Excerpt from: "A SURVEY OF CONFEDERATE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT QUARTERMASTER ISSUE JACKETS Part 3"

Read the rest of the article

by Leslie D. Jensen

The Department of South Carolina, Georgia,. and Florida had a clothing depot at Charleston, SC. Details on its establishment are foggy, but the Chief Quartermaster, Major Hutson Lee, had been on the job since 1861 and at some point established a manufacturing facility. Captain George L. Crafts was in charge. An Assistant Quartermaster in Charleston (at least as early as February, 1863) by June, 1864 Crafts was using as his address: "Bureau of Clothing and Camp and Garrison Equipage." He was officially placed in charge of the "Established Manufactory," on 8 November 1864 by the order of the Adjutant and Inspector General. At that point, his depot became one of the general depots, whose operations and issues were under the exclusive control of the Quartermaster General. In December, 1864, Crafts sent 200 Jackets and 200 Pairs of Pants to Captain C.L. Davies, AQM, Greenville, SC.

Identifying the products of this depot is extremely difficult, but there are two surviving jackets that may be from Craft's operation. One was used by 1st Sergeant T. Grange Simons of the 25th South Carolina Infantry. This regiment was stationed in the Charleston area until early 1864, when they were transferred to Lee's army. They came back to the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida in late 1865.85  The other jacket was worn by Private William Kirby Brown of the Palmetto Guard. His unit served as siege artillery until the evacuation of Charleston in the spring of 1865, when they transferred north as part of Johnston's army and surrendered at Greensboro, NC, 26 April 1865.86

Both jackets are made of the English wool kersey found in both the Richmond Type III jackets and the Tait contract. Both have linings made of unbleached cotton osnaburg. However, these jackets have six piece bodies with one piece, rather than two piece sleeves, and only five buttons down the front. Simons' jacket has block I buttons imported by Courtney & Tennent of Charleston, while Brown's has CS staff buttons made by Hammond, Turner & Bates of Manchester, England. Neither jacket has shoulder straps. Unlike Richmond products, the collars of these jackets are interlined. Finally, and perhaps the most conspicuous feature, other than the button count and the lack of shoulder straps, are the belt loops. Unlike any other pattern, these belt loops are extremely large, 4 1/8" high by 1 3/4" wide on Simons' jacket and 5 5/ 8" high by 2 5/8" wide on Brown's. Moreover, these loops are. shaped like shoulder straps, flat at one end and tapering towards the top.

Unfortunately, until more jackets of this pattern are found, we cannot be absolutely sure of the provenance. But the existence of these two, from different units of the Charleston garrison, strongly suggests that they are products of the Charleston depot.