Johnny Reb Campaigns - Painting Notes

Over the years I have made a number of notes on how to paint my American Civil War miniatures. Looking at them one day it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to expand on them and make them available to others.
These notes were made with regard to the painting of 15mm miniatures for the American Civil War, although the apply for any scale. Except where specifically noted, all of the information is for typical situations, specific units may have varied by time and circumstance.

Confederate / South / Rebel

Union troops were, on the whole, better equipped than Southern soldiers; and after 1861 were also significantly more uniformly attired. At the start of the war states, and sometimes individual regiments, determined the type of uniform and equipment to be carried by each soldier. This led to the variety of blues, grays, and reds seen on early war battle fields such as First Bull Run. By 1862 the Federal government generally took over the outfitting of new regiments or states outfitted their regiments to roughly conform to Federal standards.

Confederate troops were far more diverse in their uniforms and equipment. Unlike the Union, the Confederate central government never had serious control over the acquisition or distribution of uniforms and equipment to the Southern troops. While there were times when the central government issued items, each state retained both the responsibility and desire to outfit their own forces. This led not only to a notable difference in the look of the troops, but also to a serious variance in the quality and completeness of the equipment. For example, at the end of the war, when many troops were clothed in little more than rags, South Carolina, whose troops were generally well dressed, still had thousands of unissued uniforms in its warehouses.

Each side used similar headgear, although wearing it in different proportions. By the second year of the war the official field wear hat for both sides was the forage hat (commonly called the kepi, however, slouch hats were common wear by most soldiers.