Georgia Relief and Hospital Association Trousers

The Georgia Relief and Hospital Association (GR&HA) provided significant amounts of clothing to Georgia soldiers, distributing it at hospitals.  The GR&HA operated a clothing manufacturing depot in Augusta with a foreman-cutter and two assistant cutters. It had an issuing depot in Richmond, Virginia, where most of its production was sent for distribution.  The GR&HA reported for the period of October 20, 1862 to October 10, 1863 the following statistics.  Its clothing operation started the period with the following stock on hand: 29 coats, 224 pairs of pants, 746 shirts, 579 pairs of drawers, 363 pairs of socks and no pairs of shoes.  The GR&HA manufactured or purchased 4,952 coats, 12,217 pairs of pants, 22,938 shirts, 18,682 pairs of drawers, 5,641 pairs of socks and 6,939 pairs of shoes. It received contributions of 483 coats, 1,727 pairs of pants, 814 shirts, 991 pairs of drawers, 2,845 pairs of socks and 394 pairs of shoes.  During that year it distributed 4,492 coats (3,476 to Richmond), 10,183 pairs of pants (7,344 to Richmond), 19,320 shirts (11,182 to Richmond), 18,457 pairs of drawers (11,524 to Richmond), 7,556 pairs of socks (4,755 to Richmond) and 5,589 pairs of shoes (3,667 to Richmond).  The GR&HA ended the reporting period with the remaining stock on hand: 972 coats, 3,985 pairs of pants, 5,178 shirts, 1,795 pairs of drawers, 1,293 pairs of socks and 1,744 pairs of shoes.  The prices for each article were as follows: coats $15.00, pants $12.00, shirts $3.00, drawers $2.25, socks per pair $0.75 and shoes per pair $12.00.  The association used jeans as the basic coat and pants material, shirtings for making shirts, and both shirtings and osnaburgs for making drawers.  In addition to the clothing, the GR&HA distributed blankets, quilts and comforters, and sheets.  While Georgia soldiers in Richmond hospitals received roughly two-thirds of this bounty, other hospitals in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, the Carolinas, and Georgia received modest amounts, as well.

One example of fully provenanced clothing survives from the Georgia Relief & Hospital Association.  This is the pair of trousers that belonged to Lieutenant Hamilton Branch.  As with Hazlehurst’s Georgia Soldiers Clothing Bureau trousers, Branch’s trousers have an ink stamp on the left pocket bag: “GEO. RELF. & HOSP. ASS.”  Branch served with the 54th Georgia Infantry and was wounded during the Atlanta Campaign in July 1864.  He spent some months recuperating in Savannah and may have acquired these trousers while in the hospital.

The issuance of these trousers appears to start in the fall of 1862 through 1864, to all Georgia soldiers within the various armies of the Confederacy. It supplemented the official depot system heavily in the Army of Tennessee and Army of Northern Virginia. 

Additional historical information. 

The reproduction trousers are sewn and patterned based upon the noted surviving original above. They are made from lightly dyed wool jean and closed with bone buttons. Per the originals, there are no braces buttons or back belt. The trousers come complete with the pocket stamp.