Issue socks -- how often

[KarinTimour]

This is a question for the guys who are researching "issue" stuff. I'm right on deadline with an article about Civil War socks, and I need to know:

a) How often would the Federal Army issue stockings?

According to the "Life of Johnny Reb" the Confederate Army was supposed to issue them four times a year, and had lifted these regs straight out of the Federal Army issue regulations. Granted, the Confederate Army often didn't have the socks to issue, but according to their regs you were supposed to get socks four times a year.

I've been told by others that the Federal Army issued stockings 8 times a year. But if Bell Wiley is right, then that leads me to believe that the Federals were issuing socks four times a year as well.

I'm looking for a reference that I can write down and have for the future, because this comes up every so often. I'd very much like to have the title, author, page number and publication date of the book you're quoting in terms of when the stockings were issued.

Thanks in advance for any and all help,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Sleeping Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

http://howardlanham.tripod.com/link52.htm Looks like it was indeed four pair per year according to this.

[John Tobey]

Karin,

In actual practice, (in the Federal Army, at least) they were drawn on as "as needed" basis. I say this based on examination of numerous clothing receipts. For example, in one instance (a company of the 33rd MA during the Georgia campaign) most soldiers were drawing at least two pair every month or so for the period of June-August 1864.

John Tobey

[Pvt Schnapps]

Agreed – stockings were not necessarily issued four times a year. The clothing allowance just tells us what an enlisted man was authorized to draw (and by extension what the army thought he would need). He could draw more or less. If his account in the clothing book (which only tracked the dollar value of purchases, not the items) exceeded his allowance, the balance came out of his pay; if it was less, he received the balance due him.

Also, the authorization in the Regs applies only to the regular army. Volunteers received a monthly allowance of $3.50. This went up to $4.00 in 1864, but by then prices had gone up by far more.

The army updated clothing costs in annual general orders according to actual purchase cost in the previous year.

See paragraph 1150, and those following, in:
http://www.usregulars.com/1857%20Regs/regs_160.html
as well as Section 5 of the Act of July 22, 1861 regarding volunteers:
http://www.usregulars.com/Extracts_Congress.html

As to what those costs were, attachment 14 to Meigs’ end of war report (Official Records, Series III, Volume 5, p. 286) gives the lowest and highest costs of stockings as 22 ½ and 52 ½ cents.

Commanders had a good deal to say about what clothing soldiers drew. Allen Morgan Geer says his regiment was allowed to by dress hats but had to keep forage caps for parade. The regiments of the Iron Brigade were ordered to wear dress hats. The officers of a 9 month volunteer regiment were court-martialed for refusing General Humphreys’ order to have their men draw frock coats just weeks before leaving service (at the cost of half a month’s pay). Thomas Wentworth Higginson describes going through a drummer boy’s knapsack and trying to figure out which dirty pair of trowsers he should throw out.

Extra issues often occurred immediately after battle, as Theodore Ayrault Dodge records after Chancellorsville.

Also, the men themselves had a great deal to say about what they got and when. Sometimes soldiers not only bought their own articles of clothing but were encouraged to, as in General Order 120 of August, 1862, which asked new recruits to bring their own blankets. According to one of Sherman's quartermasters (p. 417 of SIII V5) men would not draw sewed bootees if they could get pegged ones.

It’s a complex and interesting topic. :)

[KarinTimour]

Gentlemen:

Thank you all, this is a lot of information, and it's great to see the differences between the regulars and the state troops. Amazing prices on the stockings -- to think of paying 50 cents a pair when you're getting $13 a month. That's about a day's pay, give or take. No wonder they were all writing home for more socks!

One can never know too much about socks,

Heartfelt thanks,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Sleeping Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Thank YOU Ms. Timour for caring enough to get as much information as you can.

[KarinTimour]

Dear Mr. Lamoreaux:

Thank you for the compliment. We've not had the pleasure of meeting in person, so let me assure you that when it comes to WBTS/Civil War knitwear, there's nothing I don't want to know.

I think it was Mark Twain who said something along the lines that "the process of becoming educated is realizing how ignorant one really is."

The more information, the longer the list of questions becomes -- and the more fun the process of seeking answers....

Thank you agaiin for your kind words,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Sleeping Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[Pvt Schnapps]

I'll second what Ross said. Beyond that, I'll add that by the time socks reached more than 50 cents a pair the monthly pay of a private had probably gone to $16, the clothing allowance to $4, and a great many of the soldiers were looking at $400 Federal bounties, plus state and local signing bonuses. Still, I suspect that one way the Federal government managed to swing the bounties was by letting pay and allowances lag well behind inflation, which was really ramping up in '64-'65.

All of which is to say you can learn a lot just looking at socks.

[pvt_jb]

All this talk about issue socks really makes me want a pair.

[KarinTimour]

Dear Sir:

I reproduce Federal Issue Stockings -- drop me an email at Ktimour@aol.com for more info.

Sincerely,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Sleeping Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com