uniforms

[keith]

a question i have often wondered but never really found out, when,were and by who was the decision made by the csa to use grey as the predominate colour for there uniforms, were these uniforms available at the outbreak and if so who made them and why, or were they used by certain southern regts of the us army before the war and therefore a stock was already available to the south, just wondering!

[Mr Dimbleby]

It was matter of money. Volunteer regiments showed up in gray or butternut uniforms. The CSA didn't really have the industrial base at the state or federal level to churn out one type of uniform for all of their troops. As the war went on troops in the field would more likely see uniform replacements from home or their home state than they would from the Confed government.

It was different for the Union they could clothe their armies and thus mandate what uniform would be worn. That's why you see regiments that showed up early in war in gray uniforms or the Zouves with their fancy red clown pants all wearing the standard Union blues by mid-war.

[keith]

i understand that the csa had to rely on the individual states and regts to supply there own uniforms, i guess what i am asking is why grey, was there any significance to this colour, as opposed to any other colour

[Heldenkaiser]

General Order #4 of 6 June 1861 provided for the uniforms of officers and enlisted men of the CS Armies to be "cadet grey"--the color worn by the US Military Academy cadets.

[Mr Dimbleby]

Probably a combination of asthetics, and it was cheaper process to dye a wool uniform gray or butternut.

[keith]

makes sense, there must have already been a supply of grey available to the csa as cadet uniforms, did the north continue to use the grey for there cadets during the war

[Le Ricain]

By the time of the War of 1812, the US military had standardised on uniform colours: blue for regulars and grey for militia. Due to a shortage of blue uniforms, Winfield Scott was forced to dress his regulars in grey. His great victory was at Chippawa, where for the first time ever American forces defeated a British Regular Army force of equal size. In memory of this accomplishment, the cadets at West Point adopted grey uniforms. They wore their grey uniforms during the ACW and still do today. Other military academies followed West Point's lead. Hence the term 'cadet grey'.

By the time of the ACW, the standardisation of state militias on grey had slipped a bit. Although grey was the most popular colour in the North and the South for militia units, it was no longer unique. A large number of units wore blue and to a lesser extent other colours such as red and green. The US Regular Army, of course, continued to wear blue.

When the war broke out, it quickly became apparent that confusion over uniform colours was going to be a big problem with Union troops mistakenly firing upon Union grey clad troops and Confederate troops mistakenly firing upon blue clad Confederate troops.

As the Union army had the colour blue for their regulars and were extremely unlikely to change, the Confederate government adopted the colour grey as their uniform standard, as it was probably the most common colour among their units already and would require the least change.

Later, the blockade forced the South to use locally sourced dyes which faded to give their soldiers' uniforms a butternut colour.