, Pvt G. Chase of the Zanesville Guards (Co H, 
  1st Ohio) wrote to the Daily Zanesville Courier from 
  Camp McClelland, PA, describing this as consisting 
  of “Cheap felt hats the remains of old stock of 
  numerous patterns, a coarse blue Blouse of Dark 
  Flannel, coarse gray pants of inferior quality, which 
  have already commenced to wear out and will be 
  gone in 6 weeks, 2 red flannel shirts, 1 blanket, 1 pair 
  brogans, a coarse overcoat – all of these are of the poorest quality….” 
  Two days later, a letter published in the Cincinnati Daily Commercial 
  from an unknown Ohio volunteer at the same encampment stated: “We 
  have received our uniform: it is of the ‘bob-tail’ species… They will not 
  last long; they are about wore out.”
  In a letter dated June 2 written to Governor Dennison from Willard’s 
  Hotel in Washington, DC, aide de camp Maj R. Corwine wrote that the 
  1st and 2nd Ohio were in a “most deplorable” condition. Some were 
  literally in rags, and were called the “pauper” regiments by the citizens 
  of Washington. Corwine assured the Ohio volunteers that their state 
  governor had no knowledge of their true condition, and that Dennison 
  had regarded them as exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Federal 
  government from the moment it took charge of the regiments.
  By June 6, state agent and Cincinnati businessman William Platt had 
  been sent to Washington to investigate, and found the 1st Ohio in receipt 
  of Federal-issue uniforms as a result of the directive originally issued 
  by the Secretary of War on April 23, but with the 2nd Ohio still wearing 
  the “Pennsylvania” clothing. However, on June 9 an unidentified member 
  of the latter regiment wrote: “This morning part of our new uniforms 
  were issued to us: the cap, pants, and shoes. The cap is of the famous 
  lager beer style, blue trimmed with light blue cord and of the proportions 
  of a good sized sugar loaf. The pants are of a coarse quality of cotton 
  goods dyed blue in watercolors. It generally costs each man the sum of 
  fifty cents to get a tailor to cut them down to the right size... .” The 
  headgear described was almost certainly the high-crowned 1858-pattern 
  forage cap, while the clothing was regular Federal issue.
  Seated on a packing box labeled 
  “Camp Dennison,” this enlisted 
  man of the Tyler Guard (Co G, 
  17th Ohio Infantry) wears a 
  uniform closely conforming to 
  Federal regulations, although the 
  contractor has added piping on 
  the cap and trousers. Note the 
  shoulder scales, which were 
  usually reserved for full dress. 
  His revolver and knife may be 
  simply photographer’s props, 
  although early-war volunteers 
  often carried such personal 
  sidearms until orders were 
  issued to discard them.  
  (Brad & Donna Pruden Collection)
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  13
  The 14th through 23rd Ohio
  The organization of the 11 remaining Ohio regiments progressed so 
  slowly that the state reorganized them for three years’ service. Meanwhile, 
  in order to make use of the surplus companies accepted by the State 
  Adjutant-General on April 26, a further ten infantry regiments numbered 
  the 14th through 23rd Ohio were speedily raised for three months’ 
  service, and saw action in western Virginia. Of these, the 14th Ohio 
  received 912 each of caps, cap covers, blouses, trousers, and flannel shirts 
  by May 23. Their four-button sack coats were patterned after Federal 
  issue, while shirts were gray and trousers probably sky-blue. When this 
  regiment returned home after seeing action at Philippi, Laurel Hill, 
  and Carrick’s Ford, some of its men were reported in the Columbus Gazette 
  of July 26 to be “dressed up in Secession suits.”
  Prior to its departure from Columbus on May 25, the 16th Ohio 
  was “without uniforms, and in their [red] flannel shirts.” A report in 
  the Cincinnati Daily Commercial of May 28 stated that “This dress parade 
  was by men not in their uniforms, but in their shirt sleeves. Scarcely 
  an officer, either, was in uniform or had even a side arm.” Although this 
  regiment received 500 pairs of gray pants with black seam stripes on 
  June 26 (see issuance of gray clothing, below), it was still lacking 
  sufficient uniforms by the end of the month; four days later the Daily Ohio 
  Statesman reported that 20 men had been arrested for insubordination, 
  said to be “caused by dissatisfaction with their clothing.” The regiment 
  received “uniform Pants” on July 2. At least three companies, and possibly 
  the whole unit, were finally issued Federal-pattern blue sack coats 
  on July 24 – just a week before their tour of duty ended. As a result, 
  Pvt Oscar Ladley of Co E wrote: “We would be laughed at if we had 
  been sent home in our rags.”
  Sent to guard the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in West Virginia, 
  the 18th Ohio received 950 blouses plus gray pants, and 451 caps and cap 
  covers, during June. When this regiment mustered-out it was reported 
  in the Daily Ohio Statesman of August 10 to have “accepted without a 
  murmur, the uniforms furnished them by the State authorities, and which 
  were unfit to cover the wax statues of stationary museums.”
  Due to a shortage of blue-dyed wool cloth, the Columbus 
  quartermasters had to contract for gray satinet to make 
  5,750 “round” jackets that were issued to the 15th, 17th, 
  19th, and 20th Ohio. Based on photographic evidence, 
  these garments were fastened by either eight or nine buttons, 
  with two small buttons on each cuff, and had plain standing 
  collars and shoulder flaps. Matching trousers had black seam 
  stripes. Caps were dark blue, and waist belts were fastened 
  with oval “OVM” plates. When inspected by Adjutant-General 
  Henry Carrington at Wheeling, VA, on June 10, the 15th 
  Ohio was found to be wearing “worthless pantaloons.” 
  Three days later the Cincinnati Daily Commercial commented 
  that the shoes the regiment claimed to be “paper-soled” 
  were plundered from Confederate stores taken at Philippi.
  Serving as an enlisted man in Co K, 17th Ohio, Alexis 
  Cope recalled: “The uniforms issued to the men turned out 
  to be shoddy, of the poorest kind, and were soon so ragged 
  that trousers and… jackets, had to be patched and held 
  Identified as Ohio volunteers by 
  their oval “OVM” belt plates, 
  these men wear gray jackets and 
  trousers with dark blue caps. 
  Although both are armed with 
  M1842 smoothbore muskets their 
  accoutrements vary: the man on 
  the left has the large, flat .58cal 
  cartridge box suspended from his 
  shoulder belt, while his comrade 
  has the rather smaller, thicker 
  .69cal box. (Library of Congress, 
  Prints & Photographs Division, 
  [LC-DIG-ppmsca-31659])
  This heavily armed gray-clad 
  volunteer of either the 15th, 
  17th, 19th, or 20th Ohio holds 
  a musket, has a Colt revolver 
  tucked into his belt, and poses 
  with an M1832 Artillery sword 
  resting across his lap. (Follett 
  House Museum, Sandusky, Ohio)
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  14
  together by pieces of the red flannel shirts… The men made a joke 
  of trying to mend their worn out gray uniforms… and vied with each 
  other in producing the most grotesque effects. On some… the patches 
  were so many and so broad that in the general effect the red seemed 
  to predominate.”
  INDIANA
  Required to provide six regiments, Governor Oliver Morton of Indiana 
  issued a call for “loyal and patriotic men,” and within a week nearly 
  three times the number of volunteers needed had gathered at Camp 
  Morton, Indianapolis. The required regiments had been organized by 
  April 27, being numbered 6th through 11th Indiana in deference to 
  the five Indiana regiments that had been raised for the Mexican War 
  (1846–48).
  While volunteer militia – such as the City Greys and Independent 
  Zouaves of Indianapolis – were suitably uniformed, many new units 
  struggled to acquire a military appearance. According to Sgt Andrew 
  Grayson, who enlisted in Co E, 6th Indiana on April 17, his company 
  commander presented each man with “a black ‘glazed’ cap, to appear 
  more in uniform, which pretty well cleaned out that style of cap in 
  Madison.” On April 22, the Daily Sentinel of Indianapolis reported that 
  “many entire companies wore red shirts without coats, and black pants, 
  making a uniform that in a pinch would do 
  right well for immediate service.”
  Meanwhile, on April 25, the State 
  Quartermaster-General T. Morris published 
  proposals for “Coat and pants of strong, cheap 
  woolen goods,” and a “Felt Hat or Woolen Cap.” 
  Each volunteer would also receive two flannel 
  shirts to be of “gray mixture, with pockets, 
  cuffs and collars,” and “High-quarter Shoes.” 
  A report in the Daily Sentinel dated May 2 
  indicated that Morris had awarded contracts 
  for nine-button jackets with stand-up collars. 
  The pants were made in a matching color 
  with  black stripes on the outer seams. The 
  color of the cloth for both jacket and trousers 
  varied considerably, from “sheep’s gray” to a 
  bluish “cadet” gray, to dark blue, to light blue 
  “jean.” The fabric used also varied according 
  to circumstances and general availability. 
  In  addition to “jean cloth,” early Indiana 
  uniforms were cut from “cassinette,” “satinette,” 
  or “cassimere.”
  By mid-May these six regiments began to 
  receive uniforms. Sergeant Grayson of the 6th 
  Indiana recorded that it was “an inferior article 
  of gray, pants and roundabout, and big hat to 
  suit, together with stoga [sic] shoes.” On May 19, 
  Pvt Valentine Thuma, 8th Indiana Infantry, 
  wrote in his diary: “The suit consists of pants and 
  roundabout. The clothes fit very imperfectly…”
  Probably photographed at 
  Indianapolis during May/June 
  1861, Pvt James T. Mathews, 
  Putnam Union Guards (Co F, 
  10th Indiana Infantry) wears a 
  light blue jeans uniform, as 
  furnished under contract to the 
  state by the outfitters G.W. 
  Geissendorff at a cost of $6.50 
  per suit. Fastened at the front by 
  nine US infantry “eagle” buttons, 
  it has two smaller buttons on 
  each cuff. His gray felt hat with 
  red, white and blue hat cord was 
  supplied by William Dodd & Co 
  of Cincinnati, Ohio. (Anne S.K. 
  Brown Military Collection)
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  15
  On May 29, the Indianapolis Daily Journal reported that the 9th Indiana 
  was wearing “a complete uniform of sheep’s gray, durable and strong,” 
  when it departed for western Virginia. There is evidence that this regiment 
  later received replacement uniforms; on July 16 a letter from Col James 
  Steadman, 14th Ohio, published in the Cincinnati Daily Commercial stated: 
  “I examined a jacket that a Georgia corporal left in his retreat... It is 
  nearly like that of the 9th Indiana regiment: gray cloth with black velvet 
  facings on the collar and cuffs.”
  On May 23, the Indianapolis Daily Sentinel praised the new uniforms 
  issued to the 10th Indiana, stating: “The jacket and pants are made of 
  a good article of blue jeans, and look much better to our notion than 
  the gray and dove colored cassinet.” The next day a reporter for the same 
  newspaper saw this regiment parade, and was “struck with the neatness 
  of their uniforms.” Their blue jeans jacket and pants were described as 
  well made and better fitting than any others he had noticed.
  Concerning headgear for the 6th through 10th Indiana, on May 3 
  the Daily Sentinel reported: “The hat adopted for the five regiments… will 
  be found to be a very comfortable covering for the head, and with its 
  loop on the side will look neat. It will be far better for the men than caps, 
  and will afford protection from the sun without adding much more 
  weight than the cap.” The exact color of these hats seems to have varied 
  from light gray to light brown. As the 6th Indiana passed through 
  Cincinnati on May 30, the Daily Commercial reported them as wearing 
  “gray felt hats looped up with red cord.” In his diary Pvt V. Thuma, 
  8th  Indiana Infantry, wrote on May 24: “We received our hats today. 
  They are gray, rough and ready with the left side buttoned up.” The 9th 
  Indiana was later reported to be wearing “gray slouch hats with red 
  and black tassels.” In the case of the 10th Indiana, a newspaper account 
  of the regiment’s color presentation ceremony on May 29, 1861 simply 
  remarked that its men wore “gray felt hats.”
  A “smoky ribbon” of zouaves
  The 11th Indiana was organized at Indianapolis on April 25 under the 
  command of Col Lewis Wallace (who would later become famous as 
  the author of Ben-Hur). The next day the Daily Sentinel reported: “Colonel 
  Wallace informs us that the regiment will be uniformed as Zouaves… 
  but the color will be gray. As the government does not send out such [a] 
  uniform, it is probable that they will be made to order.” The uniform 
  acquired by Wallace’s Zouaves was purchased from Eli Hall, merchant 
  tailor of Indianapolis. In his autobiography published in 1906, Wallace 
  wrote that “There was nothing of the flashy, Algerian colors in the uniform 
  of the Eleventh Indiana; no fez, a headgear exclusively Mohammedan, 
  and therefore to be religiously avoided by Christians; no red breeches, 
  no red or yellow sash with tassels big as early cabbages. Our outfit was 
  of the tamest gray twilled goods, not unlike home-made jeans – a visor 
  cap, French pattern, its top of red cloth not larger than the palm of 
  one’s hand; blue flannel shirt with open neck; a jacket Greekish in form, 
  edged with narrow binding, the red scarcely noticeable; breeches baggy, 
  but not petticoated; button gaiters connecting below the knees with the 
  breeches, and strapped over the shoe. The effect was to magnify the men, 
  though in line two thousand yards off they looked like a smoky ribbon 
  long-drawn out.”
  This enlisted man of the 11th 
  Indiana, also known as Wallace’s 
  Zouaves, wears the uniform 
  purchased for his regiment by 
  its commander, Col Lew Wallace. 
  Described as being of “the 
  tamest gray twilled goods,” 
  the jacket was trimmed with 
  red, and the gray chasseur-
  pattern cap had a red top. 
  (Daniel Miller Collection)
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  16
  ILLINOIS
  The Cairo Expedition
  About 40 companies volunteered within 24 hours following the executive 
  call for six regiments from Illinois. In acknowledgment of the six units 
  which had served in the Mexican War, Illinois too numbered her new 
  regiments in sequence with them, from the 7th Illinois upward. Before 
  these regiments could be organized, however, a provisional militia force 
  took the field. On April 19, Secretary of War Cameron telegraphed 
  Governor Richard Yates instructing him to send troops as a matter of 
  urgency to Cairo, the southernmost city in Illinois. A strategic point 
  where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet, Cairo was considered of 
  great importance in Union plans to use the Mississippi River route to 
  invade the South.
  Two days later, BrigGen Richard Swift, commanding the 2nd Brigade, 
  Sixth Division, Illinois Militia, left Chicago with the “Cairo Expedition” 
  composed of six volunteer militia companies. These were the Chicago 
  Light Artillery; Companies A and B of a Zouave regiment being formed 
  in that city; the Union Cadets, composed of German immigrants; the 
  Lincoln Rifles, and the Hardin Infantry. These troops were followed 
  the next day by three artillery companies plus an additional infantry 
  company, all from counties near Chicago. By May 20 about 5,000 troops 
  were stationed at Camp Defiance, Cairo, but a letter to the Boston Evening 
  Transcript stated that “A majority of them have no uniforms, and are 
  dressed just as they came from the fields and stores.”
  On the same day that these troops left for Cairo, a “Military Finance 
  Committee” was formed in Chicago in order to provide this force with 
  uniforms. A report in the Chicago Daily Times dated April 22 confirms that 
  the Committee placed an order with an unknown New York company 
  amounting to $6,400, for “500 uniforms of coats and pants, and 200 Zouave 
  caps, to be distributed thus: 200 suits to companies ‘A’ and ‘B’ Zouaves; 
  150 suits to Capt [James] Smith’s company [Chicago Light Artillery]; 100 
  to Capt [Fred] Harding’s [sic] company; and the remainder to some of 
  the other Chicago companies at Springfield or Chicago.” However, none 
  of the clothing ordered by this Committee had been received by May 16. 
  As a result, the Chicago volunteers were “almost destitute of clothing, their 
  citizen’s dress having worn out in the hardships they have endured at Cairo 
  and vicinity.” Hence, a new order was placed with clothiers A.D. Titsworth 
  & Co. of Chicago for 1,000 uniforms to consist of “the army fatigue dress 
  in ‘cadet gray’ cloth, a full suit, with long surtout [overcoat] and heavy 
  cape.” The Committee also purchased “1,100 gray woolen shirts.”
  Chicago and New York procurement
  Elsewhere, local efforts were underway to clothe additional Chicago 
  volunteers. By the end of the month a “Sewing Hall” had been established 
  in McVicker’s Theater Building, and by May 21 the ladies had produced 
  “hundreds of under-shirts, uniform shirts and pants, [and] caps.”
  As volunteers gathered at Springfield, IL, the state authorities also 
  attempted to provide uniforms. It was initially hoped that Illinois volunteers 
  would be clothed by the Federal government. On April 23, the Illinois Daily 
  State Register published a set of orders regarding the organization of 
  this force, which stated: “Only such clothing as is absolutely necessary will 
  This unidentified member of 
  the 12th Illinois Volunteers, 
  also known as “The First Scotch 
  Regiment,” wears a sky-blue 
  Federal overcoat and an example 
  of the regiment’s tam-o’-
  shanter-style cap with a shallow 
  plaid band (see Plate C4). The 
  12th Illinois’ Col John McArthur 
  had previously commanded 
  the Highland Guard, a Scottish 
  volunteer militia company 
  organized in Chicago in 1856. 
  (Library of Congress, Prints & 
  Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-
  ppmsca-36917])
  Wearing an example of the gray 
  uniform acquired by Illinois 
  during late April/early May 1861, 
  this unidentified volunteer, 
  possibly of the 7th Illinois, 
  wears a five-button jacket with 
  standing collar and epaulet 
  straps. His pants are also gray, 
  while his cap appears to be dark 
  blue. He holds a Model 1816 
  musket converted to percussion. 
  (Allen Cebula Collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  17
  be allowed.” The state would subsequently regret 
  this action, as recruits began to arrive with nothing 
  but the clothes they stood up in. Letters of complaint 
  soon appeared in the local newspapers. Private 
  Marrion Morrison, Co D, 9th Illinois, wrote: “Many 
  of the soldiers supposed that they would be supplied 
  with clothing by the government so took little with 
  them… many had no change of clothing for three 
  months. Some of the companies were clothed with 
  such a uniform as they had supplied themselves.” 
  On May 28, in a letter to the Chicago Evening Journal, 
  an unknown volunteer with the 12th Illinois at 
  Camp Bissell, near Caseyville, wrote: “But few of 
  the  companies are uniformed, and those have 
  been at the expense of the various cities from which 
  they came.”
  Meanwhile, on April 29, the Chicago Daily Tribune 
  reported: “There have been received in this city 
  by  United States Express Company, destined for 
  Springfield… thirteen packages of 500 pounds each 
  containing uniforms made by a New York firm for our Illinois troops.” 
  On May 14, the same newspaper stated that a Chicago clothing firm 
  (probably A.D. Titsworth, & Co.) had “contracted to manufacture 
  and deliver in Springfield four thousand uniforms… the suits to be gray, 
  after  the pattern of those worn by the Seventh New York Regiment.” 
  Photographic evidence indicates that some Illinois volunteers eventually 
  received short plain gray coats with standing collars fastened with seven 
  buttons, matching gray pants, and gray caps. As the 12th Illinois, or 
  “The  First Scotch Regiment,” was formed by John McArthur, former 
  commander of a Scottish militia company in Chicago, its choice of 
  headgear was distinctive: a rough approximation of a tam-o’-shanter, 
  with a plaid headband.
  Headgear
  Following criticism of both “the color and style” of red zouave caps 
  worn by the zouave volunteer companies of Chicago – which offered 
  “too good a mark for the enemy,” covered “only the top of the head,” 
  and failed to give “shelter from sun, and inclement weather” – a 
  recommendation was made in the local press that felt hats were more 
  suitable. On May 1 a report in the Chicago Daily Times advised that “There 
  never was manufactured for rough use a better head covering than 
  the soft felt hat and its adoption by the army was a sensible one. It may 
  be slouched to protect the face and neck, is susceptible of a large variety 
  of shapes and modifications, none of which, however, should interfere 
  with a moderate breadth of brim.”
  On May 24, and as a possible response, Chicago hatters J. & A. Herzog 
  advertised in the same journal that they were “manufacturing the new style 
  Havelock Cap.” During this same period James M. Loomis, another hatter 
  in the city, invented a “new style of forage cap” which he had made in New 
  York City; this was described as “resembling an ordinary felt hat, the rim 
  dishing deeply, turned downwards behind and cut away from side to side 
  in front where a neat leather visor is substituted. Thus the neck and head 
  This enlisted man of the Johnson 
  Guard (Co I, 4th New Jersey Foot 
  Militia) wears a dark frock coat 
  with light trim around the collar 
  and cuffs and down the front. 
  Another enlisted man from this 
  unit was photographed wearing 
  exactly the same type of 
  checkered trousers, which 
  perhaps indicates that they 
  were part of this company’s 
  uniform. (Author’s collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  18
  are well protected, leaving the front clear and unobstructed.” (This style 
  of cap predated the headgear patented by Jonathan F. Whipple, and 
  produced by his Seamless Clothing Manufacturing Company of New York 
  City during the summer of 1861.) The Chicago Daily Tribune concluded 
  its  report on the latter development in Chicago on June 3 by stating 
  that “Mr. Loomis has already received large orders from our State troops 
  at Cairo. They will be sure to take wherever introduced, as very nearly 
  combining the… utilities of cap and Havelock.”
  Although Loomis supplied “Havelock hats” to several three-month 
  regiments, they proved unpopular with the troops. Writing home on 
  August 29, Pvt James M. Swales, Co A, 10th Illinois, called the headgear 
  “ugly as the devil.” On October 11, Pvt George D. Carrington, Co B, 11th 
  Illinois, agreed: “Drew new hats. We don’t like them.” Thirteen days later 
  he added: “We bought red caps to wear.”
  NEW JERSEY
  In response to the request to supply four regiments, Governor Charles 
  Olden of New Jersey ordered each of his four militia divisions to 
  furnish one regiment. Within 15 days a sufficient number of companies 
  had  volunteered to complete the quota. Designated “Foot Militia,” 
  the  four regiments of the 1st New Jersey Brigade left the state for 
  Washington, DC, on May 4.
  Although there is no evidence that New Jersey had issued state dress 
  regulations for its troops during the 1850s, 
  the Hudson Brigade, Second Division, 
  adopted a uniform in 1858 which consisted 
  of “mazarine blue pants, dark blue frock 
  coat, cap of pattern of 71st [New York 
  Militia] regiment.” In 1859 the Newark 
  Brigade, Second Division, also adopted 
  “dark blue frock coats and light blue 
  trousers with white stripe.” Infantry were 
  distinguished by white belts and riflemen 
  by black belts. Despite this growing 
  conformity, the uniforms of the New Jersey 
  militia were considered inadequate for 
  field service in 1861. The Atlantic Democrat 
  of May 4 summed up the situation during 
  the first few weeks of war: “There is no 
  uniformity, as some regiments are 
  equipped at home better than those that 
  depend on the State. This is not right, 
  but  the exigency of the case, perhaps 
  justifies the difference.”
  In response, the Federal government 
  uniformed the 1st New Jersey Foot Militia, 
  which left – according to the Daily State 
  Gazette, of Trenton, dated May 1 – “having 
  also overcoats and blankets.” Meanwhile, 
  Governor Olden appointed a Board of 
  Commissioners to provide a uniform, 
  and the citizens of New Jersey set about 
  ABOVE This unidentified 
  New Jersey enlisted man shows 
  light-colored trim around the 
  bottom of the collar, on the cuffs 
  and non-regulation epaulet or 
  “bridle” straps. His light blue 
  trousers have a narrow seam 
  stripe or welt. (Author’s collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  19
  clothing some of their volunteers. Organized at Trenton, the 2nd 
  New Jersey was in receipt of clothing and equipment before the end 
  of April costing $23,000, and paid for entirely by private subscription 
  by  the citizens of Jersey City. Following his visit to Camp Olden in 
  South Trenton on April 28, a correspondent of the Daily State Gazette 
  wrote: “At the Quarter Master’s tent… great activity prevailed… and the 
  constant demand for coats, over-coats, pants, shoes, [and] knapsacks, 
  showed that ‘service’ was at least expected.”
  According to the same newspaper, the 3rd and 4th regiments received 
  clothing paid for by State Quartermaster-General Lewis Perrine. That 
  received by the Olden Guards (Co A), Wilkinson Guards (Co C), and 
  Jersey Blues (Co D), 3rd Regiment, plus the Anderson Guards (Co H, 
  4th Regt) was made by the “Ladies of Trenton.” First formed in Camden 
  during January, the Stevens’ Zouaves were still wearing their zouave 
  uniforms, possibly based on those of the Chicago Zouave Cadets, when 
  they enlisted as Co G, 4th New Jersey.
  By May 18, the Board of Commission appointed to choose a “Regulation 
  Uniform” for the New Jersey Militia had chosen a “Blue Coat, Light Blue 
  Pants and Army Cockade Hat.” It is not known whether this was a 
  retrospective description of the uniform provided before the four 
  regiments left for Washington, DC, or replaced the clothing supplied 
  before their departure. What is certain is that, according to the State 
  Quartermaster-General’s report, the Newark-based firm of N. Perry & Co 
  supplied uniforms at a total cost of $30,216; another 29 firms also 
  provided uniforms.
  While at Camp Scott near Washington, DC, the New Jersey volunteers 
  were issued on June 12 with straw hats and linen pants which seemed 
  more appropriate for the hotter climate in Virginia. According to the 
  Daily State Gazette, “The variety of shapes into which a straw hat can 
  be converted, was never before demonstrated. Three cornered hats, 
  and cocked hats, and hats all brim, and hats with the brim all gone to 
  the crown… are to be seen through the camp.”
  MASSACHUSETTS
  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts provided five regiments of infantry, 
  one rifle battalion, and one light artillery battery. The militia system of 
  that state consisted of a series of undersized regiments, plus a myriad 
  of independent battalions and companies, most of which wore distinctive 
  uniforms in defiance of the state regulations issued in the 1850s. Hence, 
  when the call for troops was issued and the state was requested to 
  provide 20 companies of infantry, the regiments with the most complete 
  organization – the 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 8th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia 
  (MVM) – were ordered out. After assembly at Boston, the 6th followed 
  by the 8th were dispatched to Washington, DC, while the other two were 
  sent to Fortress Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula.
  Many of the volunteers making up these regiments were variously 
  attired in prewar uniforms mixed with civilian clothing, some of the latter 
  being hastily given a military appearance. Arriving at North Easton for 
  service with the Easton Light Infantry, Robert Dollard recalled: “It 
  was the work of a few minutes to… have our white stripes, about an 
  inch wide, sewed down the outer seams of our black doeskin Sunday 
  trousers, and slip them on with our blue uniform dress coats, ornamented 
  William H. Cook of the Cushing 
  Guards (Co A, 8th Massachusetts 
  Volunteer Militia) wears a pale, 
  five-button fatigue shirt with 
  narrow trim around the pockets 
  and front placket. Note two 
  unexplained buttons high above 
  the pockets, matching pants, 
  and darker cap. (Michael J. 
  McAfee Collection)
  OPPOSITE First Sgt Ellis 
  Hamilton of Co G, 4th New 
  Jersey (Stevens’ Zouaves). 
  He became a lieutenant in 
  the 15th New Jersey at the age 
  of 16, and rose to the rank of 
  captain before, aged just 18, 
  he was killed in action in 
  the Wilderness in 1864. 
  (Special Collections and 
  University Archives, Rutgers 
  University Archives)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  20
  with  white epaulets… and adjust our hats, as tall as the ordinary 
  stovepipe article.”
  The state provided each man with additional items of clothing 
  and equipage in preparation for the forthcoming campaign. According 
  to the Boston Herald of April 17, the 6th MVM was furnished with 
  “two blue flannel shirts, one pair of socks, and one pair of drawers.” 
  The 4th and 8th MVM received “overcoats,” plus “one pair of boots and 
  a Guernsey frock.” The latter was described by Robert Dollard as “a 
  gray woolen shirt” worn outside the trousers as “a frock coat, similar to 
  General Burnside’s [Rhode Island] regiment in the early part of the war, 
  and… equipments were put on over this shirt.”
  For overcoats, the state purchased 6,000 yards of iron-gray beaver 
  cloth during February in anticipation of “the inevitable conflict,” 
  which it had made up based on a pattern obtained after consultation 
  with the US Army Quartermaster Department. The Boston Herald reported 
  that the new coats for the volunteers were “speedily fitted to their backs” 
  under the supervision of Maj George Clark, Jr, of the 2nd Brigade Staff. 
  The report continued: “The coats are made of dark gray cloth, and look 
  very neat and serviceable. They are of the army pattern, and comprise 
  three sizes only – ‘large,’ ‘small,’ and ‘middling.’ ” With stocks running 
  low, the state contracted with Whitten, Hopkins & Co of Boston to 
  supply 1,500 more overcoats, of which 1,000 were to be completed 
  by April 23.
  The poor quality of some clothing, and particularly the trousers, 
  became apparent following the departure of Massachusetts troops for 
  the front. According to the memoirs of Capt Luther Stephenson, 
  commanding the Lincoln Light Infantry (Co I, 4th MVM), clothing was 
  “poorly fitted to sustain the rough usage… and the results were oftentime 
  ludicrous and amusing.” At regular Sunday inspection, he continued, 
  some of the men appeared in “overcoats, although the weather was warm 
  and bright. This was to conceal their tattered clothing, and, in some 
  instances, the fact that they had no trousers, and only their drawers to 
  hide their nakedness. The contrast in appearance between our militia, 
  with their torn, worn-out uniforms, and the companies of regulars who 
  still remained in the fort [Monroe], was very marked and striking.”
  With an increase in the Federal call on April 16, Governor John Andrew 
  ordered out the 5th MVM supplemented by companies from the 1st 
  and 7th MVM, plus the 3rd Battalion and Boston Light Artillery, all of 
  which left for Washington, DC, on April 21. With stocks of state overcoats 
  depleted, these units received some Federal-issue overcoats, which the 
  Boston Herald of April 28 described as being of “the infantry pattern, blue 
  in color, and… heavier and of better quality than the State coats.” State 
  overcoats were furnished to the remaining volunteers even as they were 
  “on their march to the [railroad] cars,” the tailors at Whitten, Hopkins 
  & Co having worked day and night to produce them.
  By April 24, the “Committee of the City Council on Military Supplies” 
  in Boston had chosen a more suitable uniform for the volunteers from 
  that city, having appropriated $100,000 for the purpose. After examining 
  several patterns, they chose a semi-chasseur uniform, described in the 
  Boston Herald thus: “... a sort of Garibaldi suit, made of heavy gray doeskin, 
  and trimmed with red cord. The jacket is to be long bodied and short 
  tailed, with regular military collar, and well lined throughout. The cap is 
  Sergeant Charles S. Emmerton 
  wears the uniform in which 
  the Salem Light Infantry (also 
  known as the Salem Zouaves) – 
  Co I, 8th MVM – arrived in 
  Washington, DC, on May 8, 1861. 
  His dark blue jacket is trimmed 
  across the chest with scarlet 
  braid, and his cap is red with 
  a blue band plus yellow trim. 
  (USAMHI)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  21
  of gray turned up with red, and the whole thing is neat and serviceable. 
  Its cost is but about ten dollars.” The Boston firm of George W. Simmons 
  & Co was contracted to produce 1,000 of these uniforms. According to a 
  report in the Boston Daily Advertiser of May 5, a large number of hands  were 
  employed “day and night” making “Coats and Pantaloons for the Troops” 
  with “a liberal price paid for the work.” Once completed, the clothing 
  was delivered to the Military Equipment Depot, and was issued to about 
  16 companies of volunteers enlisted in the city.
  In order to outfit volunteers elsewhere in the state, State Quartermaster-
  General John Reed contracted on May 8 with Haughton, Sawyer, & Co 
  of Boston to supply “3000 suits of light wool uniforms, of a gray color,” 
  which were based on the pattern produced for the Boston troops. A 
  major supplier of “Army Equipments,” this firm also had stores at 
  Astor House, New York; Continental House, in Philadelphia; Briggs 
  House, in Chicago; and Neil House, at Columbus, Ohio. By September 
  it had “extensive contracts with the US government and from eight or 
  ten of the Northern and Western states” – and, according to a report 
  in the Boston Daily Advertiser of September 13, the firm was also suspected 
  of being “engaged in the business of furnishing army equipments 
  and materials for the use of the rebels.”
  The Edmands hat
  Haughton, Sawyer, & Co additionally supplied a distinctive form of 
  headgear for Massachusetts troops, which was also received by some 
  Ohio three-year regiments, including the 34th Ohio 
  (also known as the Piatt Zouaves). On May 2, the Salem 
  Register reported that “a style of head dress… combining 
  several suggestions of practical men who have seen 
  service in warm latitudes, has been prepared and 
  offered to our State authorities by General B.[enjamin] 
  F. Edmands. It is in appearance a combination of the 
  old continental, the army and the Kossuth hats, and is 
  designed to afford the best means of protecting the 
  head from the sun’s rays and consequently sunstroke.” 
  Designed by Gen Edmands, a member of the Boston 
  Committee, this hat was made of gray felt and buttoned 
  up on all four sides, its front being embellished with a 
  vertical strip of red trim. Photographic evidence 
  indicates that the 3rd, 4th, and 6th MVM were issued 
  with this headgear.
  As so often, much of the state clothing issued did not 
  match up to expectations. In a letter dated July 13, a 
  correspondent of the Lowell Daily Citizen & News wrote 
  of the 6th MVM that “The uniform of the regiment is 
  nearly worn out, and looks rather seedy, but it will be 
  worn home to show our people how shabbily the three 
  months’ volunteers have been treated by the state of 
  Massachusetts.” Upon this regiment’s return to Lowell 
  their poorly-made uniforms were described by the same 
  journal as “suits of Garibaldi gray,” which made them 
  look more like “rebel zouaves” than “the good Union 
  soldiers they were.”
  During his visit to the 
  “Photograph and Ambrotype 
  Gallery” of Benson C. Hazelton 
  on Washington Street, Boston, 
  this unidentified volunteer of the 
  4th MVM wears an “Edmands”-
  pattern hat, and a state-issue 
  gray single-breasted infantry 
  overcoat. (Author’s collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  22
  MAINE
  Following the outbreak of Civil War 
  the  legislature of Maine met in extra 
  session, and authorized the raising of 
  ten regiments to serve a two-year term 
  of enlistment by what became known 
  as  the “Ten Regiment Bill.” However, 
  in  response to  Lincoln’s call for one 
  three-month regiment, the first of 
  these units was mustered into Federal 
  service for the shorter period only. 
  Recruitment for the 1st Maine 
  Volunteers began within the First 
  Division, Volunteer Militia on April 20, 
  and in a week its ten companies were 
  full and encamped around Portland. A 
  total of 779 volunteers were mustered 
  into this regiment on May 3. The 1st 
  Maine was eventually ordered to 
  Washington, DC, on June 1, where it 
  remained until August 1. Spending 
  its  entire service in the defenses of 
  the capital, it saw no combat, and was 
  mustered-out on August 5.
  Much of the clothing for the 
  enlisted men was acquired in Boston, 
  Massachusetts. Enlisting in the Portland 
  Light Guards (Co C, 1st Maine) on 
  May 3, John Gould recorded in the 
  regimental history: “We had our 
  uniforms and clothing issued to us as 
  fast as they could be made up or 
  bought.” His diary entry dated April 28 
  stated: “We were marched to the new City Hall, where we each received 
  a pair of woollen shirts, two pairs of woollen drawers, two pairs woollen 
  stockings, and one pair of shoes with leather strings, the shoes being the 
  great, wide kind you see in shops on the wharves, where fishermen trade.”
  On April 30 a letter published in the Lewiston Daily Evening Journal 
  stated that “Yesterday and to-day have been spent in the armory, and being 
  marched down, in squads, to the Clothing rooms, to be fitted out with 
  clothes and shoes.” Of this occasion John Gould wrote: “We received 
  our overcoats, pantaloons, haversacks and knapsacks… The overcoat 
  is gray with the Massachusetts brass button… and is not a bad coat; 
  the pantaloons are of poorer stuff and made in a hurry; color a mixture 
  of gray, red and brown.” On May 9 he wrote that “Our company had 
  their under coats and rubber blankets distributed… The coats are made 
  of a very poor gray cloth and have the Maine buttons; the overcoats are 
  being altered, receiving the Maine button. ” According to photographic 
  evidence, the frock coats supplied to the 1st Maine were plain gray, 
  with a tall standing collar and a seven-button front. Color and trim on 
  1858-pattern caps appeared to vary between companies. Shirts were gray, 
  and might be either pull-over or button-front.
  Aged 23, Enoch Westcott was 
  living in Westbrook, Maine, when 
  he enlisted as a corporal in 
  the 2nd Company of the Portland 
  Rifle Guards (mustered-in as 
  Co I, 1st Maine Volunteers). After 
  nearly three months’ service at 
  the Federal capital he was taken 
  ill with typhoid fever on July 29. 
  Carried in the “sick car” when 
  his unit returned home on 
  August 3, he died nine days later, 
  being the only man that the 
  regiment lost during its service. 
  In this carte de visite copy of an 
  original cased image he wears 
  the seven-button gray frock coat 
  with tall standing collar that was 
  hastily supplied to the 1st Maine 
  by a Boston merchant tailor. 
  (Author’s collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  23
  The inadequacies of Boston 
  procurement
  The clothing issued to the 1st Maine proved 
  unsatisfactory. The poorly-made pantaloons 
  were cause for concern as soon as the regiment 
  reached the heat of the Federal capital in 
  early June. Gould recalled: “The first thing we 
  did after arriving at our quarters was to strip… 
  down to shirt and drawers… ripping out the 
  trowsers lining.” Regarding their heavy gray 
  frock coats, he observed: “We had our usual 
  drills by company and regiment, and dress 
  parades every evening all in our shirt sleeves, 
  which was the only comfortable rig we had.” 
  On May 27, the Lewiston Daily Evening Journal 
  reported: “We understand that the ‘committee 
  on military expenditure’… have demanded, 
  and obtained such a reduction on the bill 
  for clothing purchased in Boston for the 1st 
  Regiment, as to make the whole purchase of 
  a character (as regards price) that they should 
  satisfy all complaints from every quarter.”
  On June 4, the Washington Evening Star 
  reported that the men of the regiment 
  “complain with reason at the outrageous 
  swindle perpetrated upon them by the Boston 
  dealers who supplied their uniforms, the cloth 
  and the workmanship being so inferior that 
  the clothes are already falling to pieces.” In 
  a letter to the Bangor Whig and Courier, dated 
  July 8, a member of the 2nd Maine commented 
  on the condition of the 1st Regiment: their 
  clothing was in “such a state that they could 
  not be moved properly” as “fifty or sixty [men] had no shoes to 
  their feet.”
  On receipt of pay on July 11, many Maine men bought “sutler-stuff” 
  to replace their unsatisfactory state uniforms. Gould commented that 
  the  Lewiston Zouaves (Co K) acquired “blue flannel coats and white 
  gaiters.” At the end of their period of service members of this regiment 
  made an effigy representing a 1st Maine soldier as a mark of their 
  “contempt for the uniform,” and, placing it on a pole, “tried to burn it, 
  but it ‘stood fire’ well.”
  NEW HAMPSHIRE
  The Granite State was asked to provide a single regiment. Although a 
  thriving militia existed in New Hampshire, Governor Ichabod Goodwin 
  did not feel he had the right to require them to serve. Instead, 
  recruiting offices were opened throughout the state and new volunteers 
  were recruited (although one Volunteer Militia company, the Abbott 
  Guards of Manchester, did enlist in its entirety). The new companies 
  rendezvoused at Concord, and the organization of the regiment 
  progressed rapidly.
  Found in a trunk with other 
  militia items in Keene, NH, this 
  image shows an unidentified 
  volunteer a few days after his 
  enlistment in April 1861. Many 
  men were gifted revolvers by 
  fundraising groups, and this man 
  is holding what seems to be a 
  .22cal Smith & Wesson pocket 
  model. (Author’s collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  24
  Joseph Abbott, the State Adjutant-General, put out contracts for 
  uniforms and equipment. On April 26, the New Hampshire Sentinel 
  advised that this would consist of a “Cadet gray coat and pants, 
  gray overcoat, gray fatigue cap, two flannel shirts [and] 
  one pair of shoes.” According to the “Minutes of the New 
  Hampshire legislature” published in the Patriot & State 
  Gazette on July 3, the coat, pants, and overcoats for the 
  1st New Hampshire were made by Whiting, Galloupe, 
  Bliss & Co and Whitten, Hopkins & Co of Boston, at 
  a cost of $7 for the coat and pants combined, and $7.87 
  for the overcoats. The regiment began to receive its 
  uniforms on May 17, on which date an unidentified 
  volunteer wrote in the Amherst Farmer’s Cabinet: “We got 
  our uniforms today. The cut of the coat is ‘swallow-tail.’ 
  Caps, small, gray, military, with a red stripe around 
  them.” Unusual and old-fashioned, the dress coats worn 
  by the New Hampshire men had plain tails without 
  turnbacks or pocket flaps, but were trimmed around the 
  high standing collar and the cuffs with narrow red cord, 
  and had a single row of six (or in some cases nine) yellow metal 
  buttons bearing the state coat of arms.
  The rest of the uniform worn by the 1st New Hampshire was 
  made locally as well as in Boston. The gray chasseur-pattern caps with 
  red bands were supplied by George A. Barnes, a merchant based at 
  Manchester, NH, and by Klouse & Co of Boston. Although photographic 
  evidence indicates that many men wore buttons on their cap fronts 
  bearing the state coat of arms, a drunken man accused of being “a 
  scallawag in the regiment” was stripped of his uniform, including 
  “the  letters on his cap,” on June 14, according to a report in the 
  New Hampshire Statesman.
  Service dress
  Aware that his regiment was in need of a service dress, Col Mason Tappan 
  inserted an appeal in the New Hampshire Statesman dated May 18 requesting 
  “one thousand flannel blouses” to supplement “the thick uniforms” with 
  which the regiment was provided. It is unclear whether the State or 
  Federal government responded, but the 1st New Hampshire was indeed 
  issued with blue flannel fatigue blouses. On arrival in Washington, DC, to 
  join the ranks of Co F in late May, Thomas Livermore received a uniform 
  consisting of “a blue blouse, gray trousers, and gray cap with a red band.”
  Assigned to Gen Robert Patterson’s Army of the Shenandoah, the 1st 
  New Hampshire took part in the action at Conrad’s Ferry in June, and, 
  after a march to Maryland and then back to Virginia, returned home. By 
  the time it mustered-out on August 9 its uniforms and shoes were worn out. 
  Recalling its period of encampment at Martinsburg, VA, on July 8–15, 
  regimental historian Stephen Abbott wrote: “The clothes of the men, which 
  were poor at best, had become much worn, and they were almost shoeless… 
  Many were the shifts to which they resorted to cover their nakedness. In 
  one case three of the boys found a strip of cloth on which was painted: ‘Pies 
  and Cakes,’” which was converted into three patches for their pantaloons. 
  Another made a similar use of the discarded covering of a ham, and 
  appeared on dress parade labeled: “Sugar-Cured Hams for Family Use.”
  These unidentified privates wear 
  the gray dress uniform provided 
  for the 1st New Hampshire by 
  the State Quartermaster-General 
  in May 1861. The man at left is 
  clearly seated so as to show off 
  his “spike-tail” coat to best 
  advantage; the high standing 
  collars and closed cuffs were 
  trimmed with narrow red cord. 
  The trousers were plain gray, but 
  the chasseur-pattern caps had a 
  red band. (Author’s collection)
  Joseph A
  uniform
  advis
  gra
  o
  H
  b
  tu
  high
  and ha
  buttons b
  The rest o
  (continued on page 33)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  A
  PENNSYLVANIA
  1: Private, Sarsfield Rifles, 21st Pennsylvania Infantry
  2: Musician, Philadelphia Zouave Corps, 1st Pennsylvania Inf
  3: Private, 2nd Pennsylvania Inf (redesignated 19th Pennsylvania)
  1
  2
  3
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  B
  NEW YORK
  1: Private, Co A, 8th Regt, New York State Militia (Washington Greys)
  2: Private, Co B, 13th NYSM (National Greys)
  3: Private, 12th NYSM (Independence Guard)
  1
  2
  3
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  C
  OHIO, INDIANA, & ILLINOIS
  1: NCO, 19th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
  2: Private, Co K, 16th Ohio (Springfield Greys)
  3: Private, 9th Indiana Infantry
  4: Private, 12th Illinois Volunteers (The First Scotch Regiment)
  1
  3
  4
  2
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  D
  NEW JERSEY & MASSACHUSETTS
  1: Private, 1st New Jersey Foot Militia  
  2: Pvt, Co C, 6th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia (Mechanic Phalanx)
  3: Private, 3rd Massachusetts Volunteer Militia
  1
  2
  3
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  E
  MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, & DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
  1: Private, 1st Maine Volunteer Militia
  2: Private, 1st New Hampshire Volunteers, full dress
  3: Private, 1st New Hampshire Volunteers, fatigue dress
  4: Pvt, Co E, 4th Bn, District of Columbia Militia (Washington Zouaves)
  1
  2
  3
  4
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  F
  RHODE ISLAND & CONNECTICUT
  1: Officer, 1st Rhode Island Detached Militia
  2: Kady Brownell, attached 1st Rhode Island Detached Militia
  3: Private, 1st Connecticut Volunteers
  4: Private, Co A, 1st Connecticut Volunteers
  1
  2
  3
  4
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  G
  MICHIGAN, WISCONSIN, & VERMONT
  1: Private, 1st Michigan Volunteers
  2: Cpl, Co A, 1st Wisconsin Volunteers (Milwaukee Light Guard)
  3: Private, 1st Vermont Volunteers
  1
  2
  3
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  H
  DELAWARE, MINNESOTA, & IOWA
  1: Private, 1st Delaware Volunteer Militia
  2: Private, 1st Minnesota Volunteers
  3: Pvt, Co G, 1st Iowa Infantry (German Rifles)
  1
  2
  3
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  33
  VERMONT
  The Green Mountain State was assigned a quota of one 
  regiment. Accordingly, Governor Erastus Fairbanks issued 
  orders to mobilize the Active Militia, and an emergency 
  session of the legislature met on April 25. In order to 
  raise this regiment the ten uniformed militia companies 
  with the fullest ranks were ordered to rendezvous at Rutland. 
  An 1836 graduate of the US Military Academy who 
  had served for 23 years with the US Army, John Phelps 
  of Brattleboro was chosen to command the 1st Vermont, 
  also known as the “Green Mountain Boys.” As each of 
  its companies possessed prewar uniforms of various colors, 
  a regimental uniform was required for the 1st Vermont, 
  and this was acquired in Boston by State Quartermaster-
  General George Davis, who, according to the Vermont Phoenix 
  of Brattleboro dated April 25, also obtained “overcoats, 
  blankets and general camp equipment.”
  In the meantime, the state proposed to supply each 
  volunteer with “1 coat, 1 fatigue cap, 2 pairs woollen socks, 
  1 knapsack, 1 trowsers, 2 flannel shirts, 1 pair shoes, 
  1 haversack, 1 overcoat, 2 flannel drawers, 1 blanket, 1 
  canteen.” Four days later, the St Albans Messenger was able to report 
  that “Their uniforms are being made with all possible haste, and will 
  undoubtedly be ready by the time marching orders are received.”
  Mustered into US service on May 8, the 1st Vermont arrived at Fortress 
  Monroe, VA, five days later. While passing through Troy, New York, 
  the Vermonters were described in the Messenger of May 8 as being dressed 
  in “serviceably gray uniforms with glittering muskets and tightly strapped 
  knapsacks.” A New York City reporter commented that they did not attract 
  attention, because “a sober gray does not dazzle the eyes.” On May 14, 
  the Windsor Vermont Chronicle added that “All hands wear the Green 
  Mountain sprig [in their caps].” Numbering 779 men, the 1st Vermont 
  was considered by Gen Benjamin Butler to be one of the best regiments 
  under his command. Occupying Hampton on May 23, it was the first 
  regiment in the service of the US to take possession of Virginia soil.
  However, the gray clothing of the 1st Vermont quickly deteriorated on 
  campaign. An officer wrote on May 18 that the men were suffering from 
  the “wearing out of their uniforms, 
  particularly the pantaloons.” Despite 
  these shortcomings, all the regiment 
  appears to have received during 
  the  remainder of its service was 
  havelocks by May 23, and more 
  shoes by June 13.3 Having sustained 
  two killed and three wounded 
  when  five of its companies took part 
  in the engagement at Big Bethel on 
  June 10, the 1st Vermont returned 
  home on August 5.
  3 
  The classic “havelock” was a light cap cover with a falling neck curtain to protect against the sun, named after 
  the British general of that name. See MAA 268, British Troops in the Indian Mutiny, 1857–59.
  This volunteer may have belonged 
  to the New England Guards (Co F, 
  1st Vermont), enlisted at 
  Northfield. He wears a fine 
  checked shirt and gray military 
  trousers with inch-wide seam 
  stripes. It is unclear whether he 
  is wearing a shop apron or a 
  medical sling, the latter indicating 
  that he may have been wounded. 
  The young girl standing by his 
  side has short-cropped hair; this 
  suggests that she has just 
  recovered from an illness, since 
  the cutting of hair was believed 
  to reduce a fever. (Marius 
  Peladeau Collection)
  Discovered at Dummerston, VT, 
  this tintype shows three 
  members of the Green Mountain 
  Guards, a militia company from 
  Swanton in the northwestern 
  part of the state. Before 
  enlistment as Co A, 1st Vermont 
  Volunteers this unit wore dark 
  green trousers and slightly 
  lighter green seven-button coats. 
  They hold M1855 rifle-muskets, 
  which may have been part 
  of the issue to the newly 
  forming regiment. 
  (Marius Peladeau Collection)
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  34
  RHODE ISLAND
  Governor William Sprague had already offered Lincoln “a force 
  for the protection of the capital” when asked for one regiment 
  of 37 officers and 743 men, so contingency plans were in place 
  in Rhode Island. Within two days Sprague was able to report to 
  Secretary of War Simon Cameron that the regiment was organized 
  on the original basis, adding “We are using every exertion to be 
  first in the field.” Upon arrival at Providence, Ambrose Burnside, 
  the former commander of the State Militia but then resident 
  in New York, accepted command of the regiment. On April 18, 
  the governor telegraphed Cameron that “Our troops are leaving 
  in detachments today.”
  As Rhode Island lacked a full militia regiment prior to the 
  Civil War, the ten companies that formed the 1st Regiment, 
  Detached Militia were drawn from various existing companies 
  of volunteer, or active, militia. This included such colorful units 
  as the First Light Infantry, Pawtucket Light Guard, and Newport 
  Artillery. Also lacking militia uniform regulations in 1861, the 
  state needed a service dress for the regiment, and the responsibility 
  for this task fell on Col Burnside. He chose a pull-over 
  “hunting-shirt” – a blouse with falling collar and placket front 
  opening, which was double-breasted for field and staff officers 
  and single-breasted for company officers and enlisted men. 
  Closed by three small brass state buttons, it also had a breast 
  pocket fastened by a single button of the same type. The sleeves, 
  cut full and gathered at the cuff, also fastened by a single button.
  To produce this garment, 4,223 yards of blue flannel was 
  purchased on April 16 at a cost of $2,006.46. Cloth sufficient 
  to produce 1,000 blouses for the 1st Rhode Island was rushed to 
  the store of H.A. Prescott in Providence, and the local ladies were 
  advised that “The work must be done by to-night.” According to 
  a report published in the Providence Daily Post of April 20, work on blouses 
  to be worn by the regiment was undertaken by the womenfolk of the 
  local church congregations.
  Procured from the Providence “hat manufactory” of Bowen & Pabodie, 
  full-dress headgear for enlisted men consisted of a black felt hat which 
  resembled the pattern-1858 US Army hat, but had a taller crown and a 
  curled brim. Referred to as a “Kossuth hat,” its brim was pinned up on 
  the left side with a brass eagle insignia, and silver company letters were 
  pinned to the front of the crown. Dress hats for officers were made of fur 
  felt, with the brim pinned up with either the brass eagle or a cockade, and 
  often sported black feather plumes. For fatigue wear, enlisted men wore 
  blue chasseur-pattern forage caps with a metal company letter attached at 
  the front. Officers wore what later became known as the “McDowell-style” 
  cap, with tall crown and 1858-pattern “looped” horn insignia at the front.
  Issue of the first batch of uniforms on April 19 was described by the 
  Providence Daily Post as follows: “A busy scene was enacting at Mr. Prescott’s 
  store… throughout the day. It was there that the uniforms and clothing 
  were given out, and detachments from each company were marched over 
  there, when to each man was delivered the blue outside shirt, gray pants… 
  and under-garments. They were then marched to Bowen & Pabodie’s… 
  when each obtained a black felt hat.”
  Moses B. Jenkins wears the 
  dress hat, blue hunting-shirt, 
  and gray pants issued to the 
  1st Rhode Island Detached 
  Militia. A wealthy resident 
  and landowner of Providence, 
  RI, he enlisted in the Mechanic 
  Rifles No. 2 on April 17, 1861. 
  According to a report in the 
  New York Tribune, he destroyed 
  his ticket for “a passage to 
  Europe that he might remain to 
  fight in defence of the flag of 
  his country.” Under magnification 
  his white cotton haversack can 
  be seen to be stenciled “MB 
  JENKINS/RI REGT.” Compare this 
  image with the reconstruction 
  of the officer, Plate F1. (Michael 
  J. McAfee Collection)
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  35
  Instead of providing the regiment with overcoats, the state 
  purchased 553 scarlet blankets with “black bar near the edge,” 
  at a cost of $5.50 per blanket. Rolled and carried diagonally 
  on  the soldier’s back suspended from a leather strap, these 
  blankets were slit at the center by order of Burnside so that 
  they could be worn as a poncho. Of the wearing of this item, a 
  correspondent of the New York Evening Post wrote on May 11 
  that each man had “a light scarlet blanket, which they wear 
  with inimitable grace, pinning it in the shape of a coat, with 
  a skill unobtainable to ordinary mortals.”
  When the regiment returned home at the end of its 
  three-month period of service on July 25, 1861, the well-worn 
  “war suits” of the 1st Rhode Island were reported by the 
  Providence Daily Journal as consisting of “tattered tunics, dilapidated 
  hats, more than one garnished with bullet holes, muddy 
  trowsers, and leather scows, by courtesy called shoes, slit here 
  and there to ease the chafe….”
  CONNECTICUT
  When Governor William Buckingham received the call for three 
  regiments, he did not feel empowered to order out any of his 
  eight existing regiments of Active Militia. Instead he requested a 
  new organization of volunteers, composed of a combination 
  of existing militia companies plus others newly formed. Some of 
  these already wore their dark blue militia uniforms based on 1856 
  state regulations, which in turn were patterned on US Army 
  regulations of 1851. According to the Hartford Daily Courant of 
  April 20, others were uniformed by their local communities.
  By the end of April the state’s military authorities had also 
  begun to supply uniforms to its volunteers. Major J.M. Hathaway, 
  the State Quartermaster-General, contracted with firms in Hartford, 
  Manchester and New Haven, CT, and in Monson, MA, to produce 
  “coats, pantaloons, and blouses.” One of the firms involved was clothier 
  Charles  Day of Hartford, who agreed to provide 500 “uniform coats” 
  and  500 “pantaloons” at $7.50 per suit. Acquiring blue satinet cloth, 
  he let the contract out to Hartford tailors who cut and made up the 
  coats, and charged only for the latter. 
  By the beginning of May, Day had 
  agreed to supply 2,000 coats and 
  1,000 pairs of pantaloons, and was 
  producing about 100 coats a day. On 
  May 8 a correspondent of the Rhode 
  Island Providence Daily Evening Press 
  reported that Day also had orders for 
  2,000 overcoats, and had 13 cutters 
  “constantly employed.” 
  The uniforms worn by Connecticut 
  troops arriving at the nation’s capital 
  were 
  reported 
  briefly 
  in 
  the 
  Washington press. Commanded by 
  Col (later Gen) Daniel Tyler, the 
  1st  Connecticut were described in 
  Photographed at the studio of 
  G.W. Davis in Hartford, this 
  unidentified Connecticut 
  volunteer wears an example 
  of the dark blue uniform being 
  produced in that city during April 
  and May, 1861. His frock coat is 
  trimmed around the base of the 
  collar only, and his pants appear 
  to be plain; he holds a chasseur-
  pattern cap. (Author’s collection)
  This volunteer from Hartford, 
  CT, is tentatively identified as 
  Wolcott P. Marsh, who enlisted 
  in Rifle Company A, 
  1st Connecticut Infantry. 
  He wears an example of the 
  five-button coat with standing 
  collar and breast pocket 
  acquired by some Connecticut 
  companies during the first 
  few weeks of the war. 
  (Author’s collection)
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  36
  the Washington Star of May 11 as wearing 
  “blue frock coats, gray pants and fatigue caps.” 
  As with other states, much of the clothing 
  issued to Connecticut volunteers was shoddily 
  made. A report in the Hartford Daily Courant 
  for  May  20 stated that “seams ripped and 
  buttons came off.” Complaints from (among 
  others) Capt Wright, commanding Co B, led to 
  an investigation by a state legislative committee 
  as early as the beginning of May 1861, which 
  established that both gray and blue satinet 
  had been acquired for trousers, and that the 
  latter, made of “Reynolds satinet,” had proved 
  inferior. The trousers made up voluntarily by 
  “the ladies of Hartford” for Charles Day were 
  of inferior blue cloth.
  DELAWARE
  The second-smallest state in the Union, and one 
  of four border or “slave states” that did not 
  secede, Delaware was nevertheless reluctant to 
  respond to the Presidential call for one regiment. 
  Indeed, Democrat and pro-Southern Governor 
  William Burton replied that there was “no 
  organized militia in the State,” and took no 
  active part in the formation of a regiment for the Union. However, 
  Gen Henry Du Pont, a West Point graduate and senior partner in the 
  largest gunpowder supplier to the Union Army during the Civil War, 
  was  nominally the State Adjutant-General, and he assumed leadership 
  in the mobilization of Delaware militia.
  The nucleus of the 1st Delaware Volunteer Militia was formed from 
  the military companies in Wilmington, which included the Delaware 
  Blues and Columbia Rifles. Volunteers enlisting from these units wore 
  whatever uniform clothing they already had, whether full-dress or fatigue 
  uniforms. Meanwhile the womenfolk organized a Volunteers’ Sewing 
  Society and made blue flannel shirts, blankets and haversacks for all 
  the volunteer companies preparing for service. Attached to the command 
  of Gen John Dix, Department of the Potomac, and assigned to duty 
  guarding the line of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, 
  Cos A, B, D and E, 1st Delaware, departed for duty without full uniforms 
  on May 28, and the remainder of the regiment followed on June 9.
  Still not supplied by June 2, a member of the Wilmington Rifles (Co E) 
  reported in the State Journal from Camp Dare, by the Bush River, Maryland, 
  that the “men begin to ask for their uniforms and overcoats.” He also 
  noted that havelocks had been received, and recorded a novel use for 
  the flannel “body bandages” issued as a preventative for diarrhea, stating 
  that “Some of the men wear the red flannel bands, designed for another 
  part of the body, around their caps and on the outside of their garments, 
  thus displaying a taste for martial colors not unbecoming a soldier.”4
  4 
  Throughout the 19th century it was erroneously believed in many armies that a flannel sash or body-belt worn 
  under the coat would protect men from a variety of disorders and diseases, including dysentery and cholera. In fact 
  their only real value was in providing support for the lower back if tightly wrapped.
  The poor quality of the uniforms 
  worn by these volunteers of 
  the Delaware Blues (Co A, 
  1st Delaware Infantry) is 
  apparent. Their coats are devoid 
  of trim although they have a 
  single small button attached 
  either side of the collar. The 
  man at right has a small metal 
  letter “A” attached to the front 
  of his cap. They are armed with 
  M1842 muskets; shoulder belts 
  support cartridge boxes, and 
  1839-pattern plates fasten 
  their waist belts. (Military 
  and Historical Imagebank)
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  37
  With the exception of Companies H and I, on June 14–15 the 
  1st Delaware finally received poorly-made dark blue uniforms consisting 
  of “coats, pantaloons, shoes, caps,” and a member of the Wilmington 
  Rifles reported in the Delaware Republican that the “boys” were “strutting 
  about in their ‘sojer’ clothes.” A letter of June 23 published in the 
  Philadelphia Inquirer from Camp Milligan stated: “The men have received 
  their uniforms; it is made of dark blue cassinet, with trimmings of light 
  blue, making a very fine appearance when worn upon parades, drills 
  or guard duties, being seldom worn at other times.”
  During the same period another volunteer wrote in the Delaware 
  Republican of June 24 that “The long-looked for uniforms… are a pretty 
  hard set of garments, very few fitting in anything like a decent manner, 
  and reflecting but little credit on the tailor who cut them out. Some pants 
  are too short, some too long, some too narrow in the waist, some too 
  wide. – The coats have equally as many faults, some having no shape at 
  all.” By June 9 each company had received 32 “stout, durable” overcoats 
  for use on guard duty, according to the State Journal.
  Clearly not proud of his appearance, a member of the Sussex Volunteers 
  (Co G) wrote in the State Journal on June 29: “Very little attention is paid 
  to dress down here, there being no ladies to dress for. We are indifferent 
  as to style; it is a matter of no moment whether we black our boots or 
  not, or have on a collar, which we now regard as superfluous; we can wear 
  our blue flannel shirts without either coat or vest, and have no apprehension 
  of the ladies criticizing our appearance. We fit ourselves for the camp, 
  not the parlor.”
  From a glass negative made by 
  Jex J. Bardwell, this detail 
  shows the 1st Michigan parading 
  in the Campus Martius in Detroit 
  to receive their regimental 
  colors on May 1, 1861. As these 
  volunteer militia companies had 
  been brought together at such 
  short notice they had yet to 
  standardize their drill. Although 
  they are all standing at “parade 
  rest,” the company at left is 
  using the out-dated Scott’s 
  Infantry Tactics while the one at 
  right is following Hardee’s Rifle 
  and Light Infantry Tactics. (Anne 
  S.K. Brown Military Collection)
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  38
  MICHIGAN
  The single regiment required of Michigan was mustered-in at Fort Wayne, 
  Detroit, on May 1, under Col Orlando B. Wilcox. Initially the money to 
  equip the 1st Michigan was provided by the City of Detroit plus local 
  businessmen and private citizens. By April 19, 1,600 blue flannel shirts 
  had been made by Samuel Sykes & Co, with additional shirts, possibly 
  of  gray, being produced by local ladies’ sewing societies. Meanwhile, 
  according to the Detroit Free Press of April 30, Col Henry Whitlessey 
  was sent east by Governor Austin Blair to purchase uniforms and camp 
  equipment. Instead of acquiring uniforms, he bought about $20,000 
  worth of cloth sufficient for two regiments from A.T. Stewart & Co, 
  a large dry-goods company in New York City; this consisted of “heavy 
  Petersham blue [for] overcoats, navy blue lighter cloth for the fatigue 
  jackets and pants, and blue flannel shirts.”
  Three leading Detroit merchant tailoring firms were contracted to make 
  the uniforms. The jackets were plain, rather loose in cut, and fastened by 
  nine buttons which were probably of the staff pattern embossed with the 
  Michigan state seal, as this had been used by the state authorities since 
  the 1840s. The standing collar had a seam at the top and a double line 
  of welting around the center to make them stand upright, and cuffs were 
  plain. Matching epaulets were secured by small gilt buttons near the collar. 
  Many of the jackets had a single low-set slit pocket on the right side, 
  between the sixth and seventh buttons. Although construction details of 
  the dark blue flannel trousers are vague, they appear to have had a watch 
  pocket on the right side and seam pockets on both sides. Non-commissioned 
  officers’ trousers lacked the customary seam stripes. On May 9, the 
  Detroit  Free Press advised that “the cloth for the pantaloons seems to be too 
  thin, and the men will need to wear the drawers with which the exertions 
  of the ladies of our city have supplied them.” According to photographic 
  evidence, the blue Petersham overcoats were of the caped infantry pattern 
  as per 1851 US Army regulations, and headgear consisted of chasseur-
  pattern caps made by Buhl & Co of Detroit, who subcontracted the work 
  to other hatters in the city.
  Departing from Fort Wayne on May 13, the 1st Michigan represented 
  the first Western troops to reach the Federal capital. Twelve days later 
  it was ordered across the “Long Bridge” over the Potomac to take possession 
  of Alexandria, Virginia. Following the establishment of Camp Wilcox, 
  the uniforms of this regiment began to suffer from the extremes of 
  campaign life. On June 23, Cpl J. Benton Kennedy (Co B) wrote to 
  the  Jonesville Weekly Independent that “Some of our boys are nearly 
  bare-legged already, being furnished with but one pair of pants and one 
  jacket very poorly made and of the slaziest [sic] kind of Navy flannel, 
  which, in our rough life being obliged to wear them night and day, will 
  last no time at all.”
  Fighting at Bull Run with the 2nd Brigade, Third Division commanded 
  by Col Wilcox, the 1st Michigan formed part of the attack on the Confederate 
  left flank. Involved in the struggle around the guns of Ricketts’ Battery, this 
  regiment advanced further into the Confederate lines than any other 
  Union troops on July 21. As a result, it lost nine officers and 108 men killed, 
  wounded and missing. When released during May 1862, one of those who 
  had been captured stated in the Detroit Free Press that “the Michigan troops 
  were known among the rebel soldiers as the ‘blue jackets.’ ”
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  39
  WISCONSIN
  The single regiment requested of Governor 
  Alex Randall from the “Far West” state of 
  Wisconsin was designated the 1st Regiment, 
  Wisconsin Active Militia. Rendezvousing at 
  Milwaukee, it was mustered-in on May 19, 
  finally leaving for the front on June 9. Based 
  on reports in the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 
  the state purchased “1,531½ yards gray cloth 
  and 50 yards cadet cloth” from the Burlington 
  Woolen Factory in Racine County before 
  the end of April. This was made into 1,340 
  “gray woolen” coats and 1,218 pairs of trousers 
  by at least 30 different Milwaukee tailors, 
  the largest single order going to the Muller 
  Brothers. At least 50 sets of coat and pants 
  were produced by “about thirty convicts” with 
  tailoring experience at the State Penitentiary. 
  Also received were 817 caps and 1,645 
  flannel shirts.
  Issued on May 6, these uniforms were 
  ill-fitting and varied in color. In a letter written to the Fond du Lac Reporter, 
  Pvt Colwert Pier stated that “We have just received our clothes, which 
  they call uniforms, although one would think to see the company on 
  parade, that the tailor had warranted each uniform to fit the largest man 
  or the smallest boy. The cloth is gray, of various shades; much of it is of 
  poor quality and will not stand hard service. The pants have a black cord 
  down the sides, and the coats have brass buttons and stand-up collars.”
  Possibly due to dissatisfaction with the fit of their gray uniforms, the 
  1st Wisconsin also received blue fatigue clothing before they left the state, 
  this consisting of 800 “overalls,” and 868 “Blouses (Blue Denim).” However, 
  the gray uniforms continued to be worn for dress occasions; while the 
  regiment was en route through Illinois for Virginia the Chicago Daily Tribune 
  of June 10 reported that it was dressed “all alike, frock coat and pants 
  of dark gray cloth, with fatigue caps of the same.”
  The caps referred to were of képi style, trimmed around the band 
  with black cord, and were of flimsy construction. Writing on May 22, 
  an unknown volunteer stated in the Milwaukee Morning Sentinel that 
  “The first night we got our caps we all hung them on our bayonets [on 
  piled arms] to keep them out of the dirt, but in the morning we found 
  that the fragile cloth had let the bayonets through, and the caps had slid 
  down over the guns into the dirt.” Two companies of the 1st Wisconsin 
  eventually received new caps patterned on those worn by “the regular 
  service,” while the remainder of the regiment purchased replacements 
  at their own expense.
  During its three months of service the 1st Wisconsin campaigned 
  in the Shenandoah Valley under Gen Robert Patterson, and fought at 
  Falling Waters on July 2. Writing from Martinsburg, VA, nine days later, 
  Pvt William Bird of the Madison Guards (Co E) stated in the Wisconsin Daily 
  Patriot of July 17 that the Confederate infantry were uniformed “very 
  similar to the Wisconsin men – so much so that we wear a white badge 
  on our arm to designate us from them.”
  Members of the Milwaukee Light 
  Guard (Co A, 1st Wisconsin), 
  wearing uniforms made of cloth 
  purchased from James Catlin 
  at the Burlington Woolen Factory 
  in Racine County. Their 
  képi-style caps bear the metal 
  letter “A” at front, and their 
  lighter gray satinet nine-button 
  frock coats have plain collar and 
  cuffs. (Hoard Historical Museum,  
  Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin)
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  IOWA
  Commanded by Col J. Bates, the men of the 1st Iowa were mostly 
  clothed in uniforms supplied by their local communities throughout 
  their service, despite belated efforts by the state government to uniform 
  them properly. In order to clothe the Governor’s Greys and Jackson 
  Guards of Dubuque, the tailors and cutters of that city provided their 
  services free, and the Ladies’ Volunteer Labor Society sewed the uniforms 
  together by May 8. These uniforms finally reached the 1st Iowa via 
  Mississippi River steamboat, following which Dubuque Herald correspondent 
  F.B. Wilkie reported on May 12: “The coats and pantaloons fit magnificently 
  and are admired as being the finest in the regiment. The boys have 
  put on their uniforms, including their new hats – soft felt ones turned 
  up on the left with a black, tasteful cockade.” In the meantime, the rest 
  of the 1st Iowa had received “Blankets, hats, stockings, shoes, &c.” by 
  May 6, while other companies also received uniforms from their hometowns. 
  Recruited at Davenport, the German Rifles (Co G) wore “a light blouse 
  with green collar and patent leather belt, dark gray pants without stripe 
  except in the case of officers, a black felt [hat] turned up at one side 
  and fastened by a tin bull’s eye the size of a sauce plate, which displays 
  the red, white and blue.” According to the Dubuque Herald of May 5, 
  the same general style was adopted by the Burlington and Mount Pleasant 
  companies, although their blouses had “a profusion of bright red 
  flannel trimmings.”
  Describing the process of clothing the Burlington Zouaves (Co E), 
  Eugene Ware recalled: “Only about one-half… our company had 
  uniforms, and being Zouave uniforms they were pronounced by our 
  Mexican War veteran critics as unfit… so the girls… got up… a 
  hunting-frock of the pioneer Daniel Boone type, fitting closely at the 
  neck, cuff and belt… It was made of a fluffy, fuzzy, open-woven, 
  azure-gray cloth… The cuff, collar and a band up and down the breast 
  were flannel of a beautiful Venetian red, insuring a good target. 
  Trowsers of a heavy buckskin type and color. Black felt hunting-hat, 
  with a brilliant red-ribbon cockade… When we afterwards got into the 
  field our officers made us tear off the red trimmings because they 
  were too conspicuous.”
  MINNESOTA
  The single regiment recruited in Minnesota was composed of ten of 
  the existing militia companies. When the 1st Minnesota, commanded 
  by Col Willis A. Gorman, passed through Chicago en route for 
  Washington, DC, the Chicago Daily Tribune of June 24 observed: 
  “Two hundred of these troops have the regular U.S. uniforms provided 
  for U.S. infantry and supplied the volunteers at the forts. The balance 
  wore blue shirts and red flannel shirts but will receive their uniforms 
  at Harrisburg ordered thither from New York.” When this regiment 
  arrived at the Federal capital, the National Daily Intelligencer of June 28 
  confirmed that it had received a uniform consisting of “plain gray 
  cassimere, trimmed with black, and a black felt hat, according to army 
  regulations.”
  When they formed part of the 1st Brigade, Third Division at First 
  Bull Run, the gray uniforms of the Minnesota troops confused both 
  friend and foe during the fighting around Ricketts’ Battery.
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  DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
  A total of eight provisional battalions of the militia were organized for 
  service in the District of Columbia due to the efforts of Inspector-General 
  Charles Stone, who did much to prevent pro-secessionist paramilitary 
  groups from seizing the Federal capital. A composite 60-man company 
  of the Washington Light Infantry Battalion was mustered-in on April 15, 
  being the first Northern militia to enter active Federal service.
  The companies composing the DC battalions wore uniforms of varying 
  colors and cut. Some of the most striking included the gray frock coats 
  and pants with orange facings, and glazed fatigue caps, of the Union 
  Regiment, Co A, which formed part of the 2nd DC Battalion; the “gray 
  pants, and coats with mixed red and orange facings, and gray fatigue caps 
  with red tops,” of the Washington Light Guard, 4th DC Battalion; and the 
  “glazed fatigue cap, gray jacket with gold lace trimmings, and black 
  pantaloons with gold stripe,” of the Metropolitan Rifles, 5th DC Battalion. 
  Photographed in the Federal 
  capital in April or May 1861, 
  the two officers plus enlisted 
  man dressed in gray (right) 
  belong to District of Columbia 
  militia companies, while the men 
  at left are members of the 
  7th New York State Militia. (Anne 
  S.K. Brown Military Collection)
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  42
  SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
  Frederick H. Dyer, Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (1908)
  Robert N. Scott, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion (Washington, 
  DC, 1880–1901)
  Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives… 1861–62, Vol. 2 
  (Washington, DC, 1862)
  http://Firtstbullrun.co.uk The Manassas Campaign, Virginia, 16-22 
  July, 1861.
  In state order, as on Contents page:
  Samuel P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861–5 (Harrisburg, 
  PA, 1869–71)
  Frank H. Taylor, Philadelphia in the Civil War (Philadelphia, PA, 1913)
  Adjutant-General, Registers of New York in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 
  to 1865 (Albany, NY, 1894–1906)
  Correspondence to the Governor and Adjutant General, 1861–1866 – Series 
  147–1A: 15 (Ohio Historical Society)
  W.D. Allbeck, Clark County Boys in Blue (Springfield, OH, n.d.)
  Message and Reports to the General Assembly and Governor of the State of Ohio 
  for the Year 1861 (Columbus, OH, 1862)
  A.J. Grayson, “The Spirit of 1861”: History of the Sixth Indiana Regiment in 
  the Three Months’ Campaign in Western Virginia (Madison, IN, 1875)
  Indianapolis Directory & Business Mirror for 1861 (Indianapolis, IN, 1861
  Diary of Thuma, Valentine (1839–?), Company K, 8th Indiana Volunteer 
  Infantry (Indiana Historical Society – SC 1458)
  “Report of the [Indiana House] Select Committee to [I]nvestigate the 
  Quartermaster and Commissary Department,” in Journal of the House 
  of Representatives of the State of Indiana [Special Session Commencing... 
  April 24, 1861], (Indianapolis, IN, 1861)
  Officers and men of the Boston 
  Light Artillery, Massachusetts 
  Volunteer Militia, pose in front 
  of the Thomas Viaduct carrying 
  the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. 
  Their undress caps are probably 
  dark blue, contrasting with their 
  gray double-breasted frock 
  coats. The enlisted men wear 
  brass shoulder scales, while 
  two officers (not wearing 
  epaulets) stand at the left. 
  Each man is armed with an 
  M1840 Light Artillery saber. 
  (Michael J. McAfee Collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  43
  Lew Wallace, Lew Wallace: an Autobiography, Vol. 1 (New York, NY, 1906
  Report of the Adjutant General containing Reports of the years 1861–66 
  (Springfield, MA, 1900–02)
  Annual Report of the Quartermaster General of the State of New Jersey for 
  the Year 1861 (Jersey City, NJ, 1862)
  Robert Dollard, Recollections of the Civil War and Going West to Grow Up 
  in the Country (Scotland, SD, 1906)
  James A. Emmerton, A Record of the Twenty-Third Regiment Mass. Vol. 
  Infantry in the War of the Rebellion (Boston, MA, 1886)
  Maj John M. Gould & Rev Leonard G. Jordan, History of the First – 
  Tenth – Twenty-ninth Maine Regiment (Portland, ME, 1871)
  James O. Lyford, History of Concord, New Hampshire (City History 
  Commission, 1896)
  Thomas L. Livermore, Days and Events,1860–1866 (Boston & 
  New York, 1920)
  Stephen G. Abbott, The First Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers in 
  the Great Rebellion (Keene, NH, 1890)
  Marcus Peladeau, “Green Mountain Soldiers: Vermonters in the Civil 
  War,” in Military Images, Vol. XIII, No. 2 (September–October 1991)
  Augustus Woodbury, Campaign of the First Rhode Island Regiment 
  (Providence, RI, 1862)
  W.A. Croffut & John M. Morris, History of Connecticut during the War 
  of 1861–65 (New York, NY, 1869)
  William P. Seville, History of the First Regiment, Delaware Volunteers, from 
  the commencement of the three months service to the final muster-out at 
  the close of the Rebellion (Wilmington, DE, 1884)
  John Robertson (compiler), Michigan in the War (Lansing, MI, 1882)
  Papers of the First Wisconsin, Series 1179 – Box 1 (Wisconsin 
  Historical Society)
  Eugene F. Ware, The Lyon Campaign in Missouri. Being a History of 
  the First Iowa Infantry (Topeka, KS, 1907)
  Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Vol. 28 (Washington, DC, 1926)
  Plus various contemporary newspapers, as named in the text.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  44
  PLATE COMMENTARIES
  A: PENNSYLVANIA
  In the background is Ladner’s Military Hall, a popular 
  watering-hole for Pennsylvania militia in Philadelphia.
  A1: Private, Sarsfield Rifles, 21st Pennsylvania 
  Infantry
  In full dress, this enlisted man shows off an 1851-pattern 
  dress cap with dark green band and green “fountain” plume. 
  His unusual “hunting-shirt”-style coat has a 2in-long fringe 
  around the skirts. He is armed with a Model 1841 rifle, and his 
  accoutrements consist of an 1839-pattern rifleman’s powder 
  flask and pouch, and a white buff leather 1839-pattern waist 
  belt fastened with a small “US” oval plate.
  A2: Musician, Philadelphia Zouave Corps, 
  1st Pennsylvania Infantry
  Wearing the PZC uniform based on that of the Zouaves 
  of  the French Imperial Guard, the musician has a red fez 
  with  dark blue tassel, bound with a roll of white muslin 
  resembling a turban. His blue jacket has yellow worsted 
  “arabesque” trimmings and red cuffs, and his vest is similarly 
  trimmed. A light blue sash is wrapped around his waist. 
  His  red pantaloons are tucked into leather leggings, over 
  which are white gaiters or “greaves.” His musician’s belt 
  has a drumstick holder at left and drum hook at right, plus 
  supporting shoulder strap, mostly hidden here.
  A3: Private, 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry 
  (redesignated 19th Pennsylvania)
  This rather poorly-dressed soldier wears a “Hardee” hat with 
  full ornamentation, 1857-pattern four-button sack coat, red 
  flannel shirt and plain sky-blue kersey trousers, and holds 
  a black “pilot-cloth” infantry overcoat. He is armed with an 
  M1842 Springfield musket, and his accoutrements (hidden 
  here) consist of a black leather waist belt with oval “US” 
  plate supporting a cap pouch and scabbarded bayonet. His 
  1842-pattern cartridge box is suspended from a black leather 
  shoulder belt with a round “eagle” plate.
  B: NEW YORK
  B1: Private, Company A, 8th Regiment,  
  New York State Militia (Washington Greys)
  This soldier has been issued with the regulation undress 
  uniform of his regiment: a cadet-gray cap with black band and 
  regimental numeral, a four-button gray sack coat, and gray 
  trousers with 2in-wide black seam stripes. He is fully equipped 
  for the Bull Run campaign, and armed with an M1842 rifle-
  musket. The breast plate on his whitened buff shoulder belt 
  displays a bust of George Washington within a wreath, and 
  his waist belt a small rectangular brass plate bearing the 
  company letter “A” with “WASHINGTON” in an arc above and 
  “GREYS” below. The remainder of his accoutrements consist 
  of a black leather cap pouch, bayonet scabbard, and cartridge 
  box, plus an oilcloth haversack and tin drum canteen.
  B2: Private, Company B, 13th NYSM 
  (National Greys)
  This company adopted a zouave-style uniform composed of 
  a red fez with blue tassel; a light blue jacket with red cuffs, 
  and white and yellow trim; a light blue vest with red and yellow 
  trim; and red pantaloons tucked into white canvas leggings. 
  He has a white waist belt secured by a plate showing the 
  company letter “B” and “National/Greys,” and black leather 
  accoutrements for his M1842 Springfield musket.
  The Irish nationalist Thomas 
  Francis Meagher recruited 
  the Irish Zouaves (Co K, 
  69th New York State Militia), 
  whose uniform he wears 
  here. Commissioned a 
  brigadier general in 1862, 
  he would command the Irish 
  (2nd) Brigade, First Division, 
  II Corps of the Army of 
  the Potomac, which was 
  decimated at Antietam 
  and Fredericksburg in 
  September and December 
  1862. After resigning his 
  commission in May 1863, 
  he was recalled to duty in 
  September 1864, serving 
  in the Western Theater. 
  After briefly commanding 
  a provisional division in 
  the Army of the Ohio under 
  Gen William T. Sherman, 
  he finally resigned on 
  May 15, 1865. (USAMHI)
  Also known as the “Howitzer Company,” Co I, 12th New York 
  State Militia was photographed at Camp Anderson, 
  Washington, DC, in May 1861; compare with Plate B3. 
  Most wear the chasseur uniform received by this regiment 
  on May 9, and note the havelocks, top left. One of the 
  regiment’s 21 drummers, who wore zouave uniforms, sits 
  in the right foreground, playing cards on the drumhead 
  with his comrades. (Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  45
  B3: Private, 12th NYSM (Independence Guard)
  Kneeling to adjust his canvas knapsack, this enlisted man 
  wears the chasseur-style uniform received by his regiment on 
  May 9, 1861: a “mazarine blue” fatigue cap with dark blue 
  band and the brass regimental number; a dark blue coat 
  trimmed with light blue; and sky-blue pantaloons tucked 
  into russet leather leggings. He carries an M1855 rifle-musket, 
  and has black leather accoutrements and a white blanket roll. 
  A large red, white and blue Union rosette is pinned to his coat.
  C: OHIO, INDIANA, & ILLINOIS
  C1: NCO, 19th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
  The shoddily dressed NCO wears a dark blue 1858-pattern 
  forage cap, plain gray nine-button jacket, and matching pants 
  with broad black seam stripes. He is armed with an imported 
  Enfield rifle-musket, and accoutrements include a black leather 
  belt fastened with an oval “OVM” plate, plus a tin drum canteen 
  and oilcloth haversack.
  C2: Private, Company K, 16th Ohio 
  (Springfield Greys)
  This volunteer wears a similarly poor-quality uniform, 
  consisting of a red flannel shirt supplied by his state, plain 
  gray trousers, and an 1861-pattern forage cap with lower 
  crown and oilskin cover. He holds a Liége-made French 
  M1857 rifle-musket and has black leather accoutrements; 
  note the 1858-pattern “clamshell”-shaped canteen with gray 
  cloth cover.
  C3: Private, 9th Indiana Infantry
  Outfitted in a plain jacket and pants of blue jean cloth, with 
  a broad-brimmed hat pinned up (with a military button 
  and red worsted cord), this enlisted man carries an M1855 
  rifle-musket and has an 1855-pattern cartridge box; his 
  equipage includes a tin canteen in a pale blue cover.
  C4: Private, 12th Illinois Volunteers  
  (The First Scotch Regiment)
  The “tam-o’-shanter”-style cap with a shallow plaid band 
  indicates the Scottish nucleus of this regiment. The remainder 
  of his uniform consists of a seven-button gray coat, with three 
  small buttons along a narrow strip of cloth on the cuffs. 
  Recruited in Chicago, this regiment was issued M1857 
  Württemberg rifle-muskets and black leather accoutrements, 
  with white cotton haversacks.
  D: NEW JERSEY & MASSACHUSETTS
  D1: Private, 1st New Jersey Foot Militia 
  He wears the state uniform supplied to its three-month militia: 
  a dark blue forage cap and frock coat, with white trim around 
  the base of the collar, the cuffs and the “bridle” or epaulet 
  Photographed at 
  Washington, DC, three 
  of these enlisted men of 
  the 8th Massachusetts 
  Volunteer Militia wear 
  Federal-issue clothing 
  and  caps, which were 
  probably part of the 
  uniform issued to 
  the regiment by special 
  order of Abraham Lincoln 
  on May 17, 1861. 
  However, the left-hand 
  man wears the full-dress 
  gray uniform of the 
  Allen Guard (Co K), 
  formed in Pittsfield, MA, 
  in August 1860 – compare 
  with the similar uniform 
  worn by Plate D2. Before 
  reorganization in April 
  1861, the Allen Guard 
  was Co A, 1st Battalion 
  of Infantry, MVM, hence 
  the letter “A” still 
  attached to his cap 
  front. (Anne S.K. 
  Brown Military Collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  46
  straps, plus sky-blue pants with narrow white seam stripes. 
  He has an M1842 rifle-musket and appropriate accoutrements 
  and field equipment, including a black rubberized canvas 
  knapsack and a white cotton haversack.
  D2: Private, Company C, 6th Massachusetts 
  Volunteer Militia (Mechanic Phalanx)
  Numerous Massachusetts companies had a dress uniform 
  composed of a nine-button gray tailcoat and matching 
  pants, with variously colored trim across the chest. That of 
  the Mechanic Phalanx was trimmed with yellow, and had the 
  same color facings on collar and cuffs plus a yellow band 
  on  their gray fatigue caps. He is armed with an M1842 
  rifle-musket, and accoutrements include a whitened leather 
  shoulder belt and black waist belt, a combination worn by 
  many MVM units.
  D3: Private, 3rd Massachusetts Volunteer Militia
  The odd-looking headgear is the hat designed by Gen B.F. 
  Edmands, an MVM officer, which was buttoned up on all 
  four  sides and trimmed with red. His seven-button gray 
  “chasseur”-style jacket is also trimmed with red around the 
  collar only. He holds an M1855 rifle-musket, and is showing 
  off a private-purchase M1849 Colt Pocket revolver.
  E: MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, & DISTRICT  
  OF COLUMBIA 
  The incomplete Capitol dome in Washington, DC, is seen in 
  the background.
  E1: Private, 1st Maine Volunteer Militia
  This volunteer wears a plain gray 1858-pattern forage cap. 
  The unit’s seven-button gray frock coat, with tall, square-cut 
  standing collar, was reportedly of very poor quality cloth, 
  and the plain gray pants were made from shoddy material 
  showing a mixture of red and brown flecks. His black waist 
  belt is fastened with a small version of the 1839-pattern 
  oval “US” plate, and supports an 1828-pattern scabbarded 
  bayonet and a black leather cap pouch for his M1855 
  Springfield rifle-musket.
  E2: Private, 1st New Hampshire Volunteers, 
  full dress
  This enlisted man wears the full-dress uniform supplied by 
  New Hampshire for its regiment of three-month volunteers. It 
  consisted of a cadet-gray tail coat and pants, with red trim 
  which varied in detail between the companies. The cadet-gray 
  chasseur-pattern cap had a red band, and a state button 
  fastened at the front. Supplementing his M1842 smoothbore 
  percussion musket, he too has an 1849 Colt Pocket revolver 
  tucked in his belt.
  E3: Private, 1st New Hampshire Volunteers, 
  fatigue dress
  Many militia units had full-dress uniforms but lacked fatigue 
  clothing suitable for active service in the field. When this 
  regiment was mobilized the troops were additionally issued 
  with blue “sack” coats for fatigue dress; this is the uniform 
  they wore at First Bull Run.
  E4: Private, Company E, 4th Battalion, District of 
  Columbia Militia (Washington Zouaves)
  This company’s blue jackets were edged with buff trim 
  and had brass “bell” buttons, worn over a “tea-green” shirt 
  with yellow trim and white bone buttons on the front. Light 
  blue pantaloons with buff seam stripes were tucked into 
  leather leggings. The weapon was the M1855 rifle-musket.
  Standing at “Order arms” with 
  M1842 smoothbore percussion 
  muskets, these unidentified 
  enlisted men of the 1st New 
  Hampshire show to good effect 
  the cadet-gray uniforms made in 
  Boston, MA, by Whiting, 
  Galloupe, Bliss & Co, and 
  Whitten, Hopkins & Co. Indicating 
  a lack of uniformity, the coat 
  worn by the man at the left lacks 
  any of the red trim just visible on 
  his comrade’s collar and cuffs. 
  (Courtesy Ron Swanson)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  47
  F: RHODE ISLAND & CONNECTICUT
  In the background are the wooden barracks of Camp Sprague 
  in Washington, DC.
  F1: Officer, 1st Rhode Island Detached Militia
  This officer has a more elaborate version of the blue 
  “hunting-shirt” worn by his regiment, which has a broad 
  falling  collar, and six pleats either side of an eight-button 
  single-breasted front. His hat bears a black ostrich-feather 
  plume, and is pinned up at the right with an 1858-pattern 
  “eagle” plate. The trousers are plain gray. He holds an 
  M1850 foot officers’ sword, and has a holstered M1851 Colt 
  Navy revolver on his belt.
  F2: Kady Brownell, attached 1st Rhode Island 
  Detached Militia
  One of at least three “vivandiéres” known to have been 
  attached to this regiment, she wears a black hat with a black 
  ostrich-feather plume, the brim pinned up with a large white 
  embroidered star. Around her neck is a white silk stock with 
  a Rhode Island state button attached at the front. Her blue 
  blouse with two rows of small brass buttons is tucked into a 
  red skirt, worn over loose-cut gray trousers gathered to the 
  ankles. She has a white waist sash with gold fringes; under 
  this a waist belt supports a militia dress sword in a black 
  leather scabbard. Note also her buckskin gauntlets, and 
  ankle-high black bootees.
  F3: Private, 1st Connecticut Volunteers
  Holding an M1859 Sharps rifle with sword-bayonet at the 
  “Shoulder arms,” this volunteer wears a plain dark blue forage 
  cap, a nine-button frock coat with sky-blue trim around 
  the base of the collar, and plain dark blue pants.
  F4: Private, Company A, 1st Connecticut 
  Volunteers
  For fatigue dress this regiment received a plain gray four-button 
  sack coat with standing collar and an open pocket on the left 
  chest. He also wears a white cotton havelock, popular with 
  many three-month regiments, in this case with the corners 
  buttoned together beneath the chin. His equipage includes 
  a  combined canteen/ration box instead of a canteen and 
  haversack; painted medium blue, it is marked “Compy A” 
  and “Conn Volunteers.”
  G: MICHIGAN, WISCONSIN, & VERMONT
  G1: Private, 1st Michigan Volunteers
  Holding an M1855 rifle-musket at “Charge – bayonet” to 
  defend against infantry attack, he wears a dark blue chasseur-
  pattern cap, a nine-button jacket with epaulet or “bridle” 
  straps and a single low-set slit pocket in the right side, plus 
  matching pants. A red, white and blue Union cockade is 
  fastened to his chest. Note his canteen, with a red cloth cover.
  G2: Corporal, Company A, 1st Wisconsin 
  Volunteers (Milwaukee Light Guard) 
  Armed with an M1842 rifle-musket, he is conspicuous in 
  his  nine-button frock coat of light gray satinet, worn with 
  a  cadet-gray chasseur-style cap trimmed with black cord, 
  and plain dark gray pants.
  G3: Private, 1st Vermont Volunteers
  This Vermont enlisted man, armed with an M1861 Springfield 
  rifle-musket, wears a cadet-gray forage cap with a sprig of 
  green leaves attached; a cadet-gray tail coat fastened with 
  nine state seal buttons, with black epaulet straps; and much-
  repaired pants of the same color, with black side stripes. (Some 
  Union three-month volunteers deliberately made a display of 
  large, colorful patches on their trousers, to advertise their 
  contempt for the profiteering suppliers of shoddy clothing.)
  The variety of uniforms worn on this plate reminds us of 
  the notorious episodes of confusion between friend and foe 
  that occurred during the first clashes of the war, when gray-clad 
  Union troops confronted Confederates in blue uniforms.
  H: DELAWARE, MINNESOTA, & IOWA
  H1: Private, 1st Delaware Volunteer Militia
  Armed with an M1842 smoothbore musket, and dressed in a 
  poorly-made dark blue frock coat trimmed with sky-blue 
  around the collar only, with a single small button on each side 
  of the same, this enlisted man has attempted to give himself 
  a more colorful appearance by adding to his tall, old-fashioned 
  forage cap a strip of the red flannel abdominal “bandage” or 
  belly band, issued in the belief that keeping the stomach warm 
  was a preventative against diarrhea.
  H2: Private, 1st Minnesota Volunteers
  Uniformed as he appeared on departure from his home state, 
  he wears a black felt hat pinned up with an “eagle” plate and 
  bearing an infantry buglehorn front badge; a plastron-fronted 
  red flannel shirt; and plain dark blue pants. He too is armed 
  with a smoothbore musket, and carries a Bowie knife with 
  a German-silver handle at his belt.
  H3: Private, Company G, 1st Iowa Infantry 
  (German Rifles)
  The womenfolk of Davenport, Iowa, made the uniform worn by 
  this volunteer of a German immigrant community: a light gray 
  five-button sack coat with a dark green standing collar, and 
  plain dark gray pants. His black felt hat is turned up on the left, 
  with a cockade described as “a tin bull’s eye the size of a sauce 
  plate, which displays the red, white and blue.” Besides an 
  M1816 musket converted from flintlock to percussion, he has 
  an M1848 Colt Baby Dragoon revolver. His black patent leather 
  waist belt is fastened by a militia “eagle” plate, and supports 
  the usual black leather cap pouch and bayonet scabbard.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  48
  INDEX
  References to illustrations are shown in bold.
  Captions to plates are shown in brackets.
  Abbott, Joseph  24
  Andrew, John  20
  Bates, Col J.  40
  blankets  35
  body bandages  H1(32, 47), 36
  Boston Light Artillery  42
  Brown, James M.  12
  Brownell, Kady  F2(30, 47)
  Buckingham, William  35
  Burnside, Ambrose  34, 35
  Burton, William  36
  Butler, Gen Benjamin  33
  Cairo Expedition, the  16
  Call to Arms  3–4
  Cameron, Simon  34
  cartridge boxes  A3(25, 44), C3(27, 45), 13, 36
  cavalry  3, 6
  Chicago  16, 16–17
  chronology  4–5
  coats  A3(25, 44), F3(30, 47), 3, 7, 9, 9, 10, 11, 
  13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 22, 23, 24, 35, 35, 36
  Connecticut  F3–4(30, 47), 3, 5, 35, 35–6
  Corwine, Maj R.  12
  Day, Charles  35
  Delaware  H1(32, 47), 3, 5, 36, 36–7
  District of Columbia  E4(29, 46), 3, 5, 41, 41
  drummers  44
  Du Pont, Gen Henry  36
  Fairbanks, Erastus  33
  fatigue dress  E3(29, 46), F4(30, 47), 9, 9, 10, 
  10, 11, 16, 19, 34
  First Bull Run (Manassas) campaign  4–5, 5, 
  10, 38, 40
  Goodwin, Ichabod  23
  Hale, Reuben C.  6
  Hathaway, Major J.M.  35
  headgear  12, 14, 15, 17–18, 34, 39
  caps  3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 19, 20
  chasseur-pattern  G2(31, 47), 24, 24, 38
  the Edmands hat  D3(28, 46), 21, 21
  Hardee hat  A3(25, 44)
  Havelock Cap  17–18, 33, 44
  Kossuth hat  11, 34
  straw hats  19
  tam-o’-shanter-style  C4(27, 45), 16, 17
  zouave  B2(26, 44), 10, 11, 17
  huntingshirt coats  A1(25, 44), 6
  hunting-shirts  F1(30, 47), 34, 34
  Illinois  C4(27, 45), 3, 5, 16, 16–18, 17
  Indiana  C3(27, 45), 3, 5, 14, 14–15, 15
  Iowa  H3(32, 47), 3, 5, 40
  jackets  D3(28, 46), 10, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 38, 46
  Ladd, Luther  3
  Lincoln, Abraham  3–4
  Loomis, James M.  17–18
  Maine  E1(29, 46), 3, 5, 22, 22–3
  Massachusetts  D2–3(28, 46), 3, 3, 5, 19, 
  19–20, 20, 21, 42, 45
  Meagher, Thomas Francis  44
  Michigan  G1(31, 47), 3, 5, 37, 38
  militia box-knapsacks  9
  Minnesota  H2(32, 47), 3, 40
  Morris, T.  14
  Morton, Oliver  14
  musicians  A2(25, 44)
  Neal, Charles “Bucky”  8
  New Hampshire  E2–3(29, 46), 3, 5, 23, 23–4, 
  24, 46
  New Jersey  D1(28, 45–46), 3, 5, 18, 18–19
  New York  B(26, 44–45), 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 9–11, 10, 
  11, 17, 41, 44
  non-commissioned officers  C2(27, 45), 
  G2(31, 47), 7, 10, 20, 38
  officers  41, 42
  Ohio  C1–2(27, 45), 3, 5, 11, 11–14, 12, 13
  Olden, Charles  18
  Patterson, Gen Robert  39
  Pennsylvania  A(25, 44), 3, 5, 6, 6–8, 7
  Phelps, John  33
  Philadelphia  6, 6, 7
  Platt, William  12
  profiteers  8
  Randall, Alex  39
  Reed, John  21
  regimental organization  3
  regiments
  1st Connecticut  F3–4(30, 47), 35
  1st Delaware  H1(32, 47), 36, 36–7
  1st Iowa Infantry  H3(32, 47), 40
  1st Maine Volunteer Militia  E1(29, 46), 22, 
  22–3
  1st Michigan Volunteers  G1(31, 47), 37, 38
  1st Minnesota Volunteers  H2(32, 47), 40
  1st New Hampshire Volunteers  E2–3(29, 46), 
  24, 24, 46
  1st New Jersey Foot Militia  D1(28, 45–46), 18
  1st Ohio Volunteer Infantry  11, 11–12
  1st Pennsylvania Infantry  A2(25, 44)
  1st Regiment, Detached Militia  34, 34–5
  1st Rhode Island Detached Militia  F1–2(30, 47)
  1st Vermont Volunteers  G3(31, 47), 33
  1st Wisconsin Volunteers  G2(31, 47), 39, 39
  2nd Maine Volunteers  23
  2nd New Jersey Foot Militia  19
  2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry  11–12
  2nd Pennsylvania Infantry  A3(25, 44)
  3rd Massachusetts Volunteer Militia  D3(28, 
  46), 19, 21
  3rd New Jersey Foot Militia  19
  4th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia  19, 20, 
  21, 21
  4th New Jersey Foot Militia  17, 18, 19
  5th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia  19, 20
  5th New York State Militia (NYSM)  9
  6th Indiana  14, 15
  6th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia  D2(28, 
  46), 3, 19, 20, 21
  6th New York State Militia  9
  7th Illinois  16, 16
  7th New York State Militia  4, 9, 9, 17, 41
  8th Indiana Infantry  14–15, 15
  8th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia  19, 19, 
  20, 44
  8th New York State Militia  B1(26, 44), 9, 9
  9th Illinois  17
  9th Indiana Infantry  C3(27, 45), 15
  10th Illinois  18
  10th Indiana Infantry  14, 15
  11th Illinois  18
  11th Indiana  15, 15
  12th Illinois Volunteers  C4(27, 45), 16, 17
  12th New York State Militia  10, 44
  13th New York State Militia  B2–3(26, 44-45), 
  10, 10, 11
  14th Ohio Volunteer Infantry  13, 15
  15th Ohio Volunteer Infantry  13
  16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry  C2(27, 45), 13
  17th Ohio Volunteer Infantry  12, 13–14
  18th Ohio Volunteer Infantry  13
  19th Ohio Volunteer Infantry  C1(27, 45), 13
  19th Pennsylvania Infantry  7, 7–8
  20th New York State Militia  11
  20th Ohio Volunteer Infantry  13
  21st Pennsylvania Infantry  A1(25, 44), 6
  25th New York State Militia  11
  25th Pennsylvania  6, 7
  28th New York State Militia  10
  34th Ohio Volunteer Infantry  21
  69th New York State Militia  10–11, 44
  71st New York State Militia  11
  Rhode Island  F1–2(30, 47), 3, 5, 34, 34–5
  service  5
  Shenandoah Valley campaign  4, 39
  shirts  7, 13, 14, 20, 22
  Sprague, William  34
  state quotas  3, 6, 14, 18, 19, 22, 23
  Swift, BrigGen Richard  16
  terms of service  3
  trousers  F1(30, 47), 3, 7, 9, 10, 10, 11, 13, 14, 
  16, 17, 19, 24, 33, 35, 38
  uniforms  6
  color  7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 33, 39, 41
  cost  14, 24, 34, 35
  full dress  A1(25, 44), E2(29, 46), 3, 4, 44
  gray  B1(26, 44), D3(28, 46), E1–2(29, 46), 
  G2–3(31, 47), H3(32, 47), 7, 7, 9, 9, 10, 11, 
  13, 13–14, 15, 15, 16, 16, 17, 20, 21, 21, 22, 
  22, 23–4, 24, 33, 33, 39, 39, 40, 41, 41, 44, 46
  procurement  6–8, 12, 16, 16–17, 23, 35
  quality  C1–2(27, 45), 7–8, 8, 12, 13–14, 14–15, 
  18, 20, 23, 24, 33, 35, 36, 36, 38, 39
  US Army  3, 9
  Vermont  3, G3(31, 47), 5, 33, 33
  vivandiéres  F2(30, 47)
  Wallace, Col Lew  15, 15
  weapons
  muskets  A3(25, 44), B2(26, 44), H(32, 47), 6, 
  9, 13, 16, 36, 46
  personal sidearms  E2(29, 46), F1(30, 47), 
  H3(32, 47), 12, 23
  rifle-muskets  B1(26, 44), B3(26, 45), C(27, 
  45), D(28, 46), E4(29, 46), G(31, 47), 33
  sabres  42
  Sharps rifle  F3(30, 47)
  Western Virginia campaign  4
  Wilcox, Col Orlando B.  38
  Wisconsin  G2(31, 47), 3, 5, 39, 39
  zouaves and zouave uniform  A2(25, 44), 
  B2(26, 44), 6, 10, 10–11, 11, 15, 15, 17, 18, 
  19, 40
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
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