First off, let me say everything I said in my previous article on painting Federals concerning figure positions, unit sizes, and making units look like they've been in the field, apply equally to Confederate regiments. What I would like to concentrate on in this article is the appearance of units. One of the hardest things to do is to get a unit that looks good on the table and looks realistic. There are three things to take into account concerning a unit's appearance: theme (in other words, a basic uniform color and general appearance), unit origin, and the time frame in which you are working.

The theme has two purposes: it makes the unit look better, and more realistic. When I first started painting, I'd heard the many stories of how ragged the Confederates looked and how poor the Southern supply system was. As a result of these stories, I would choose up to ten shades of gray for a single regiment, along with numerous colors for blanket rolls. The result was a cacophony of color that still makes me shudder. Of course, I was ten at the time, so there was really little chance of any masterpieces.

In reality, all soldiers of a unit would have received their first issue of clothing at the same time. Initially a unit would have been fairly uniform, with its appearance growing more ragged over time. To simulate this, a single shade of gray (or butternut later in the war) should be chosen and used for the majority of the figures in the unit. Perhaps eighty percent of the coats and sixty percent of the pants (they wore out faster) should be painted in this color, the rest varying slightly in color. Then, throw is some civilian and captured Union trousers and the regiment is complete. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, such as early in the war (which will be covered later), and the units in the far west, which wore no uniform at all. For the far western units, anything goes, but the colors should be kept muted, as few people wore anything terribly gaudy at the time.

To help you decide on the theme of your unit, you should take its origin and current location into account. This can be done in several ways. If the unit is stationed in the Deep South, then shirts, straw hats, and a large proportion of white cotton trousers, are the uniform items I would choose. If the unit is a part of the Army of Tennessee, there will be a higher percentage of troops wearing butternut; if the unit is part of the Army of Northern Virginia, I would include more troops in gray and a higher percentage of kepis.

The unit's origin can be taken into account in several ways. If the unit is from the upper states along the Atlantic Seaboard (Virginia, South Carolina, or North Carolina), I give the unit more kepis than I would if the unit were from the western interior of the Confederacy (Tennessee, Mississippi, or Alabama). If the unit is from the Deep South (the Gulf Coast), it ends up with more straw hats. One of the prominent examples of this classification of troops is represented by the state of North Carolina. During the war, the state set up its own clothing factories, which it used to make uniforms that it would only issue to North Carolina troops. The Confederates imported cloth and uniforms as well as making their own, so there would be many variations. But since all my units are from one army and all based around the same time frame, I feel they should have a basic uniform color. In other instances, the Tarheels should probably be better clothed than units from other states in the same army.

Finally, you must consider what part of the war your unit is from. I've broken this down into four time frames:

1861 to early 1862
Early 1862 to late 1862
1863
Early 1864 to the end of the war.
The Butternut Question examines Confederate use of the color butternut in uniforms.

Some Hints on Painting Federals

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