Richmond Depot
The Richmond Depot, or the Richmond Clothing Bureau, was a clothing and equipment facility located in three primary facilities, in and around Richmond, Virginia, established late in 1861, that supplied uniforms, footwear, and other equipment to the Confederate States Army, primarily the Army of Northern Virginia, and the surrounding region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Richmond Depot uniforms were not issued to western or Deep South Confederates, such as the Army of Tennessee. History. In April 1861 at the beginning of the American Civil War the Confederates States Congress turned to Prussian artist Nicola Marschall to design a  new uniform for the Confederate military. Marschall's designs were inspired by the grey uniforms he had seen on a group of Austrian sharpshooters in Italy in 1857. Marschall's new uniform designs were approved and released as General Order #9 on 6 June 1861 to be applied to all Confederate forces. Early in the War the Confederate government had relied upon the "Commutation System" to keep its troops well supplied with clothing and equipment, but as the war dragged on into its second year of conflict, the system proved to be faulty. Early in 1862, the Confederate Government set  new guidelines and developed the "Depot system", a series of federal government controlled facilities, that would have a steady supply of equipment to the soldiers and sailors of the Confederacy in the region of that depot. The Richmond Clothing Bureau was one of these such facilities, and was one of the more successful, keeping in operation from the early winter of 1861/62, to the last days of the Confederate States Army's control over Richmond, Virginia, in April 1865. It had two branches: the Shoe Manufactory under Captain Stephen Putney and the Clothing Manufactory under O.F. Weisiger, a civilian (until  1863 when he was made a captain.) Produced equipment. The Richmond depot produced several variations of jackets, trousers, and caps; including militia styled uniforms authorized by the Confederate Government for construction and distribution. The most common items produced, are the Richmond Depot style shell jacket, the Trousers, and the Kepi. The materials used by the Richmond Depot, were produced by the Crenshaw Wool Mill, in Richmond, Virginia, near the Tredegar Iron Works, both of which were burnt down in mid-1863. The wool produced by this mill was a medium to bright cadet grey, often in 60 inch-wide bolts, with  the blankets being produced in , probably of the same cadet grey material. Later in the war, imported dark cadet grey kersey, known as "English Army cloth", was being used in the domestically produced jackets, trousers, and caps, as well as the complete uniforms brought through the blockade by companies, such as Peter Tait of Limerick, Ireland. These uniforms started to become commonplace in the Army of Northern Virginia and the rest of the Confederate States Army later in the war. Battle flags were also produced by the depot from early 1862 to the end of the war in Virginia. These  flags were made using captured red, blue, and white bunting stock from the captured Norfolk Naval yards. These fabrics were originally intended to be sewn into United States and other various flags. Jacket design. The jackets produced during the war were not grouped into different types until long after the war was over, being set by modern historians. Many, if not all of the jackets were produced from the Richmond depot in a production line, with the details being omitted as time went by to save material due to war time shortages and faster completion rates. One of the parts  of this 'production line', consisted of sewing groups, or the ladies of the towns and city, that would come to the facilities, take unfinished uniforms and bolts of cloth, and drop off the completed uniforms. Three types of Richmond Depot jackets were produced: Trouser design. The Design of the trousers issued by the Richmond Depot, are similar in design to some pre-war civilian trousers, with a back buckle and belt for adjustment to the wearer, and squared, "mule ear" pockets, some with buttons to keep the square flaps of these pockets up. The original depot-issued trousers were French  Blue and made of wool. This blue was darker and more vibrant than the sky blue color of Federal uniform pants. In late 1862 when the depot started producing uniforms made of cadet-grey jeans cloth, trousers were also produced in matching material and color. Then again in 1863 after the depot began receiving the blue-grey cloth from Europe uniform trousers were once again manufactured in the same material and color until the conclusion of the War in 1865. Nevertheless, there are several artifacts of late-war trousers, that were produced with light or sky blue wool kersey, which  by colour resemble the United States Army regulation trousers, but are not similar in construction to any pair produced in the northern U.S. held Arsenals. Battle flag designs. The design of the Battle flag from the Richmond depot, are similar to the specifications stated in the autumn/winter of 1861. There are three types of Battle flags made from this depot, much like the jackets, these groups were not designated until after the war. These three primary designations had the corps traits of the A.N.V. design flags: a red background, a blue cross, with a white edge on the cross , and an edge border of either orange or white cloth, with twelve or thirteen stars inside the blue cross. Many of these flags were produced using the same design, but due to influences by the sewing groups making them, all of these flags are unique, some having a continuous strip of edge cloth around the flag, others had the stars on the separated part of the cross further from the center star. Several flags from this depot were made in various sizes, most were, or were close to , while several examples show flags of smaller designs, ranging from , down to  . Many of such variations can be seen in the collection held by the American Civil War Museum.