Csa trouser question

[Griebz]

Hey all,

For army of northern virginia, would the Tuscaloosa grey be a documented color? Also was wool available all through the war? I find this a very confusing topic and would like some feedback.

Thanks

Pete Griebel

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo!

A hard question... IMHO:

"Tuscaloosa Grey" is a vendor creation in the 1980's for their product line of wool broadcloth uniforms.

By wool, do you mean wool broadcloth?
Jean(s) (NUG cotton/wool blend) is the more PEC than fine broadcloth for CS enlisted type uniforms.

Curt

[Griebz]

Well Kurt, I have jean trousers. I want a correct shade of wool. Besides gray, what would be common for the average soldier ANV? I don't want to use sky blue fed either that we see so much of.

Thanks

Pete Griebel

[RNMCSA]

There is allways logwood dyed Jeans starts a dark grey and fades to a nice tan, or sumac both are natural dye's and common for southern produced Jeans. You could also go with a Southern blue which is differant than the federal sky blue. i.e. French blue or english army cloth. I think Ben tart has a nice blue on blue jeans. If I can get it to load here is a picture of the Page Lapham Uniform.

IMG_0105.jpg

[fallstoomuch]

there is a documented RDIII made of an olive drab jean...no reason why you couldn't use Tart's patina jean for trousers...natural, wheat, anything else on his site.

[Jim Mayo]

Uniform material was coming into the Richmond Depot from many sources. Color was not as much of a consideration as was the qualitity of the material. Logwood and Sumac dye was commonly used in the South and did not result in bright colors but the colors did vary from dye batch to batch. Also, It is difficult to describe color. As the Chinese say: A picture is worth a thousand words. I would be more concerned with getting the correct weave and pattern trousers. If someone is making qualitity material, they usually know what color was common. While most locally woven material was a wool and cotton blend, not all was woven as jean. IMO you are not going to get authentic material or patterns from the big box sutlers who have fancy names for their colors. There are many aspects to Confederate supply especially uniforms. There are books written about the subject so it can't be covered in a couple of posts.

[Griebz]

Thanks everyone for the replies.. So color wasn't really an issue then.. I'll take a look at Ben Tart, ive ordered from him before. Are there any colors that are modern reenactor colors that I should stay away from in general?

Peter Griebel

[Griebz]

Ok , goin with Ben tart .. Don't want jean tho.. His satinette might be my choice

Peter Griebel

[Griebz]

Roy, is bens Royal blue the same? I think I might use that.

Pete Griebel

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo!

As shared, there really is no such thing as a "correct shade."

In brief....

Within the range of vegetable dyed colors using such mordanted and un-mordanted dyestuffs as logwood, sumac, butternut, copperas, indigo, etc. one gets some range of gray, brown tan, blue, green, etc. Plus at times the Confederates had "variegated" as well as "salt-and-pepper" looking. And even at time undyed natural wool or cotton that looked off white.

And as shared, vegetable dyestuffs were notoriously non color fast and non light fast. So, beyond how the particular batch of yarn took the dye- or whether the dyer had pure dyestuff or chemical mordants, how concentrated or weak the bath was, what the sustained temperatures were, how long the textile was in the pre-dyebath mordant and/or dye itself... etc., etc., all produced variations on a theme.
And also as shared, once in use and exposed to UV light and the elements, colors could change. Iron mordanted logwood might start out as a nice gray, but would fade into tans.

I should also mention the Confederate commutation sustem, as well as the adoption of the arsenal/depot system to replace it. As requisitions came into the arsenals/depots, they were not NUG filled by color by what amouonts of what items wer "on the shleves." If the fabric producers, were using a certain dye at the moment. Or the purchasing agents making bulk purchases as far as the availalbe suply at the moment would bear, they may would get logwood dyed gray one time but something else the next. If one supplier had brown jean, there might be a batch of say brown jacketsd and trousers on the shelves for one requisition but the next one may have been made up from iron mordanted gray logwood. Or say in late 1863, maybe some British Army cloth blue gray cloth came through on a blockade runner so the enxt cycle of clothing was "blue."

IMHO, the key is not to think of a modern standardized universal color chip.

Others' mileage will vary...

Curt