Clothing the James River Squadron - 1861

It is the hope and desire of every historian and reenactor to find the perfect combination of information regarding military uniforms for any given time period. A primary source written description, invoice of issue, photograph and surviving article of clothing would be just that perfect combination. Unfortunately, that perfect combination rarely exists. Instead we must rely on the surviving primary source information we can find and make educated guess from these findings.

Unfortunately there has been very little written to date on the uniforms of the Confederate Navy.

But now, looking at primary source material in the National Archives we can begin to piece together what the Confederate Navy wore based on quality research to represent a more accurate vision of these sailors.

As mentioned before, we shall be focusing on the Navy and Marines serving in the James River Squadron, as well as those Naval facilities in the Richmond area. Information will be as location and year specific as possible.

We shall begin with a look at the uniforms of the C.S. Steamer Patrick Henry which served first in the Virginia State Navy and then in the Confederate Navy from June 8, 1861 until April 3, 1865 when it was burned to prevent capture upon the evacuation of Richmond.

Today, three requisitions survive from the C.S.S. Patrick Henry on R.M. Boykin, Naval Storekeeper at the Gosport Navy Yard, dated July 31st, September 12th and November 14th, 1861. From these we can develop a rather complete uniform of the Confederate Sailor of the James River Squadron at that time.

The uniform consisted of the following:

Blue Cloth Caps
Blue Satinette Trousers
B[lue] Cloth Trousers
Blue Flannel Over Shirts
Blue Flannel Under Shirts
B[lue] F[lannel] Shirts
Blue Flannel Drawers
Pea Jackets
Kip Skin Shoes
Woolen Socks
Black Silk Handkerchiefs

While not an invoice for supplies actually issues, we do have other invoices from Naval Storekeeper Boykin for the same period of time and all but two of those items appear identically on those invoices as on the requisitions for the C.S.S. Patrick Henry. The term "Blue Flannel Over Shirts" and "B[lue] F[lannel] Shirts" do not appear, but the term "Blue Flannel Jumpers" does appear, giving a more accurate description of these garments listed for the C.S.S. Patrick Henry. Clearly these items are shirts and not the jumper or frock commonly associated with sailors, even thought the Gosport Navy Yard was issuing jumpers at this time.

What does this mean to the reenactor portraying a Confederate sailor of the James River Squadron in 1861? It mean blue. Blue uniforms were the norm and no reference to any gray uniforms or cloth appear in any of the surviving primary source material for this squadron at this time. There is also a variety of blue fabric from cloth, to flannel, satinette being used, each being used for specific items of clothing.

Hopefully this research will be of assistance to reenactors wishing to accurately portray the James River Squadron in 1861.

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Welcome

I had never give much thought to writing about the Confederate Navy Department until quite recently. The subject has been one in which I have been interested for over 20 years, reading as much I could find on the subject. The results have been mixed. There are some incredibly well written book by some excellent scholars of the Confederate Navy. But there are also quite a number of books written by those more interested in publishing as much as possible with as little interest in original research as possible.

The purpose of this blog is to look into the Confederate Navy Department and add to that original research, focusing mainly on the James River Squadron, the Navy Yards at Gosport and Richmond, the fortifications at Drewry's Bluff, and the Naval support facilities which kept these ships and facilities functioning.

I hope you find the information presented here interesting and worthwhile.

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