CIVILIAN-MADE BLANKETS USED BY SOLDIERS

By Pvt. Denis Gaubert

Comrades, I take pen in hand again at the urgent entreaty of Pvt. Burkenstock, to share with you some documentation of the nature of typical civilian blankets used by Confederate and, yes, even Union soldiers in the American Civil War (or, if you prefer, the War for Southern Independence.) To those of you who have been astute enough to listen to my sutlery’s sales pitch for my authentic civilian blankets, this will no doubt be boring and redundant. But practicalities dictate that I keep the length of my missive to you short, so without further ado, let us proceed to examine this interesting topic.

The shortages of military supplies and lack of central government supply structure at the outset of war left the individual states to call upon the soldiers themselves and other citizens to equip them when the state government could not. Even though powered or industrial looms were in existence at that time, they were much less common in the mostly rural South than in the more industrialized North. As a result, many Southern women who may have put away their spinning wheels and home looms put them to use again at the urging of the state and local governments, newspapers, and citizens’ support committees. For example, the Daily Chronicle & Sentinel of Augusta, Georgia, for August 31, 1861, urged its readers “that as blankets are very scarce, if indeed it be possible to buy them at all, the people should give their own to the soldiers.” Likewise, on November 5, 1861, the Natchez Daily Courier passed on the request of officers organizing companies in that city that “[b]lankets are much needed for the recruits now mustered in, and those about to join, and they would feel obliged for a donation of blankets.” Even after the organization of the Confederate States Quartermaster Department and the opening of regional supply depots, Confederate soldiers still felt acute shortages of blankets. In the western theater, in particular the Trans-Mississippi Department, the shortage reached “emergency” status, according to an appeal from the Acting Chief Quartermaster of that Department dated September 17, 1862:

Every family throughout this Department, possessed of a spinning wheel, and loom, is requested to manufacture as large a quantity of cloth (both woolen and cotton) as the raw material at its command may permit. . . . [T]hose who have looms adapted to the purpose, can furnish blankets . . .

In his regimental history, The Story of the 26th Louisiana Infantry Regiment in the Service of the Confederate States (n.p. 1890?), p. 24, its commander, Winchester Hall, described how “the regiment suffered greatly for want of blankets or a substitute,” and how he and a detail of Lafourche Parish soldiers went to Vicksburg “to beg from door to door, for whatever might suit our purpose.”

Even the better-supplied Northern soldiers were not immune to occasional shortages. For example, in August, 1862, the market supply of blankets meeting military specifications had been exhausted due to the increasing numbers of volunteers and recruits. The U. S. War Department therefore issued a general order advising all volunteers and conscripts to bring their own blankets of “good, stout wool” to their camps of organization. Even when government-issued blankets were available, they were not uncommonly made of inferior or “shoddy” wool cloth, forcing the soldiers drawing them to find replacements from home or through “requisition” of a nonmilitary blanket from an unfortunate civilian.

So what would civilian blankets used by soldiers have looked like? Most would probably have been of homespun fiber, loomed by hand, and made of wool or blends of wool and cotton or wool and linen. Woolen cloth continued to be loomed at home until the middle of the 19th century due to the fact that American wool was not strong enough for power looms, and because wool is easier to spin, dye, and weave than either cotton or linen. Even into the late 19th century, home production of woolen and cotton cloth persisted in more rural or isolated areas, a prominent example being South Louisiana.

Homespun wool or wool-blend blankets were generally woven on a heavy wooden loom with a rectangular frame supporting two beams, one beam holding the unwoven warp thread and the other the finished cloth. The weft thread would be wound on a bobbin, which was then placed in a shuttle. As the weaver threw the shuttle back and forth across the warp with one hand, catching it with the other, the weft thread would unwind from the shuttle. The width of the finished cloth was limited to the distance the weaver could comfortably throw and catch the shuttle, which generally was 30 to 36 inches. The blanket would be woven in one long length, then cut in half and joined by a center seam, resulting in a blanket 60 to 72 inches in width. Only relatively affluent housewives would have had the time to weave intricate, multi-colored blankets or coverlets. Rural home weavers, whose time was limited by the need to provide for their own subsistence, produced easily-executed plain weave or twill cloth, with perhaps only one or two colors. Designs of such blankets were often limited to horizontal or weft (width-wise) stripes. (Slight irregularity in matching of the stripes on adjoining pieces is a hallmark of a homespun blanket.)

That’s all for now, comrades. The Watchdog is supposed to have an article on civilian blankets in its next issue; I’ll be watching for it, as I know you will. Just remember you read this article first!

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

Ann Cameron McRae, Women at the Loom: Handweaving in Washington County, Tennessee, 1840-1860 (unpublished thesis, May 2001).

Francis A. Lord, Civil War Collector’s Encyclopedia, Vols. I & II (Blue & Grey Press, 1995).

“Regarding Handweaving and Handwoven Blankets, 1760 to 1860,” http://pineledgefiberstudio.com/historic1.htm

"Blankets, Quilts, and Comforters: Articles in Civil War Era Newspapers," http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts/blankets.htm