American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Gents

When had the Union army stopped wearing gray?

Rolf

Mr. Hall,

I'm not sure I understand the question. I'm no expert on uniforms, but I don't know that the official uniform of the United States Federal army was ever gray. The uniforms of cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point were gray (and may still be today), but not the regular army.

Individual units formed by states and turned over to the Federal army may have originally be uniformed in whatever manner they wanted to be, so there was a lot of variety in these, especially early in the war. At Wilson's Creek, a regiment of 'Federals' was dressed in gray, which led to confusion when other Federals held their fire -- thinking it was their own forces from the other side of the battlefield (they had surrounded the Rebs) approaching them. Too late, they discovered their error, when the Rebs fired a volley into them at point-blank range.

Is this the information you were interested in?


Your humble servant,
Gen 'Dee Dubya' Mallory

David W. Mallory
ACW - General, Chief of the Armies, Confederate States of America & Cabinet Member
CCC - Sergeant, Georgia Volunteers, Southern Regional Deaprtment, Colonial American Army

Rolf,

I think shortly after the debacle it caused at First Bull Run!! [:)]

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<b>Brigadier General Scott Ludwig</b>
Commanding Officer, III Corps
Army of Northern Virginia
"The Army Commissary" and "The Traveling Blowhard of Virginia"
Retried ANV Commander 2004-06

http://www.networkforgood.org

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

-Abraham Lincoln, 1st Inaugural Address

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There were also supposedly a couple of Federal regiments in grey at Shiloh. I suppose that was made up for by the fact that several Reb regiments wore blue, including the famous Crescent regiment.

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
Reserve Artillery, AoS

The only time that I know of that US Regular troops wore grey was the 1814 Niagara Campaign, when Scott's Brigade was issued undyed uniforms because of a logistics snafu.

Of course, when you deal with Militia and Volunteer troops, they aren't necessarily going to wear the "standard" colors (which is why Riall thought Scott's troops were militia at first).

Brig. General Gary McClellan
1st Division, XXIII Corps
AoO,USA

I remember visiting Manassas and there was a plaque describing the
attack of the 33rd VA (in blue militia uniforms) and the overrun of
Griffith's and Rickett's batteries. Recently, it's been removed and
there's no reference anywhere of how two batteries of Union were (or
could be) captured. I heard the Army wanted to expunge the record and
rewrite history. By recently, I mean in the last decade or so, I haven't
been there in a while.

Gen. J. Cuneo, CSA
Army of Alabama, Commanding


"I have seen the faces of men, who had dared death so often, it lost its' terror." -J.S. Mosby