Soldier's Equipment

The infantryman is a self contained fighting unit and therefore must carry everything he needs to sustain life and fight in the field. To sustain life, a man needs food, water and shelter. The Confederate infantryman's food was carried in a haversack, essentially a sack suspended from a shoulder strap over the right shoulder to the left hip. Usually it was made of cotton duck, and buttoned at the flap. Occasionally there was a separate food bag buttoned inside the outer sack. Since cotton duck wouldn't keep provisions dry, a waterproof bag was more desirable than the average issue haversack. Depending on what was available.

The well made and waterproof US army haversacks were always in great demand. The 1st Carolina infantry veteran Berry Benson, after the fighting at the seven days wrote that "the whole Confederate army refitted itself with blankets, rubber clothes (i.e., groundsheets, talmas and ponchos), tent flies, haversack and canteens, so that in the middle of the war and later, to see equipment of southern make was somewhat of a curiosity. A canteen was also slung from the right shoulder to the left hip by a cotton or leather strap, and rested on top of the haversack. Everyone agreed that the Union army canteens, covered with a woollen cloth to keep the contents cool, were better than the plain tin and wood drum style of canteen issued to the Confederate army, but relic seekers and archaeologists working late-war sites found that parts of the Southern-made canteen are among the most common of all discoveries. The last piece of life-sustaining equipment was the knapsack or blanket roll. "The knapsack vanished early in the struggle," wrote artilleryman Carlton McCarthy.

"It was inconvenient to 'change' the underwear too often, and the disposition not to change grew, as the knapsack was found to gall the back and shoulders, and weary the man before half the march was accomplished. The better way was to dress out and out, and wear that outfit until the enemy's knapsacks, or the folks at home supplied a change. McCarthy was exaggerating slightly for effect. Certainly, a great many Confederate infantrymen abandoned the overstuffed knapsacks with which they had left their first camps. "In our knapsacks were carried a fatigue jacket, several pairs of white gloves, several pairs of drawers, several white shirts, undershirts, linen collars, neckties, white vests, socks, etc. - filling our knapsacks to overflowing.

Strapped on the outside were one or two blankets, an oilcloth, and extra shoes. Most of the knapsacks weighed between thirty and forty pounds, but some were so full that they weighed fifty pounds!" In such cases, obviously the wearer would abandon something, and would probably have been the knapsack, possible laid aside in favour of a Union bag. Some 11,500 Union knapsacks were picked up from the field at Chancellorsville alone. If the knapsack were abandoned, and it was the most common thing to go, the remaining extra clothing such as a spare shirt or pair of drawers, was rolled into a blanket which was worn bandolier-fashion over the left shoulder, the ends tied together at the right hip.

The blanket was either an issued one or, often as not, privately purchased or sent from home or "found" in a civilian house. But many infantrymen clung to their knapsack throughout the war, especially if it were waterproof and fitted square to the back by means of leather straps that passed over and under the shoulders. Some had wooden frames to keep them neat; others were little more than large cloth bags. British army issue knapsacks were manufactured by a London firm, S Isaac, Campbell & Co, and imported by the Confederacy. The Confederate infantryman carried forty rounds of longarm ammunition in a cartridge box. Many of those who received Enfield rifled muskets received copies of British army cartridge boxes.

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