Barrels, Boxes, and Bags: Notes on US and CS Army Ration Packaging

By Craig Schneider

“The size, form, strength, &c. of packages designed to hold subsistence stores will be determined by the purchasing Commissary, who will be governed in these particulars by the kind of transportation offered, by the size of the wagons used, by the convenience of handling the packages, &c.”

-Revised United States Army Regulations of 1861.(1)

With millions of pounds of supplies consumed on a daily basis, the United States and Confederate States armies were awash in packing materials. Moreso than any other type of packaging, those which contained rations were by far the most prevalent in camps, in wagons, in supply depots, and in the wake of the armies. These barrels, boxes, and bags were perpetual features of the Civil War landscape, whether properly returned to the government, repurposed as furniture, as chimneys for winter huts, in fortifications, or simply strewn nearly everywhere in the vicinity of the armies.

Living historians naturally recreate only small vignettes of the Civil War. As much as it is erroneous to attempt to recreate units or battles in miniature, it is a mistake for living historians to recreate rations and their packaging in miniature. This article will provide an overview of the types and sizes of containers rations were provided in. It will also detail some of the differences between typical U.S. and C.S. Army packaging.

THE ARMY RATION

As has been detailed in other articles (see “A Commissary Sergeant’s Notebook” and “A Commissary of Subsistence’s Ledger”) the standard daily ration issued to troops in the field varied between time and place and between the U.S. and C.S. armies. However, the ration was generally composed of several consistent components:

• Meat Ration – Salt Pork, Salt Beef, Fresh Beef, Bacon, or equivalent, varying from ¾ pound to 1 ¼ pound per man per day.

• Bread Ration – Hard Bread, Soft Bread, or flour or cornmeal equivalent, varying from ¾ pound to 1 ¼ pound per man per day.

• Beans, Peas, Rice, or Hominy Ration – varying from 10 to 15 pounds per 100 rations.

• Coffee Ration – varying from 3 to 10 pounds per 100 rations.

• Sugar Ration – varying from 6 to 15 pounds per 100 rations.

• Salt Ration – 3 ¾ pounds per 100 rations.

• Pepper Ration – 4 ounces per 100 rations.

• Vinegar Ration – 1 gallon per 100 rations.

• Soap Ration – 4 pounds per 100 rations.

• Candles Ration – 1 ¼ pound per 100 rations.

An army of 100,000 men would consume nearly 250,000 pounds of food per day. A three-day ration issue would require nearly three quarters of a million pounds of rations be distributed. An ideal 10-day ration issue would be composed of 2.5 million pounds of stores delivered in over 40,000 containers, almost exclusively wooden barrels and boxes. These containers varied in size based upon military regulations often designed to best fit supplies in standardized wagon boxes. Other design considerations included mimicking typical commercial packaging, or utilizing traditional and sometimes archaic units of measure.

RATION PACKAGING

Meat Ration

The United States Army provided the meat ration primarily in the form of salt pork and fresh beef. While beef would be slaughtered close to the army and delivered fresh to the men, salt pork was preserved in barrels. The industry standard container for “Prime Mess Pork” was an oak cask held together with hoops of green saplings, each containing 50 four-pound pieces of pork, totaling 200 pounds, packed in salt and brine bringing the gross weight of the package to about 340 pounds. Each cask, which measured about 28 inches along the staves and about 17 inches in diameter at the head (an understood “barrel” size of about 30 gallons in volume that was used for a number of products), had its contents stenciled on one or both heads. While the Army Regulations noted the hoops nearest the head of each barrel of pork be iron while those nearer the bilge be saplings, wartime photographs show this was not followed (or that the iron hoops were covered by additional sapling hoops).(2)

Bacon was issued less frequently than other meats to U.S. Army soldiers. It was sometimes transported and issued from barrels, but usually from particularly large boxes reinforced with sapling bands designed to make best use of the space in a typical wagon:

“The army wagon being 22 x 42 x 114 inches, inside measurement, boxes for bacon, made 20 x 20 x 28 inches outside measurement (which will contain 225 pounds of bacon) are convenient for field transportation. The boxes should be strapped, and the material be one and one-fourth inch thick, tongued and grooved.”(5)

The Confederate States Army relied primarily on bacon and fresh beef. While fresh beef was similarly slaughtered near the army and issued immediately, packaging for Confederate bacon varied more than its Northern counterpart. A significant portion of the Confederate Subsistence Department’s meat supply was imported; blockade runner cargo manifests show this “Nassau Bacon” usually arriving in barrels, with a smaller proportion of preserved meat arriving in tierces (a size of wooden cask larger than the usual pork barrel and smaller than a hogshead, capable of holding about 42 gallons).(9) Some Confederate bacon undoubtedly was issued from wooden boxes of similar size and construction to U.S. Army bacon boxes. Testimony related to supplies at Andersonville during the trial of Henry Wirz makes particular note of the number of boxes of Confederate bacon kept on hand and the quality of the meat contained within.(10) Additionally, some blockade runner cargo manifests show bacon intended for the Confederate Subsistence Department arriving in boxes of varying sizes, some containing up to 440 pounds of meat.(11)

Bread Ration

The United States Army bread ration usually came in the form of hard bread (also referred to as army bread, pilot bread, or “hard tack” and various other colloquial terms) unless the Subsistence Department could establish bakeries near troops in relatively static front lines. Hard bread was packaged in 50-pound boxes strapped with split saplings. New York bakeries typically packed their hard bread in boxes closely matching the measurements in the Regulations: 26 inches by 17 inches and 11 inches in height, with a set of sapling straps nailed around each end and a manufacturer’s stencil on the lid. Cincinnati bakeries seem to have varied more from the regulations, with boxes appearing to have approximately 14 inch by 14 inch ends, three sets of sapling straps, and manufacturer’s stencils on one end. Contrary to popular belief, New York-made hard bread was not exclusive to the Eastern Theater, nor was Cincinnati-made hard bread only meant for use in the Western Theater. Photographs show boxes from Cincinnati at Gettysburg. As one Confederate soldier’s account of captured stores issued during the Army of Northern Virginia’s advance into Maryland in 1862 noted, “All the crackers we have had in a long time are stamped ‘Cincinnati.’”(12)

Unlike the U.S. Army, the Confederate bread ration was provided almost exclusively in the form of raw flour or corn meal. As the largest producer of flour on the continent, Richmond, Virginia’s flour mills all had cooperages supplying industry-standard 196-pound barrels for its flour. Haxall, Crenshaw & Co.’s mill filled over 600 such barrels each day throughout much of the war. Richmond flour barrels were a ubiquitous feature in Confederate camps.(15)

While cornmeal was not measured in 196-pound increments as in the case of flour (instead being measured in real weight or by the bushel), much of it ended up in identical barrels anyway, with some noted as having been shipped in sacks. Hard bread was issued to Southern troops with much less frequency than their Northern counterparts, but the Confederate Subsistence Department still endeavored to stockpile hard bread for issue at the start of active campaigns. While much of this was stored in and issued from standard barrels, at least some was boxed. One Confederate contract for hard bread boxes specified “The Boxes are to be two feet long, 1 foot 6 inches wide and 1 foot 5 ½ inches deep, in the clear.”(16) Larger than U.S. boxes, these would have held about 100 pounds of Hard Bread.

Beans, Peas, Rice, or Hominy Ration

Like other ration components, the U.S. Army’s Subsistence Department provided beans, peas, rice, and hominy in identical standard size barrels with sapling hoops, with beans being the most commonly issued of the aforementioned options. A barrel of beans or peas contained 223 pounds, a barrel of rice contained 280 pounds, and a barrel of hominy contained 200 pounds. Fresh potatoes and other vegetables that often were provided in lieu of the regulation ration were shipped in the same barrels, with potatoes weighing about 150 pounds to the barrel. Desiccated vegetables, while issued with less frequency, were similarly provided in lieu of the standard ration. The cut and dried vegetables, pressed into tablets, were sealed in tin boxes and then crated. The American Desiccating Company of New York packed nine eight-pound tablets, each measuring one foot square and one inch thick, into one tin box, with each wooden crate containing two tin boxes.

The Confederate Subsistence Department most commonly provided either peas or rice to troops in the field. While both were typically packed in wooden casks like U.S. Army rations, some were packed in sacks. One U.S. Army prisoner of war testified about the Confederate peas ration:

“The article denominated black peas, or cow-peas, was brought in sacks, apparently just as it had left the threshing ground of the producer, having never been winnowed or cleansed of the fine pods or dirt which naturally mingles with all leguminous plants while growing in the field.”(17)

Southern rice production was centered in South Carolina where a unique, enormous cask or “rice barrel” had been standardized, each containing approximately 650 pounds of cleaned rice. The Confederate Subsistence Department acquired great quantities of rice in these large wooden containers.

Coffee Ration

The U.S. Army coffee ration was provided in standard size barrels with sapling hoops, with each barrel containing 160 pounds of coffee. While the Confederacy was unable to provide a regular or complete coffee ration to its troops, what coffee was provided usually was imported from Brazil. “Rio Coffee” was typically imported in sacks weighing 100 pounds each.

Sugar Ration

The U.S. Army transported sugar in and issued it from standard barrel-size wooden casks with sapling hoops. Each barrel contained 269 pounds of sugar. Confederate soldiers were issued sugar with less frequency, but Southern sugar was issued from barrels just the same. Notably, some Confederate sugar was provided in hogsheads—a standard cask size larger than both a barrel and a tierce, measuring about four feet along the stave and containing about 63 gallons—likely due to the hogshead having been a standard unit of measure for domestically-produced sugar prior to the war.

Salt Ration

While the U.S. Army provided salt in barrels containing 280 pounds, it was also the only ration component that the U.S. Subsistence Department packaged in sacks with any regularity. A sack of Army salt weighed 229 pounds—a “sack” being an archaic unit of measure from the previous century—and measured about 26 inches wide and 50 inches long before filling. Each contained 6,000 rations of salt, factored for a small but acceptable amount of wastage. Commissary officers tended to dislike the large salt sacks as they could not be rolled like a barrel, required multiple people to move, and were fragile.

“I prefer salt in barrels as the sacks of the ordinary weight (229 pounds) are very unhandy, are more apt to become wet, often tear or rip open, and in my estimation possess no advantage over the barrel.”(23)

The Confederate Subsistence Department went to great lengths to provide salt to troops in the field, in large part due to the fact that troops were not regularly being issued salted meat, and their bread ration came in the form of raw flour that required salt to prepare. The Confederacy’s primary source of salt was the enormous salt works of Stuart, Buchanan & Co. in Saltville, Virginia. Rail cars full of packaged salt were sent from Saltville to every corner of the Confederacy on a nearly daily basis. Stuart, Buchanan & Co. stitched their salt into three-bushel sacks weighing 150 pounds and containing 4,000 rations in each.(25)

It is unclear if military salt bags were marked to indicate their contents in any way. Wartime photographs do not clearly show any markings. Additionally, the unique and culturally understood size of U.S. Army salt bags, and singular nature of their use by the Subsistence Department, would seem to have made marking them unnecessary.

Pepper Ration

The U.S. Army pepper ration was shipped in wooden boxes containing 25 pounds of pepper packed in 100 four-ounce “papers,” with each paper packet conforming to the regulation weight for 100 rations. While it is unknown if any wartime Army pepper boxes survive, other wartime commercial spice boxes contained the same weight and paper packing method as required by the Army, indicating that the Army simply designed their pepper ration to conform to the typical commercial packaging for bulk spices. The Confederacy did not issue a regular pepper ration.

Vinegar Ration

Vinegar was shipped to the armies in 22-gallon kegs with metal hoops. As vinegar evaporates relatively quickly in wooden containers, Army vinegar kegs were supposed to be painted and their bungs covered in tin. Wartime photographs do not clearly indicate that all vinegar kegs were painted. The painting of kegs may not have been universally practiced, likely due to the great quantities of vinegar required and speed of which it was consumed. The color kegs were supposed to be painted was not specified, however a number of Prussian blue-painted kegs meant for liquid were recovered from the wreck of the Bertand, a civilian cargo vessel that sank in 1865.

Soap Ration

Packaging for Army soap mimicked one of the standard formats of commercial packaging for bulk soap in the mid-19th century: a wooden crate containing 80 pounds of soap. It is unknown if any wartime Army soap boxes survive.

Candles Ration

Candles were issued to U.S. Army soldiers from 40-pound wooden boxes measuring approximately 18 inches by 10 inches, with each containing 3,200 rations. While it is unknown if any wartime Army candles boxes survive, there are extant similar 40-pound commercial candles boxes from the 1860s.

SUBSISTENCE DEPARTMENT BAGS?

Other than salt, which often came to U.S. Army soldiers in barrels anyway, Subsistence Stores were almost never issued in bags—especially not the small bags that reenactors tend to use in an attempt to recreate ration issues. But what are the bags that often show up in wartime photographs? Can bags be used appropriately to contain rations at living history events? What size were they and how were they marked?

U.S. Army Bags

While the large 229-pound U.S. Subsistence Department salt bags would have been relatively uncommon simply because a single one contained 6,000 rations, other types of bags would have been more frequently seen in the field, though they were not intended to carry rations.

“I provided the teamsters and others in the commissary with grain sacks, obtained from the battery wagons, filled with pork, hard bread, sugar, and coffee, and conducted them on horseback . . .”(30)

When Captain N. J. Sappington, a commissary officer serving in the field in Virginia in 1862, needed to transport rations in more convenient containers than the large boxes and barrels they were shipped in, he knew where to look. Each artillery battery travelled with one Battery Wagon, a purpose-built vehicle meant to carry tools, spare parts for carriages and harness, and a large supply of grain bags for the battery’s horses. Indeed, the most prolific supplier of bags for commissary officers, who often sought them out for purposes of convenience, was the Quartermaster’s Department.


The Quartermaster’s Department was responsible for providing both hay and grain to sustain the Army’s horses and mules, and shipped bulk corn and oats to the field in two-bushel or roughly 100-pound bags. As a typical commercial size for bulk grain bags, numerous factories specialized in producing bags from coarse cotton or jute sackcloth, and occasionally sailcloth, usually woven in standard 27 inch or 28 ½ inch widths. The two-bushel bags measured about ¾ yard wide by one yard long when finished, with the selvedges of the cloth along the side seams of the bag and the bag opening either left raw and turned under when filled and sewn shut, or itself hemmed. Wartime photographs appear to show these bags universally unmarked. As a recognized size of grain bag, and the only bags of this size regularly seen in the field, the contents would have been understood without the need for obvious marking.

While commissary officers found the Army’s enormous salt sacks heavy, inconvenient, and fragile, repurposed two-bushel animal feed bags filled the needed role of storing rations once bulk packages had been opened. After the war the Subsistence Department asked commissary officers to frankly detail the reality of their wartime experiences and offer advice to be published for reference by the next generation of officers; the importance of repacking rations for field transport was a frequently noted topic. Major W. P. Martin, the Commissary of Subsistence at City Point during the siege of Petersburg, gave instructions that goods such as coffee, sugar, beans, and salt were best put into bags to make the most efficient use of space and reduce weight in wagons:

“Army wagon loaded with complete rations—Bacon, etc. (Present packages—small stores in sacks.) Stowed as follows.

Hard bread, tier boxes in center, 2 long, 3 high, 2 on each side on edge, 3 of these on end, 4 in center on edge ; total 20. Two barrels bacon behind the bread on one side, and the other on opposite side as far forward as it will go. There will be a space between the bacon and the bread sufficiently large to hold the soap box, in which is the soap, candles, and pepper ; and the beans, coffee, sugar, and salt in sacks ; salt put in first, then, beans, sugar, and coffee ; 3 boxes of bread on the bacon, vinegar keg in space between last barrel of bacon and the side of wagon near tailboard.”(33)

Convenience drove commissary officers to remove meat from boxes and barrels and transport it in repurposed bags at times. As one officer noted, however, care was needed when doing so, especially with bacon in warmer months: “Bacon in sacks should not be put up in large quantities lest combustion occurs.”(34)

C.S. Army Bags

The Confederate Army made greater use of bags in packing rations than the U.S. Army, with goods such as salt, cornmeal, and peas sometimes being shipped in bags—enough so that the Confederate Subsistence Department issued orders calling for commissary officers in the field to collect emptied bags or be charged $1.25 for each one lost.(35) In general, however, the great majority of Confederate rations were issued from barrels just the same as U.S. Army rations.

Much like the U.S. Army, the Confederate Quartermaster’s Department provided feed for the army’s horses and mules in bags, with the bags often repurposed for other uses. General Richard Ewell notably ordered his troops’ mess equipment removed from wooden chests and put in bags for transport in the wagons: “We transport here . . . only necessary cooking utensils in bags (not chests).”(36) Major James W. Green, the Commissary of Subsistence of Kemper’s (later Terry’s) Brigade maintained a ledger that tracked the equipment used to issue rations to the men of the brigade. Along with the expected scales, liquid measures, funnels, and knives were 59 empty sacks.(37)

As the war continued into a third year and the Confederate Subsistence Department struggled to secure adequate supplies of food for troops in the field, the Confederate Congress instituted a ten percent tax-in-kind on Southern farmers in April 1863. The Quartermaster’s Department was charged with collecting goods and transferring them to the appropriate departments: food to the Subsistence Department and marketable goods to the Treasury Department. The majority of the supplies were to be collected in bags:

“The government shall be bound to furnish to the producer sacks for the delivery of such articles of grain as require to be put in sacks for transportation.”(38)

The bags used by the Quartermaster’s Department (and the Subsistence Department, once tax-in-kind food supplies were transferred to them) differed notably from those used by the U.S. Army, both in size and the manner in which they were clearly marked as Government property. The files of the Quartermaster’s Department show that both cloth and bags were transferred to the Bureau of Engineers for use in building fortifications, and several accounts from as early as July 1861 noting the use of stenciled sacks as sandbags indicate that the Confederacy began to mark their bags in the earliest days of the war.(39)

“. . . I went to work, finishing the embrasure for my piece. Bags marked ‘The Confederate States’ were filled with sand and piled up skillfully.”(40)

“The works were extensive but not strong, and it was not very clear that any cannon had ever been mounted upon them. The embrasures were lined by sand-bags, each one marked ‘The Confederate States,’ one of which inscriptions I cut out for the trophy.”(41)

Confederate bags were smaller, meant to contain one bushel (or approximately 50 pounds) as opposed to the two-bushel bags typically used by the U.S. Army. Numerous examples survive, all of which were manufactured in different sizes meant to utilize the full width of the cotton osnaburgs and ducks typically produced by Southern mills and purchased by the Government. Cloth woven at 27 inches wide was used to make shorter bags that measured about two feet wide, while cloth woven at 36 inches wide was turned into taller bags of narrower width, each accommodating the same amount of goods. Most of the bags were manufactured so as to utilize the finished selvedge of the cloth along the opening edge. Numerous stencils were used to mark them, but each bag was clearly marked “Confederate States” or “The Confederate States” to denote the bag as Government property, and different manufacturers variously used either hand or machine sewing to complete them.

FOR LIVING HISTORIANS

Understandably, the size of most living history events does not involve the quantity of rations that would necessitate their issuance from barrels. Additionally, while a number of skilled coopers still make them, the expense of proper reproduction casks with sapling hoops can be onerous. Acquiring reproduction barrels is certainly still highly recommended and adds to the living history experience, yet other proper packing materials can be acquired to add to authentic impressions. Other popular containers that have been shown to be anachronistic should be left at home.

Hard bread boxes are relatively inexpensive additions to living history scenarios, particularly for U.S. Army impressions. Few reproductions, however, include the necessary sapling bands; many have been stenciled with an improper Baltimore address for the New York-based Union Mechanical Baking Company—issues which should be corrected. Those and other proper reproduction rations boxes can be used to transport “small stores,” such as repacked bags of coffee, sugar, salt, pepper, soap, and candles as suggested by Major W. P. Martin, Commissary of Subsistence, U.S. Army. Even smaller quantities of meat, at times, can reasonably be issued in the field from bags. The fruit crates and boxes of miscellaneous sizes often used by reenactor “commissaries” should be avoided for military impressions.

While bags were used during the war, and should be used at living history programs, it is important to note that the great majority of such bags were repurposed Quartermaster’s Department property rather than Subsistence Department packing materials. The occasional giant salt sack could be useful for U.S. impressions, but most bags should be unmarked Quartermaster’s Department two-bushel grain sacks. For Confederate impressions, government property-marked one-bushel bags should be prevalent. The miniature Confederate-marked bags, U.S.-marked bags of any kind, and various bags marked for goods that were not transported in bags, all of which are regularly seen at reenactments, are best avoided at authentic programs.

Footnotes

1. Revised United States Army Regulations of 1861. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1863), 301.

2. Revised United States Army Regulations of 1861, 301.

3. Detail from “Commissary Depot, Rocky Face Ridge, Ga.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

4. Detail from “City Point, Va. Transports at wharf.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

5. Ibid, 302.

6. Detail from “Harbor – Ft. Sumpter (i.e. Sumter) in distance.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

7. Detail from “City Point, Va. Slaughter house.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

8. How to Feed an Army. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1901), 130.

9. Vandiver, Frank E., ed. Confederate Blockade Running through Bermuda, 1861-1865: Letters and Cargo Manifests. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1947.

10. “Trial of Henry Wirz.” Executive Documents Printed By Order of The House of Representatives During the Second Session of the Fortieth Congress, 1867-’68. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1868), 207.

11. “Alexander Collie, et al., vs. United States, No. 376.” British and American Claims, vol. 34. (London: Mixed Commission on British and American Claims, 1873), 8.

12. Ivy W. Duggan diary, MS 342. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries, 95.

13. Detail from “Hard Tack.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

14. Detail from “Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Camp of Captain John J. Hoff. Commissary of Subsistence.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

15. Schneider, Craig, “Biscuit Bakers and Camp Kettles: Notes on Confederate Mess Equipment.” (https://www.libertyrifles.org/research/uniforms-equipment/confederate-mess-equipment)

16. [Little Rock] Arkansas True Democrat, October 1, 1862.

17. The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, Part III, Volume 1. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1888), 41.

18. Citizen file, Bee, William C.; Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, Record Group 109: National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

19. Detail from “Headquarters Army of Potomac – Brandy Station, April 1864. Commissary storehouse.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC. Images from this series are numerous and often misidentified. This is likely the storehouse of the 50th New York Engineer Regiment near Rappahannock Station, Virginia in early 1864.

20. Detail from “City Point, Va. Army stores on wharf.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

21. Vasquez, Pedro K. O Brasil Na Fotografia Oitocentisa. (São Paulo: Metalivros, 2003).

22. Detail from “Fortifications at Manassas.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

23. How to Feed an Army, 146. Captain F. C. Ford served as a commissary officer in the 10th Corps.

24. Detail from “City Point, Va., July 5, 1864.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

25. Business file, Stuart, Buchanan & Co.; Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, Record Group 109: National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

26. Detail from “Headquarters Army of Potomac – Brandy Station, April 1864. Commissary storehouse.”

27. Detail from “Petersburg, Va. General view of the commissary department, 50th New York Engineers.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

28. Detail from “City Point, Va. Federal supplies deposited on the landing.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

29. Steamboat Bertrand Museum, DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri Valley, IA.

30. How to Feed an Army, 57.

31. Detail from “Acquia (i.e. Aquia) Creek Landing, Va.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

32. Detail from “Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside (reading newspaper) with Mathew B. Brady (nearest tree) at Army of the Potomac headquarters.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

33. How to Feed an Army, 116.

34. Ibid, 69. Captain John M. King was a commissary officer serving on the North Carolina coast.

35. Confederate States of America, Subsistence Department. “Circular: Regulations of Subsistence Department other than those already printed in Army Regulations, with date of Order.” September 9, 1862.

36. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume XII, Part III (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1885), 890.

37. Commissary Records of the 7th Virginia Infantry, Compiled by James William Green, Accession #7057-a, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, VA.

38. Congress of the Confederate States of America. “An act to lay taxes for the common defence and carry on the government of the Confederate States, approved April 24,1863.”

39. Compiled service record, William Bentley, Major; Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group 109; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

40. Cooke, John E. Wearing of the Gray; Being Personal Portraits, Scenes and Adventures of the War. (New York: E. B. Treat & Co., 1867), 405.

41. Frank Moore, ed. “The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events.” Vol. II (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1862), 328. From an article describing the capture of Confederate works near Fairfax Court House, Virginia in July 1861.

42. Courtesy of the American Civil War Museum, Richmond, VA and Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, PA.

43. Compiled service record, R. J. Echols, Major; Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group 109; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC. Echols was promoted from Captain and Assistant Quartermaster to Major and Quartermaster in the weeks prior to Gettysburg, helping to confirm the provenance of the bag and date its manufacture to late 1862 or the first several months of 1863.