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Military Collector & Historian
Clothing the Confederate Soldiers of South Carolina, 1861–1865 Ron Field Part 1: The State Quartermaster Department ollowing the act of secession in South Carolina on 20 December 1860, there was a great need for uniforms and clothing for the state troops being organized to defend the short-lived republic and those that went on to fight for the Confederacy. Much of the early work of clothing these volunteers was accomplished by the philanthropic efforts of the Rev. Anthony Toomer Porter, a Roman Catholic priest who had begun an industrial school for girls on Ashley Street, Charleston, during 1858.1 Since March 1860, the Industrial School for Girls had received cut clothing, including jackets and pants, from C. F. Jackson & Co., clothiers located at 199 King Street, Charleston. These garments were sewn and finished at the school and then sold at Jackson’s “Clothing Emporium,” with some of the proceeds going to the girls who worked for Porter.2 At the beginning of January 1861, Porter approached the State Quartermaster Department run by Col. Lewis M. Hatch, who was a commission merchant in Charleston and quartermaster-general of the state militia before the war, and entered into an agreement with him by which the energies of the Industrial School would be devoted to assisting in the manufacture and supply of uniforms for volunteers in state service. Of this agreement, Porter recalled, “I went to Hayne Street (office of the Quartermaster-General, South Carolina Militia.), and made a contract for hundreds of pieces of plain underwear. Gradually we grew more ambitious, and took contracts for common pantaloons and coats.”3 In order to accommodate contracts for state uniforms, Porter employed 59 women, some of whom worked 32 sewing machines. Meanwhile, C. F. Jackson and Co. continued to cut the cloth and press the finished articles of clothing. By 9 January 1861, a notice published in the Charleston press by the Quartermaster Department requested, “Those Ladies who wish to ‘sew’ for this Department will please apply to Rev. A. Toomer Porter, at Industrial School.”4 On 25 January, Hatch advertised for providers/makers of, “DARK GREY CLOTH suitable for making uniforms for the troops.” Applicants were to “send in samples, with the prices attached,” stating the number of yards they had on hand and whether “the same be few or many.” At the same time he requested all those “willing to work on the one thousand uniforms wanted for Col. Gregg’s Regiment” to “send in their names to the Rev. Mr. Porter,” and advised the work was to be “sent to the homes of those wishing to do it.”5 Despite these efforts, the output of the Industrial School was insufficient to meet the needs of the Quartermaster Department, and it appears to have produced only a small amount of the clothing required, being paid a mere $508.87 by the end of March 1861.6
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Meanwhile, on 1 February 1861, Colonel Hatch had received $4,000 from the state treasury in order “to pay in part for the Cloth and Labor necessary for uniforms for Col. Gregg’s Regiment.” Twenty days later, he received a further $3,500 to be expended “in preparation for Clothing for Col. Gregg’s Regt. as contracted for with Edwin Bates & Co.” Established in Charleston no later than 1856, E. Bates and Co. were manufacturers and wholesale dealers in clothing located at 118 Meeting Street, Charleston.7 By the end of March 1861, this firm had completed one thousand uniforms for the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, commanded by Col. Maxcy Gregg, made from dark gray cloth which had been produced at the mill owned by James G. Gibbes and Co., of Columbia.8 The frock coats issued to the 1st South Carolina were based in certain respects upon M1851 U.S. dress regulations and had nine-button fronts with tape edging on the collar but no cuff trim. Also supplied were gray trousers, probably trimmed with tape on the outer seams, and gray or blue chasseur-pattern caps, the latter being produced by hatters Williams and Brown of 277 King Street, Charleston.9 The Industrial School continued to supply uniforms and clothing throughout 1861 and much of 1862 and eventually had 350 out-workers as well as the 59 women working at the school.10 An invoice in the State Quartermaster Department records reveals during July it supplied Hatch with “50 Inf[antr]y Uniforms & 150 Shirts.”11 The fact the former were specified for infantry indicates the state uniforms had some sort of branch-of-service color trim, which was probably dark blue or black for infantry, red for artillery, and yellow for cavalry. During the same month the school began sewing equipage and was paid $27.90 for, “Making 259 Knapsacks.”12 Toward the end of July 1861, Toomer Porter departed for Virginia as chaplain of the Washington Light Infantry Volunteers, Co. A, Infantry Battalion, Hampton’s Legion. Following his departure, the Industrial School appears to have been taken over by the Quartermaster Department “in the name of the state.” Shortly after his arrival in Virginia, Porter was tasked by Col. Wade Hampton with purchasing cloth and arranging for new uniforms to be made for the Legion, as its men had a distinctly ragged appearance after heavy involvement in the fighting at Manassas. According to his memoirs, Porter searched without success for cloth in Virginia and North Carolina, but eventually purchased from “Messrs. Wm. Ravenel and Co. [of Charleston] … ten different kinds of cloth for the ten companies ...” of the Legion which he had duly shipped to the Industrial School.13 Meanwhile, in Columbia, South Carolina, James G. Gibbes and Co. advertised on 14 August for “15 or 20 GIRLS OR YOUNG WOMEN, to learn to weave.”14 This
