Larry Shields
Tuscaloosa Gray
Sat May 5 02:07:20 2001


Folks,

In reference to the Gray Uniforms from England worn by
the "called up reserves" I believe the uniforms in question were actually of Irish provenance but mistakenly referred to as being English. The following references I thought, might shed some light on this:


From the October 22, 1864 COLUMBUS GA. DAILY ENQUIRER:
GOOD NEWS FOR ALABAMA SOLDIERS Four months ago a contract was entered into between the State of Alabama on the part of the Quartermaster General and the firm of Peter Tait and Co, Limerick, Ireland through Major J.L. Tait, of the British army, for a large quantity of military clothing for the Alabama Soldiers. Quartermaster General Green stipulated that a large portion of the goods should be furnished partially cut, with the necessary trimmings, thus affording employment to the seamstresses and tailors of our home factories. Some thousands of these Uniforms, we are glad to be able to announce, have safely arrived in the Confederacy, and the residue of the order is hourly expected. The outfit consists of jacket, pants, shoes, and overcoat, all made of the most substantial material-the cloth being exactly the same as used in the British army.
The house of Peter Tait and Co. In Limerick, is one of the mostextensive in Great Britan, and these enterprising factors furnish a great portion of the outfit to the British army than any other in the realm, and give employment to two thousand operatives. Their own vessels run into the Confederate ports and they have filed frequent contracts with the Government. Their contract with the State of Alabama has been faithfully and promptly fulfilled, thanks to the energy and tact of their agent and represenative, Maj. Tait. Some of the goods for our State troops is already made up into Uniforms. A specimen overcoat which we have seen exhibits the superiority of the material for durability and comfort and the excelence of the make up. When Alabama's soldiers are comfortably clad in the ample folds of a cape and skirt of one of these overcoats they will be as handsomely and as comfortably uniformed as any soldier in the world. Several thousand of these uniforms are already here. The rest of the order will be here in a few days.-Montg Mail.

Here's an excerpt from the journal of Kate Cummings a confederate nurse. She is in Mobile at the time of this particular entry on the 26th of Feb.1864. She states that
"The Tennessee army has scattered- many of its troops are here....The city is filled with the veterans of many battles. I have attended several of the parties, and at them the gray jackets were conspicuous. A few were in citizen's clothes, but it was because they had lost their uniforms.
The Alabama troops are dressed so fine that we scarcely recognize them. A large steamer, laden with clothes, ran the blockade lately, from Limerick, Ireland."

I think this is very interesting. The CSA central gov't.
also contracted with P. Tait for uniforms for the CSA provisional army. These uniforms made it into the Army of Northern Virginia by very late 1864-65. They were getting into the Trans-Mississippi area in 1863! Apparently it was easier to get through the blockade down there. A number of
"Tait uniforms" have survived in museum collections. I don't know of any with an Alabama provenance though. These uniforms were made of dark bluish-gray cloth, trimmed in several different styles.

Larry