John and George Gibson, House Carpenters and Builders – Providers of Buttons for the Richmond Clothing Bureau

By Richard M. Milstead, Ph.D.

Author’s Note: The story of the wooden buttons of John and George Gibson was first told in an essay written by researcher James M. Schruefer for his web site “Blue and Gray Marching” in 2012. Unfortunately, this site is no longer operational, and the story has now become somewhat obscured. Mr. Schruefer and fellow researcher, Jon Bocek, also first uncovered much of the period pictorial evidence of their use as well as examples of original buttons and clothing retaining them in several public collections. This article is an update and expansion of their groundbreaking research on these fascinating artifacts of the American Civil War. – RMM

Introduction

By 1848 Brothers John and George Gibson, Scottish Immigrants, had established a House Carpentry and Building business in Richmond on the north side of Main Street between 9th and 10th streets. In 1856 their advertisement in the City Business Directory indicated that they had moved their shop to a new (and larger) location in Richmond at the north corner of Cary street and 6th and described services they provided for prospective customers.(1) The advertisement showing their establishment and their services is shown in Figure 1.

They were again listed in the 1860 Business Directory for the city.(2) By early 1861 the Gibsons had also added a saw mill on Mayo’s Island to their holdings to supply lumber and other wood for their building and house carpentry business.(3)

With the secession of Virginia in 1861 and opening of hostilities with the United States, the Gibsons, like many small and large businesses, began working for the new administration and the state government to provide needed supplies and manufactured goods.

Button, Button, they made Buttons

During the war years, the Gibson brothers’ enterprise spanned many diverse carpentry jobs and wooden products manufactured for the Confederate government and its Army. However, arguably the most notable contribution by the shop to the war effort was an unusual product made for the Richmond Clothing Bureau (RCB), wooden buttons. Between the years of 1862 and 1865, John and George Gibson, “House Carpenters and Builders,” became a preeminent domestic supplier of buttons used on the RCB produced clothing and shelter tents provided to the Army. In the process, their output has, today, become something of a “Rosetta Stone” for the attribution of the products of the RCB by modern collectors and students of the material culture of the Civil War.

It is unclear from the records exactly how the Gibsons became engaged in the button making business. It is possible that they approached Richard Waller, commander of the RCB, with a proposal or that he, knowing their versatility, came to them.(4) The earliest surviving contract between the firm and the RCB is dated 17 October 1862 and called for them to produce “six thousand gross wood buttons at two dollars per gross within the next three months.” (Figure 2)(5) The first delivery record against this contract occurred on 18 November 1862, about one month later. The last delivery appears to have been on 7 March 1863. With that, a total of 6387 gross or 919,728 buttons had been delivered. The original contract specified only one button type (probably for jackets) at a single price per gross.

A follow-up contract, dated 2 March 1863, specified three different sizes of buttons to be supplied, i.e. large, medium, and small. (Figure 3)(6) Furthermore, each size had a different cost per gross. It is suspected that the first button production run satisfied the RCB staff, so they requested the medium (pant) and small (shirt) sizes also be made. The first delivery of three different sizes was 14 March, one week after the last single size delivery and only 11 days after the second contract was signed.

Two more known contracts were made with the RCB one on 19 June 1863 for 10,000 gross (2500 jacket, 5000 pant, 2500 shirt size) buttons and one on 11 December 1863 for 50,000 gross (15,000 jacket, 15,000 pant, 20,000 shirt size) buttons. Based upon these contracts, all told the RCB ordered a total of 36,000 gross jacket (large size) buttons, 27,500 gross pant (medium size), and 22,500 gross shirt (small size) buttons. This represents a total of 12,384,000 individual buttons. A search of the J & G Gibson Company records in the NARA Confederate Citizen’s files produced actual delivery records for a significantly higher number, however. Between the first delivery in November 1862 and the last recorded one in January 1865, the RCB received 4,173,984 jacket buttons, 4,708,080 pant buttons, and 4,627,440 shirt buttons for a total of 13,509,504 wooden buttons made in the Gibson’s shop.(7)

Gibson Buttons in Period Photographs

Many soldiers had photographs made of themselves in uniform for loved ones at home. Additionally, photographers of the day often documented the aftermath of battles through images of the deadly carnage left in their wake. These pictures provide evidence of their clothing in the field, how it was worn, and even the details of its construction which yield insights for the material cultural historian.

Ample evidence of use of wooden buttons made in the Gibsons’ shop on Confederate clothing manufactured by the RCB appears in many period images. Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are just a few of many that show Richmond Depot type II jackets (circa 1862 through 1864) with wooden buttons made by the Gibsons’ shop.

Some of the most significant photographic evidence for clothing with Gibson buttons in Lee’s Army is found in Library of Congress photographs of Confederate dead. Images of what are believed to be dead members of Brigadier General Paul Semmes’s Georgia Brigade were taken in the Rose Farm area by Alexander Gardner on 5 July 1863 two days after the battle of Gettysburg. The photograph in Figure 9 is one of 10 different shots in the Library of Congress collection he made of a group of Confederate dead collected for burial following the battle.(9) As can be seen, closeups of individuals clearly show RD jackets with Gibson buttons.

Another photograph from the Library of Congress taken at Ft. Mahone on 3 April 1865 by Thomas C. Roche shows a dead Confederate soldier in the trenches after the successful assault by Federal IX Corps on the preceding day (Figure 10).

A closeup shot of the top of this soldier’s pants (which are RCB made) shows both pant size buttons used for both the waist band closure and as suspender buttons as well as a shirt size button for fly closure (Figure 11).

Surviving Original Richmond Clothing Bureau Products with Gibson Buttons.

Based upon production numbers, Gibson buttons must have been fairly ubiquitous on Confederate soldier’s clothing issued in Virginia in the second half of the war. An interesting relic in the extensive collection of Michael D. Kramer, shows that at least one Union soldier found them notable enough to have taken several as souvenirs in the closing days in the conflict which he attached to a card as a keepsake. This card has one example of each size and a short description inscribed on it (Figure 12). From the inscription, this soldier, being familiar with “brass” military and other metal buttons predominant on Federal issue clothing, apparently was quite intrigued by the “handmade” wooden ones on a dead Rebel’s uniform. Little did he suspect these were representatives of over 13.5 million made by John and George Gibson during the conflict.

Seven surviving garments made by the RCB retain some of their original, as issued Gibson buttons. Furthermore, one Confederate made shelter half displays these buttons (jacket size) attached in its construction.(10) Their presence strongly corroborates RCB origin when combined with provenance, pattern, fabrics, and construction. That is, Gibson buttons are a key factor in their identification as “RCB made” even when one or more of the other elements could be equivocal.

Four surviving jackets retain one or more of their original Gibson buttons. Three are RD type II examples and one a RD type III.(9) The earliest is the Thomas D. Vrendenburg jacket, currently in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Collection in Springfield, Ill. Presence of Gibson buttons suggests that the jacket couldn’t have been made before November of 1862 when the shop’s button production started. While the exact date Vrendenburg received it is unknown, given the timing of the Vicksburg campaign, the jacket must have been produced no later than early in the second quarter of 1863. As such, it likely represents an exceedingly early example documenting use Gibson buttons.

Another jacket is in the Fifth Maine Regiment Museum collection on Peaks Island, Maine and was “collected” as a souvenir by Captain Fred G. Sanborn at the battle of Spotsylvania, May 1864. After the war it was displayed in the Regimental meeting hall along with other mementos of the regiment’s service donated by its veterans. The jacket is a very well-preserved example of a late RD type II made from imported English woolen fabric. It retains all eleven original Gibson buttons which are still attached with undisturbed, original thread.

A closely related jacket worn by Joseph Woods Brunson, a soldier in the Pee Dee Light Artillery of South Carolina, is in the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum collection in Columbia South Carolina. Virtually identical in pattern to the Fifth Maine Museum jacket and is also made of imported English woolen fabric. This example shows considerably more in service “wear and tear” and only retains one of the eleven original Gibson buttons it had when issued.

The one RD type III with original Gibson buttons belonged to William Pilcher who served with the Otey Battery (Co. A 13th Battalion Virginia Light Artillery). Considering its excellent condition, he may have obtained it when he was released from Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond on 14 January 1865 and wore it until his surrender with Lee’s Army.(11) The jacket retains eight of its original Gibson buttons. However, they are the pant (medium) size rather than the jacket (large) size as found on the Vrendenburg, Fifth Maine Museum, and Brunson examples.

In addition to jackets, examples of other clothing and equipage retaining original Gibson buttons survive.(12) A pair of Richmond Depot pants in the Atlanta History Center (AHC) Collection along with a jacket (not RD) were taken as souvenirs from a Confederate warehouse in Dublin Virginia at the time of its destruction on 9 May 1864 by First Sergeant Reuben B. Taylor of Company E, 14th West Virginia Infantry.(12) Their actual production date is difficult to determine. In any case, given the date of the raid, they could not have been produced after the second quarter of 1864.(14) They still retain several original Gibson wooden buttons, in both the pants and shirt sizes. Of the seven pant size buttons originally on them when manufactured, four Gibson buttons have survived along with three later (20th Century?) wooden replacements. Of the six shirt size Gibson buttons originally present, only the two for the pocket flaps have survived. Four bone “button reinforcements” (thin 2-hole discs used to reinforce attachment of coat buttons in civilian garments) have been substituted at some point for the original fly buttons. All the buttons have been reattached in later non-period thread, possibly as part of the conservation activities.

A pair of drawers and a shirt owned by Henry Hollyday, a private in the 2nd Maryland Infantry, is part of an ensemble of uniform artifacts now in the collection of Michael D. Kramer. Hollyday is believed have received them as part of a clothing issue arranged by Maryland Confederate sympathizers in March 1865.(15) Both the drawers and the shirt are believed to be products of the RCB as both retain their original Gibson buttons, all of which are secured with undisturbed, original thread. The drawers have three of four “pant” size buttons, one at each cuff and one for the fly closure. Only the one at the waist band is missing. On the shirt, all its “shirt” size buttons are in place, one on each cuff, one at the collar, and two on the placket. Shirts with provenance supporting issue by the Quartermaster’s Department are rare. Those which also share attribution to a specific Confederate clothing bureau even more so. The presence of Gibson “shirt” buttons on the Hollyday shirt, therefore, makes it perhaps unique in that they almost certainly identify it as being RCB made.

By early 1862, tents were being manufactured by James T. Butler & Company of Richmond under contract to the QM department. In spring of 1864, Butler & Co. began to produce shelter tents similar to ones issued to Federal soldiers at the direction of Major William Bentley, QM officer responsible for production of all tents. By the end of the war Butler & Co, had produced at least 27, 120 of these shelter tents.(16) Based upon the one surviving shelter tent example, Gibson buttons were supplied for use on the shelter tents Butler & Co. made for the Quartermaster Department. This tent, owned by Private Alfred May of the 61st North Carolina Infantry, is in the collection of the North Carolina Museum of History and retains all its original large (jacket) Gibson buttons.

Final Thoughts

It is hard to calculate the impact John and George Gibson had on the Confederate war effort. Certainly, the production of 13.5 million buttons used by Richmond Quartermasters to supply clothing for the Army was no small accomplishment and many uniforms bearing them were worn the field. However, the Confederacy had other domestic button makers and hundreds of thousands of buttons were run through the blockade that were also used on clothing worn by Confederates in the field. The fact that soldiers often replaced the wooden buttons on their jackets with more “military” appearing brass buttons (e.g. state seal) indicates that while functional, they were not necessarily cherished by the rank and file. However, the work of the two Scottish immigrant carpenters, John and George Gibson, together with the buttons they made perhaps has more importance today, 155 years later, for material culture historians studying Confederate Quartermaster uniform production and the companies that enabled it.

Endnotes

1. William L. Montague, The Richmond Directory and Business Advertiser, Richmond, VA. (W.L. Montague, 1855).

2. Richmond City Business Directory 1860, Richmond, VA (W. Eugene Ferslew, 1860).

3. Richmond Daily Dispatch, Richmond VA. (Cowardin & Hammersley Publishers, 1861) 11 April 1861. It is not known when this mill was established but in an article reporting on severe storms in the Richmond area the previous day it states, “The weather, yesterday, was rainy and disagreeable, and business generally in the city, of all sorts and descriptions, rather inactive in consequence. James River, at this point, has within the past two days risen six or eight feet. The water continued to rise yesterday. Mayo 's island, at the south of the toll-bridge, was nearly covered, though we believe none of the lumber owned by Masseurs John and George Gibson, who have a saw-mill thereon, was lost owing to timely precautionary measures.”

4. Some possible indication of the RCB’s active interest in the use of wooden buttons prior to the Gibson contracts is found in invoiced wooden button deliveries received seven months earlier between 24 and 28 March 1862 from Rankin & Faithfull, a Richmond purveyor of other goods to the government (mostly riding spurs). Over that 4-day period, Waller received shipments of 87 gross (12,528) of wooden buttons from the firm. No further such purchases from this vendor or any other have been found prior to the first Gibson contract so It is possible that this may have been a “trial run” of the acceptability of wooden buttons for use in army garments before more extensive production contracts were negotiated. Rankin and Faithfull, Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, M346 Roll 0838, WDCCR, RG 109, NARA

5. John and Geo. Gibson, Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, Microfilm Publication M346 Roll 0347, War Department Collection of Confederate Records (WDCCR), Record Group (RG) 109, National Achieves and Records Administration, Washington D.C. (NARA).

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. W.A. Frassanito, Gettysburg a Journey in Time, Charles Schribner’s Sons (New York 1975), p199

9. Strictly speaking tentage including shelter halves were not products of the RCB but rather were made under contract and issued from the Richmond Depot. Major William Bentley who over saw the finished goods warehouse operation in Richmond for the QM Department also was responsible for camp equipage including tents. See Fly Tents and Shelter Halves: Confederate Tent Production in Richmond by Craig Schneider.

10. Richard Milstead, Richmond Depot Jackets – Characteristics, Anomalies, and Myths…”, Liberty Rifles Website, https://www.libertyrifles.org/research/uniforms-equipment/richmond-jackets, 2008 The Fifth Maine Museum jacket, Joseph Brunson jacket, and the William Pilcher jacket were members of the study group. The Vrendenburg jacket was among a group of probable RCB made jackets shown but not included in the study. It is, however, examined in depth in the author’s forthcoming work Richmond Depot Clothing – Volume II – Characteristics and Anomalies.

11. Service Record William Pilcher, Compiled Service Records for Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Virginia, M324 Roll 0236, WDCCR, RG 109, NARA. Soldiers in both armies often received new items of clothing before returning to duty after treatment for wounds or illness in the hospital to replace worn ones discarded while recuperating. Records in the Confederate files indicate large transfers of new clothing to special agents or AQM’s who provided the Richmond hospitals with stocks for this purpose.

12. Richard Milstead, Richmond Depot Clothing – Volume II – Characteristics and Anomalies. (unpublished manuscript in progress).

13. Richard Milstead, “Labors or the Loom - Domestic Woolen Fabric Production for the Confederate Richmond Clothing Bureau, 1861-1865”, MC&H, Vol 72, No. 3, Fall 2020, 271-287.

14. These pants have extensive staining and were modified at some point to remove the adjustment belt in the back. The waist band stitching has broken and been restored in modern conservation activities. All buttons were reattached possibly as part of the same conservation. The jacket is not a RCB product and also has had significant conservation, particularly to stabilize large missing areas in the outer shell fabric and cotton lining. These do not appear to be insect damage but are rents and holes from use. The nature of the wear suggests that these may have been condemned clothing collected at the Dublin Depot for some reason rather than damage due to post war usage by Taylor or someone else of unissued clothing taken from the Depot during the raid. See also Richard Milstead, “ ‘Wytheville Depot’ Jackets – Fact or Fiction”; Liberty Rifles web site, section on Uniforms & Equipment Research, www.libertyrifles.org/research/uniforms-equipment/wythville-depot, for additional discussion.

15. Ross M. Kimmel, “Enlisted Uniforms of the Confederate Infantry: A Case Study”, MC&H, Volume XLI No.4, Fall & Winter 1989.

16. Craig Schneider, Fly Tents and Shelter Halves: Confederate Tent Production in Richmond, Liberty Rifles web site, section on Uniforms & Equipment Research, www.libertyrifles.org/research/uniforms-equipment/confederate-tents, May 2017.