After five years in grade, surgeons, paymasters and chief engineers ranked with commanders, and for the first five years with lieutenant commanders. Another reason for the issuance of a new uniform order was the granting of relative rank to certain commissioned civil officers, who previously had no form of rank, and the modification of the relative rank of medical officers, paymasters (pursers until 1860) and engineers.īy a “General Order” dated 13 March 1863, Fleet Surgeons, Paymasters and Engineers and other officers in these departments who had had more than fifteen years in the senior ranks of these corps, were to rank with captains of the Line. The Navy had expanded greatly and many of the officers and men were the volunteers so badly needed to supplement the comparatively small regular Navy of 1861 when the war began. Changes had taken place after the modifications of 1862, so a new complete order was needed to provide a better understanding of what uniforms, insignia and rank designations were to be worn.

The instruction of 1862 was but a modification of the 1852 order, not a new regulation. There are some controversies about some of the exact details of a few of the uniforms since some of the records were lost or destroyed after the Civil War ended.The Regulations for the Uniform of the Navy of the United States, approved by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles on 28 January 1864, finally brought all the changes to the 1852 instruction up to date. and Confederate dead or just wear civilian clothing.

These were worn as late as 1863.Įarly on, servicemen sometimes wore combinations of uniform pieces, making do with what they could get from captured United States Army soldiers, or from U.S.

blue uniforms, which were acquired after Confederate forces captured a U.S. Texas units, for example, had access to massive stocks of U.S. The uniform initially varied greatly due to a variety of reasons such as location and limitations on the supply of cloth and other materials, State regulations that were different from the standard regulations, and the cost of materials during the war.

Confederate States armed forces had their own service dress and fatigue uniforms An 1895 illustration showing the uniforms of the Confederate army contrasted with those of the U.S.

Civil war navy button anchor wreath