Confederate Sutlers and the Army of Northern Virginia

   The year 2020 was a challenging time for research. I was trying to finish Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virgina. Most libraries were shut down. While I have several Francis Lord books, I did not have his volume on sutlers, and I really did not want to buy a copy. A library just forty-five minutes away had a copy, but I was not able to view it, as the library was closed for an unknown time. So I ordered the book. I had been warned that the information regarding sutlers catering to Confederate regiments was slim. That was very true. Lord spends eighty-nine pages on Federal sutlers and just three on Confederate sutlers. “Records of Confederate sutlers are extremely fragmentary,” Lord writes, and states “most Confederate units never had sutlers.” Lord then takes the next two pages to talk about Southern patent medicines.[1]

   Lord does take about two-thirds of a page to list twenty-six sutlers attached to Confederate regiments, and even one gun boat. This is in comparison to over ten pages of sutlers attached to Federal regiments.[2]

   Confederate regulations stated that every military post could have one sutler, “appointed by the Secretary of War. . . and approved by the commanding officer.” Regiments not attached to a post were also allowed one sutler for every regiment, also appointed by the commanding officer, and subject to the approval of “the general or other officer in command.” Sutlers were not allowed to have “ardent spirits, or other intoxicating drinks,” let others operate their business, or lend on credit more than one-third of a soldier’s pay.[3] 

Federal sutler outside of Petersburg in 1864.

   Is Lord’s assertion, that most Confederate regiments never had sutlers, true? Maybe there is some type of register for Confederate regiments comparable to that which Lord found for Federal regiments, although he confessed that the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James have good records, while the Army of the Tennessee and other western Federal regiments were not as well represented. To find mentions of those merchants who catered to Confederate regiments, we have to search their letters home.[4]

   Sutlers first made their appearance in soldiers’ letters, at least in the east, in the fall of 1861. A member of the 5^th Alabama Infantry noted that a brigade sutler was stationed nearby. The sutler was “crowded with men eager to buy.” However, the sutler “Charges double price for every thing he sells, yet is busy all the while.”[5] As inflation and scarcity rose, so did the prices that sutlers charged. Captain R.E. Parks, 12^th Alabama, noted that as the men were paid, the sutler’s wagons were being patronized. “Ginger cakes, porous and poor, cost 25 cents each. Vegetables and fruits are out of reach of the privates.”[6] In December 1863, Parks noted that after their sutler brought oysters for $20.00 a gallon, that he “couldn’t be a sutler. Their prices seem cruel and extortionate.”[7]

 

   Soldiers could buy a wide variety of items. A member of the 9^th Alabama recorded buying two chickens in November 1861; in July 1862, a member of the 15^th Georgia was purchasing fruit pies and loaves of bread; also in July 1862, a soldier in the 53^rd Georgia wrote of his regimental sutler having coffee, sugar, butter, chickens, and cabbage; right before the battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, the regimental sutler of the 5^th Alabama arrived, and the men were able to get “some nice cakes & Candy. . . suag & coffey…” That sutler returned to the regiment on January 2, 1863, and the soldiers “hastened up to his wagons & bought a number of sugar cakes & ginger cakes which all hands pitched into, & I ate a good many before getting up. Our mess... invested $3 each in cakes principally & some apples."[8]

   While sutlers were forbidden to sell liquor, some did. A soldier in the 5^th Alabama noted in mid-January 1864 that they now had two sutlers in camp, “and one of them has gotten half the regiment drunk today.”[9] The hospital steward of the 4^th Virginia Infantry noted that the Provost Marshall had confiscated one sutler’s post when a search yielded twenty gallons of liquor hidden in sacks of rice and corn. The liquor was sent to the hospital for their use.[10]

Ralph H. McKim, 2^nd Virginia Cavalry, wrote that while on the Shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1864, he had to “rebuke the sutlers for selling their merchandise on the Lord’s Day.”[11] One member of the 17th Virginia Infantry recalled after the war that the regimental sutler once cleared $6,000 in one day.[12]

   Some sutlers served as banks to soldiers. Ted Barclay, 4^th Virginia Infantry, wrote home that “Mr. Trenton, the sutler of the 27^th [Virginia] Reg.,” had lent him $20 in September 1862.[13] Sutlers could also help transport boxes for soldiers – probably for a fee. A member of the 26^th Virginia noted in January 1863 that his regimental sutler had brought his “old blank trunk” from Richmond to the regiment’s camp.[14] Other sutlers could be generous. Chaplain William E. Wiatt was able to get one sutler to donate $2.00 “for the Fred[ericksburg] sufferers.”[15]

   Where did sutlers get their wares that they sold to the soldiers? Usually, they came from merchants in Richmond. Chas. Bayne & Co ran an advertisement in August 1861, telling the public that they carried an assortment of cigars and manufactured tobacco, with “Special attention paid to orders from Sutlers and Merchants who are supplying the army.”[16] G.B. Stacy advertised that he was selling “The Confederate Mattress” to those soldiers opposed to sleeping on the hard floor.[17] Lee and Durham were selling not only tobacco, but soap, sugar, tea, raisins, matches, Mustard, paper, pencils, pens, and hair and tooth brushes.[18] Spense and Garey were selling waterproof items, like coats, blankets, leggings, haversacks and knapsacks.[19] L.D. Brigg’s Bakery sold Crackers, cakes, Gingerbread, and Spicenuts.[20] Johnson and White advertised that they were selling York River Oysters, in cans, or by the firkin or barrel.[21]

   Wagons were used to transport the wares close to the camps. At times, the sutlers would be set up close to their regiments. In November 1861, a correspondent for a Richmond newspaper noted that at Manassas, several “Board shanties roughly thrown together” were being used as sutler shops.[22]

   This article primarily deals with sutlers connected to the Army of Northern Virginia. Was the experience the same in the Army of Tennessee? 

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[1] Lord, Civil War Sutlers and Their Wares, 90.

[2] Lord, Civil War Sutlers and Their Wares, 131.

[3] Confederate Regulations (1862), 22-3.

[4] Lord, Civil War Sutlers and Their Wares, 95.

[5] Hubbs, Voices from Company D, 56.

[6] Parks, “War Diary of Captain R. E. Park,” SHSP 26:9.

[7] Parks, “Diary of Capt. R. E. Park,” SHSH 26:26.

[8] Carter, Welcome the Hour of Conflict, 107; Ivy W. Duggan Diary, UGA, 73; Ronald, ed. The Stilwell Letters, 21, 22; Hubbs, Voices from Company D, 123, 131.

[9] Hubbs, Voices from Company D, 139.

[10] Roper, Repairing the “March of Mars,” 419.

[11] McKin, A Soldier’s Recollection, 237.

[12] Glasgow, Northern Virginia’s Own, 111.

[13] Barclay, Ted Barclay, Liberty Hall Volunteers, 107.

[14] Fleet, Green Mount, 194.

[15] Wiatt, Confederate Chaplain, 21.

[16] Richmond Enquirer, August 20, 1861.

[17] Richmond Dispatch, November 15, 1861.

[18] Richmond Dispatch, November 26, 1861, January 11, 1862.

[19] Richmond Dispatch, January 1, 1862.

[20] Richmond Dispatch, January 10, 1862.

[21] Richmond Dispatch, January 17, 1862.

[22] Richmond Dispatch, November 1, 1861.

Surrendered, Smuggled, or Severed? The Battle Flags of the ANV and the AOT at Appomattox and the Bennett Place.

37th Alabama Infantry

   Back in January/February 1987, an article appeared in Confederate Veteran magazine about the flag of the 37^th Alabama Infantry. As the story goes, that flag escaped surrender twice. After the regiment was surrendered at Vicksburg, the flag was secreted away, folded up in the saddle blanket of Col. James F. Dowdell’s horse. Then after the surrender of the regiment at Greensboro, the flag was “smuggled out of Greensboro” by a Captain Johnson. The flag remained in various families until it was donated to Auburn University and is today in the Alabama Room at Auburn.[1]

   The surrender terms worked out between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, stipulated that “arms, artillery, and public property” were to be stacked and turned over to an officer designated by Grant. Likewise, the final terms worked out between Joseph E. Johnston and William T. Sherman at the Bennett Place on April 26, 1865, specified once again that  “public property” had to be turned over to an ordinance offer of the United States army. Since flags were issued by the government, they would be considered public property. But like the story above regarding the flag of the 37^th Alabama, not all flags were surrendered. Some were, but others were secreted away, while others were destroyed by Confederate soldiers.

61st Virginia Infantry 

   Federal General John Gibbon wrote on April 13, 1865, that 71 Confederate flags were surrendered at Appomattox.[2] Most of the descriptions of the surrender of flags come from the Federals. One Federal wrote that the Confederates seemed to hate to give up their flags more than anything else. Many kissed the flags with tears in their eyes.[3] Federal General Joshua L. Chamberlain, supervising the stacking of arms, wrote that “Then, slowly and with a reluctance that was appealingly pathetic, the torn and tattered battleflags were either leaned against the stacks or laid on the ground.”[4] However, one North Carolinian wrote that the flags were placed on the stacks, not on the ground.[5] Among those surrendered include the flags of the those of the 5^th, 48^th, and 60^th Alabama Infantry regiments; the 13^th, 15^th, and 28^th North Carolina regiments, and the 61^st Virginia Infantry. A few Army of Northern Virginia flags were secreted away. Ensign Emanuel Rudisill, 16^th North Carolina State Troops, sewed his regiment’s silk battle flag inside the lining of his coat and brought it home.[6] Likewise the flags of the 2^nd South Carolina Infantry, 12^th South Carolina Infantry, 38^th North Carolina Troops, and 25^th North Carolina Troops were not surrendered and were brought home. The flag of the 14^th South Carolina Infantry was concealed under a rock before the surrender, and was later retrieved.[7] A few flags, like the headquarters flag of Robert E. Lee, and the flags of the 23^rd and 24^th Virginia Regiments, were not surrendered or brought home, intact. Instead, they were cut up and the pieces distributed among the paroled soldiers.

It was a different scenario with the Army of Tennessee. Instead of being boxed in like the Army of Northern Virginia, the various Confederate regiments in North Carolina were spread out, from Greensboro to High Point to Salisbury, even Charlotte. There were no formal surrender ceremonies. Instead, artillery was parked and some regiments stacked some of their arms, although Confederates were allowed to keep some of their weapons. Very few flags were surrendered. A report from the New York Herald noted that “We have got very few battle flags or horses.”[8] Many of the Army of Tennessee soldiers concealed their flags to take home. The third bunting issue Army of Northern Virginia flag of the 26^th Alabama Infantry (the regiment served in both the ANV and the AOT) was wrapped around the body servant of Dr. Hayes, the brigade surgeon, and brought back to Alabama.[9]

3rd Tennessee Infantry

The flag of the 49^th Tennessee was concealed on the person Robert Y. Johnson, only to be forcibly taken by Federals when the group reached Lenoir City, Tennessee.[10] Other flags that were concealed and brought home include those of the 3^rd, 7^th, 10^th, 12^th, 16^th, and 24^th South Carolina Infantry, 20^th, 33^rd, 34^th, 36^th, and 40^th Alabama Infantry; 8^th and 17^th North Carolina Troops; 3^rd, 4^th, 6/9^th, 11^th, 13^th, 18^th/26^th, 24^th, 32^nd, and 49^th Tennessee Infantry regiments; 7^th Florida Infantry; 9^th Arkansas Infantry; and 1^st and 42^nd Georgia Infantry regiments. Some flags, such as those of the 7^th and 58^th North Carolina Troops, 1^st Tennessee, and 7^th South Carolina Battalion, were cut up and the pieces distributed to the remaining members. A member of the 2^nd Tennessee Cavalry recalled cutting their flag up into 160 pieces.[11] A member of the 47^th Georgia recalled cutting up their flag,  concealing the pieces in a saddle blanket and setting off to the Trans-Mississippi department.[12] Except for the flag of the 26^th Tennessee Infantry, it is not clear if any other flags were surrendered by the Army of Tennessee, and this banner could have been captured at the battle of Bentonville.[13]

This post just barely scratches the surface of Confederate battle flags and the last month of the war. Unless it is hidden away at the National Archives, there does not seem to be a list of Confederate flags that were captured, destroyed, surrendered, or secreted home through the months of April and May 1865. What a project! 

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[1] Golden, “The 37^th Alabama Flag,” Confederate Veteran (January-February 1987): 24-25.

[2] Official Records, 46, pt.3, 734.

[3] Cauble, The Surrender Proceedings, 95-96.

[4] Chamberlain, “Last Salute,” 362.

[5] Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 3:77.

[6] Dedmondt, The Flags of Civil War North Carolina, 100.

[7] Dedmondt, The Flags of Civil War South Carolina, 106.

[8] New York Herald, May 9, 1865.

[9] Dedmondt, The Flags of Civil War Alabama, 80.

[10] Cox, Civil War Flags of Tennessee, 361.

[11] Cox, civil War Flags of Tennessee, 431.

[12] Dunkerly, The Confederate Surrender at Greensboro, 116.

[13] Cox, Civil War Flags of Tennessee, 294.

Confederate Soldiers, Christmas, and Eggnog.

   Eggnog. That beverage associated with Christmas cheer. You either love it, or you hate it. While it is unrealistic to say that it met with universal acclaim throughout the Old South, eggnog was enjoyed by many and seen as a required treat during the holidays. When the sons of the South joined the army, they brought the tradition of eggnog with them.

   So, what is eggnog? The basis is eggs, some type of whiskey (bourbon, brandy, rum), sugar, and milk or cream. One recipe from King George County, Virginia, goes like this: “beat 12 eggs separately, add to the yokes 1 heaping tablespoon full of sugar to every egg, beating all the time.” When very light stir rapidly in 1 pint of brandy and 1 pint of whiskey… Now stir in half of the well beaten whites, then 3 pints of rich cream or 1 pint of milk and 2 of cream, then stir in lightly the remaining whites. A little nutmeg grated is an improvement. Be careful never to add liquor after cream.”[1]

   That first winter of the war found the Southern forces mostly well provisioned, but not as much as they wanted. A member of the 7^th Louisiana Infantry, writing from Camp Carondelet in Virginia, told his mother that Christmas had been dull: “the poor private had to content himself with one drink [of eggnog] around which was given in the morning.” A soldier in the 17^th Mississippi Infantry, also in Virginia, recalled having eggnog, but no ladies to enjoy it with. “Several boys a little tight in camp & some have been sent to the guardhouse.” Various generals often sent out regulations against alcohol in camp. Yet according to a member of the 4^th South Carolina, there were still ways to acquire “the worst kind of ‘rot skull’” at a price. Stationed at Fort Gaines, a soldier in the 21^st Alabama wrote of having two glasses of eggnog before breakfast on December 25. Others undoubtedly followed through the rest of the day. Eggnog first thing in the morning was mentioned by more than one soldier. A member of the 7^th Tennessee Infantry wrote that their captain gifted eggnog on Christmas morning. “One-half of the boys very tight by nine o’clock. Another member of the same regiment wrote that they had so many drunk men, a wagon was employed to haul them around.[2]  

   Christmas 1862 was a different affair. The Army of Tennessee was poised to fight the battle of Murfreesboro, while the Army of Northern Virginia had just fought the battle of Fredericksburg, and watched the Federals, expecting them to pick up the contest soon. But even with tensions high, there was still time for gaiety. A ball was hosted by the 1^st and 2^nd Louisiana in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in the town hall, attended by many officers. The officers of the 20^th Tennessee gave their men a barrel of whiskey, while in the 154^th Tennessee, “Eggnog was fashionable and Captains, Lieutenants, and Privates was drunk and very troublesome.” Supplies were much harder to come by in Virginia around Fredericksburg. A member of the 5^th Alabama wrote of their sutler arriving, and the mess being able to purchase sugar cakes, ginger bread, candy sugar, Confederate coffee, pepper, and butter. “He was to bring us the materials for an Egg Nog—but he sorely disappointed us in that—about the first Christmas ever spent without nog…” The complaint went even further with a member of the 12^th Virginia: “Christmas [was] the poorest ever spent, no egg nog, no turkey, no mince pie, nothing to eat or drink but our rations. We all talk of home today and wish to be there.” Soldiers stationed away from Fredericksburg were a little better off. Writing from camp near Dumfries, Virginia, a Texas soldier told his wife that “Every mess had its egg-nog or a first-class substitute for it, the first thing in the morning, and something better than common for dinner.”[3]

   Both principal armies were well encamped during Christmas 1863. It had been a hard year, with the death of Stonewall Jackson and Confederate losses at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. The Army of Tennessee was north of Atlanta, and the Army of Northern Virginia was in and around Orange Court House. Mentions of eggnog seem to be sparse in the army in Georgia, although there were undoubtedly a few soldiers and officers who were able to enjoy their Christmas concoction. In Virginia, an officer in the 5^th Alabama wrote that he was invited by his colonel “to drink eggnog with him & had a very pleasant time indeed.” Yet a member of JEB Stuart’s staff was disappointed. He had promised his friends a bowl of eggnog, “but the spirits did not arrive-- And consequently I passed a quiet and a sober day in my tent.” The same was almost true for an officer in the 1^st Louisiana, on picket duty near Raccoon Ford on the Rappahannock River. He had concluded that they would be eggnogless for the evening, and had retired to bed, when they heard “horses hoofs on the crisp snow.” They found a camp servant they had sent to Lynchburg with a demijohn. They beat the eggs, stirred in the sugar, and added the whiskey (no mention of milk or cream). “[W] had one of the most delicious noggs that ever mortal man quaffed. Taking a couple of glasses apiece, we retired to bed—to forget the hardships of a soldier’s life, and dream of a joyful reunion with the dear absent ones far away in the Southland.”[4]

   The last winter of the war, 1864, found the wrecked Army of Tennessee in northern Alabama and the Army of Northern Virginia in the trenches around Petersburg and Richmond. A soldier in the 24^th Texas Cavalry, Granburry’s Texas brigade, recalled buying whiskey locally to celebrate the holidays, but made no mention of eggs, cream, or sugar. “[A] wee drop makes an old soldier forget his troubles and hardships for the present” he scribbled in his diary. There was still some eggnog to be had. An officer in the 49^th North Carolina, thanks to the people from back home, had eggnog. A member of Poague’s battalion recalled a fine Christmas dinner that included eggnog. A friend had a friend that operated a blockade runner and “obtained many good things.”[5]

   Christmas was hard on the soldiers in the field, as well as on the families back home. So many of those hearthsides would lose loved ones throughout those four years. While many were undeniably happy to be home for Christmas in 1865, many reflected back on all that had been lost. Slowly, the eggnog, which had accompanied so many Southern Christmas celebrations, eventually faded from the menu.  

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[1] Smith, Famous old Receipts used a hundred years and more in the kitchens of the North and South, 184.

[2] Rawlings, We Were Marching of Christmas Day, 40, 43, 46.

[3] Rawlings, We Were Marching of Christmas Day, 62, 70, 71; Polley, A Soldier’s Letters to Charming Nellie, 21.

[4] Hubbs, Voices from Company D, 207;  Trout, With Pen & Saber, 218; Rawlings, We Were Marching of Christmas Day, 109.

[5] Rawlings, We Were Marching of Christmas Day, 124; McCaslin, Diary of Captain Henry A. Chambers, 168; Poague, Gunner with Stonewall, 109.

Hardtack v. flour v. corn meal

   A friend recently asked the question: “did Southern troops ever live off of Hardtack like Federal soldiers?” That’s a great question! And the simple answer is: sometimes.  (PS: this article is based on my research for my upcoming book, Feeding the Army of Northern Virginia.)

   Hardtack is made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. This mixture is rolled out and cut into pieces that are baked until, well, hard. They have been around for a long time and are also known as sea biscuits, or ship’s biscuits, or many other names. A standard issued of hardtack for Federal soldiers, for a day, was one pound, or about ten pieces. Hardtack is not a term frequently used in letters and diaries written during the war by Confederate soldiers in the East. It does appear more frequently in post-war writings. And, when the term hardtack is used, it usually denotes captured foodstuffs. For example, a member of the 13^th Virginia Infantry, writing after the war, noted that at Second Manassas, he drew from his haversack “a piece of fat pickled pork and some hardtack—the rations I had selected from the varied assortment at Manassas.”[1] While at Frederick, Maryland, in September 1862, one member of the 15^th Georgia complained that all of their hardtack was marked “’Cincinnati.’ It is a common remark that Banks is Jackson’s Quartermaster and Commissary.”[2]     

   More often, Confederates referred to their hardtack as crackers. A member of the 5^th Alabama Infantry, writing from a camp near Fairfax Court House on July 16, 1861, noted that he was stationed as a guard at the commissary tent, presumably just for his regiment. He reported that he was guarding twenty-five barrels of crackers. A few days later, this same soldier reported that there was no flour locally, and they had to make use of crackers instead, and that “they are hard almost as a rock.”[3] Many soldiers found their crackers almost inedible. A member of the 44^th North Carolina complained in October 1862 that the “Crackers you cannot brake them hardly with your hands. Yesterday Mr. Sykes had some Crackers beatting them up with a... hammer and said to me it is hard bread to have to take a hammer to brake it."[4]

    Soldiers were likely to be issued flour than hardtack. Earlier in the war, the Confederate government had purchased a bakery in Richmond to bake loaves of bread to be shipped to the men in the field. This really did not work, as the “light bread” as the soldiers called it, went moldy before it could arrive in the camps. Instead, the commissary department switched to grinding flour and shipping it to the front ranks. Ideally, flour would be issued to troops in camp, while crackers would be issued to men on the march. Most of the crackers which the men mention eating while on campaign seem to have been captured by the Federals. Instead, the men had to make do with flour, and usually no cooking utensils. From Manassas in July 1861, a member of the 10^th Alabama complained that they had to bake their dough on planks and boards.[5] At Beverly Ford on August 22, a member of the 12^th Georgia wrote of baking their dough on flat boards and stones before the fire.[6] On the way to Gettysburg in June 1862, a member of the 26^th North Carolina wrote home that they were drawing flour. They stopped at 4:00 pm and commenced cooking.[7]  

   That’s not to say that the flour also did not come from the Federals. There are mentions of barrels of flour captured at Ball’s Bluff, during the Rominey Campaign, Seven Pines, Manassas Junction, and Williamsport, and taken from civilians during the Gettysburg campaign and Early’s Washington campaign in 1864.

   Not everyone was in favor of the flour. A member of the 53^rd Georgia wrote from near Hagerstown on July 13 that he had eaten so much flour bread that he preferred corn bread.[8] Corn meal was a third option. A member of the 1^st Maryland wrote from Fairfax Court House in early August that they were able to make first-rate cornbread.[9] Yet even this wore on some. South Carolinian Barry Benson wrote after the war that they were issued so much corn meal in the winter of 1863 that “our teeth staid on edge; even freshly cooked, the bread would taste sour.”[10] While cornbread might seem like a Southern staple, the corn meal ground during the war, epically, late in the war, was full of husk and kernels. “Often the corn meal issued to us… [was] so bad that hardtack… was hailed with delight,” wrote a member of the 17^th Virginia in 1864.[11] From camp near Orange Court House in March 1864, one Tar Heel told the people at home that they were drawing “tolerable good rations,” including corn meal. However, he wished he could draw flour. “We are tired of meal."[12]

   As the war grinned on, there was never enough, whether it be crackers, wheat flour, or corn meal. Most of it really depended on the environment. (But that’s another post.)  A soldier simply had to draw “his waist belt a little tighter… and waited with bated breath the order to clear our works and charge the enemy.” If the charge was successful, then the “enemey’s camps furnished the rations we failed to get in the morning…”[13]

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[1] Swank, Raw Pork and Hartack, 34.

[2] Ivy W. Duggan Diary, UGA, 95-96.

[3] Hubbs, Voices from Company D, 18, 25-26.

[4] Wright, The Confederate Letters of Benjamin H. Freeman, 14.

[5] Rourke, "I saw the Elephant, 15

[6] Ivy W. Duggan Diary, UGA, 87-88. 

[7] Smith and Price, “Your Affectionate Husband Until Death" Company Front, 55.

[8] Ronald, ed. The Stilwell Letters, 188.

[9] McKim, A Soldier’s Recollections, 46.

[10] Benson, Berry Benson's Civil War Book, 55.

[11] Toalson, No Soap, No Pay, 94-95

[12] Hancock, Four Brothers in Gray, 253.

[13] Herbert, “The Seventeenth Virginia Infantry,” SHSP, 12:294.