What in darn-ation??? An Alabama cavalry trooper proudly wore socks depicting the 'Stars and Bars.' You can see them now at a state museum in Montgomery

The conserved socks in Montgomery (Alabama Archives) and an example of the First National Flag (Wikipedia)

It wasn’t enough for Alabama cavalry trooper Henry Clay Hames to have a simple pair of white socks to keep his feet warm and dry. Loved ones wanted to be sure he delivered a message, even if it was normally covered by his boots.

High up on each sock, below the ribbing, were stitched versions of the first national flag of the Confederacy, commonly known as the “Stars and Bars.”

The Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery has had the distinctive hosiery for generations. Hames’ daughter, Mary, donated them after his death in 1917. (At right, before conservation)

But it doesn’t appear they were ever displayed -- until now.

“I don’t think past curators saw the significance,” said Ryan Blocker, a curator in the museum collection of the Alabama Archives.

Blocker recalls when a comrade sent her a photo asking her to identify the small flags. The two red bars are vibrant, but the blue canton and white stars are largely indiscernible.

She recalls thinking, “’Oh God, that is a first national flag. These are patriotic socks made by family and sent to him.’”

It’s unclear who darned the socks or when Hames – who may have been a courier -- received the items. (Photo above and at left from Alabama Archives)

While they reflect defiance, the socks don’t hold a candle to known examples of socks made for Union soldiers that feature the U.S. flag up high and Confederate flags on the heel. You know, being trampled. You can see examples here and here.

Hames served in the 8^th Regiment, Alabama Cavalry (Livingston’s) and Moses’ Cavalry, Alabama Cavalry.

The socks -- made of either wool or cotton -- went on display last month after the Museum of Alabama reopened after months of renovation and upgrades.

The pair is in a home-front exhibit case in the “Alabama Voices” gallery, which features numerous Civil War artifacts.

(I will write a post soon about technology upgrades to the gallery. For now, let me just say visitors can touch what is called a digital label to pore over closeup photos and information about artifacts.)

The agency in early November also opened a new gallery entitled “Alabama Military Stories," which covers multiple wars.

Blocker said Hames’ socks were recently conserved. “They are such a fascinating piece.”

Although the blue canton has faded, faint traces survive, she said. “As for the stars, it looks like they were embroidered onto the canton area. Some of them only have a little of the thread left.”

The curator sent me a photo (right) showing where she tried to pinpoint the remaining stars, which are in a circle. “Could there have been more stars? Possibly. When these rotate off display, I hope to have (textiles expcert) Terre Hood Biederman examine them in person and give us a breakdown of the construction.”

Hames grew up in Troup County, Ga., on the Alabama border.

While he is believed to have enlisted as a private in 1863, I have not learned where that occurred (perhaps Virginia) or why he joined up with Alabama units.

Hames lived in West Point, Ga., before and after the war. His first wife, Fannie (or Fanny), and his daughter, Mary, died in 1882, He remarried in 1893 to Sarah “Sallie” Samples and they moved to Montgomery.

He died there in 1917, age 72, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. (Photo left, courtesy Bham85, Findagrave)

Some records on Hames are puzzling, according to Blocker. His pension application lists the 9^th Mississippi Cavalry but Fold3 and other records do not show him serving in the regiment.

Records indicate Moses’ Squadron was supposed to join the 9^th Mississippi Cavalry, but the order didn’t come to fruition because of the end of the Civil War. The soldier was 20 years old.

“It had been carried out to some extent, I believe, for Hames to have listed the 9th as his company of service in his pension application,” Blocker said in an email.

Revisiting an old shirt and a very young Civil War soldier: Museum's Confederate and civil rights artifacts showcase the breadth of Alabama's history

Over this blog’s 15 years, I’ve written about myriad items belonging to Civil War soldiers and sailors – from swords, hats and frock coats to journals, letters and Bibles.

While each resonated in its own way, one item especially stands out to me. It’s the homespun, brown-and-white checked shirt made for a skinny teen boy from Demopolis, Alabama. 

The time and care that went into making it showed that Henry Winston Reese Jr. was dearly loved by his prosperous family. (Click photo to enlarge)

I researched Reese for a February 2016 post. I learned the University of Alabama student joined the Confederate army without his parents’ permission and died, barely 17, from wounds received two months earlier at the Battle of Champion Hill (Mississippi, May 1863).

Living historian and weaver Terre Hood Biederman and Ryan M. Blocker, a curator in the museum collection of the Alabama Archives, were among those who spoke with me about Reese and the shirt, a homemade product demonstrating Southern resolve.

I’ve since heard from a couple descendants, including one who said her family tries to keep the names Reese and Winston going.

The garment, along with Reese’s boots (below, both photos courtesy Alabama Archives), remain on display at the Alabama Voices gallery at the Museum of Alabama in Montgomery. A pouch, also donated by the family to the Alabama Department of Archives and History in 1978, has been kept in storage.

Alabama Voices cover’s the breadth of the state’s history, including the Civil War, industrialization, the world wars and civil rights (more about that later).

It’s a near certainty that Reese was not wearing the shirt -- which is likely made from cotton, rather than wool -- when he was mortally wounded while fighting with the 31st Alabama Infantry. But it somehow survived. Curators don’t know whether the shirt was made by a family member or an enslaved person.

Reese's father, a physician, had more than 100 slaves, according to the 1850 U.S. Census, and his growing family lived in a Gothic Revival home called Forest Hill on the outskirts of Demopolis.

Winston Reese was the first of a half dozen children born to the doctor and his wife, Julia, who died a year after the Civil War ended.

I recently reached out to Blocker to ask whether she has learned anything more about Reese or his family. She has not. (Incidentally, I have been unable to obtain an image of Reese.)

I asked Blocker about the significance of artifacts like the shirt.

“They help us understand and humanize, if you will, the people who lived long ago. A mother makes a shirt for her oldest child who is attending school away from home,” she replied in a recent email.

“Her son, an impulsive and idealistic teenager … goes against the wishes of his parents and joins the army," said Blocker. "Stories like this are played out time and time again, even in modern times. With this shirt, we get a glimpse of the lives of those who came before. In that glimpse, we realize that we are not that different.”

The shirt was likely made from cotton (Courtesy Terre Hood Biederman)

The shirt features rounded pockets, a French cut and purple and white glass buttons. Untold hours went into picking, washing and carding and spinning the dyed fiber. Then came the arduous tasks of weaving the fabric on a large loom and hand sewing the pieces.

While similar battle shirts worn by soldiers were commonly made of wool, this shirt reflects the concept of homespun as a patriotic statement, asserting that the South could stand alone in producing its needs, Biederman told me this week.

“It is fashionably cut, made for a teen living in the comfort of a college dormitory, not a soldier sleeping rough, and thus is likely made of cotton,” she wrote in an email. “The shirt has been on exhibit since this question was raised, and not available for analysis.”

Artifacts belonged to other Confederate soldiers

The gallery’s Civil War section contains numerous artifacts. Blocker said the story of an Alabama-made sword belonging to 1^st Sgt. Socrates Spigener is among those especially compelling. The soldier was born in 1844 in Coosa County and joined Hilliard’s Legion, which became the 59^th Alabama

Spigener was killed in Virginia days before the end of the Civil War.

“His sword was picked up from the battlefield and sent home to the family,” said Blocker. (Photos: Alabama Archives)

The family wrote a tribute and pasted it to the scabbard (click photo above to read): "This was the sword of Socrates Spigener, the baby child of Joel and Sylvia Spigener. He was Lieut. in the Confederate War of 1862. He fought bravely and was killed in battle near Petersburg, about the 6th of April 1865.”

Blocker said the archives also has a rare red artillery kepi and its original oil cloth cover.

The cap belonged to 1^st Lt. Maynard Hassell, State Artillery Company A, Garrity’s Battery. Hassell was born in 1831 in New York and moved to Lowndes County, Ala., at a young age. He enlisted in 1861.

The officer was killed by a cannonball at Lovejoy Station in Georgia in summer 1864. He was awarded the Confederate Roll of Honor for his “courage and good conduct on the field of battle.” 

Hassell's kepi and oil cloth cover (Alabama Archives)

The lieutenant's personal belongings were sent to the family after Hassell was killed in battle, Blocker said.

“The kepi was sent to us, along with a small journal, in 2013 as we were completing work on the Voices gallery,” said Blocker. “The gentleman that donated the material was a descendant of Hassell and wanted to make sure the material was returned to Alabama.”

The journal is not a daily notation of his personal experiences; rather, it has extensive notes about payments to soldiers, battles fought and munitions used during the battles.

The struggle for civil rights played out in Alabama

While Hassell, Reese and Spigener fought to keep the status quo of antebellum society, the Alabama Voices gallery includes artifacts that tell the story of the long struggle for equal rights among Black citizens.

Blocker said one of her favorite such items is a collection box from Hall Street Baptist Church in Montgomery. Founded in 1903, the church played an integral role in the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott by purchasing a station wagon to transport members to and from work and other appointments.

Another standout is a chair and vanity stool from the Selma home of Jean Jackson and her husband, D. Sullivan Jackson, a dentist. (Collection box, chair and stool left, Alabama Archives)

“Dr. Martin Luther King stayed with the Jacksons and made their home his headquarters during his visits to Selma. Dr. King and Ralph Abernathy, used the chair and vanity to put on their shoes for the march to Montgomery. They were photographed seated in the Jackson’s living room in the Ebony magazine displayed on the stool,” said Blocker.

Other items in the gallery include a Billy club used by a Birmingham police officer, a Ku Klux Klan robe, shoes worn by Gov. George Wallace when he was shot in 1972 during his presidential campaign  and photographs of notable Alabamians, including entertainer Lionel Richie and professional athlete Bo Jackson.

The Alabama Voices Gallery is located on the second floor of the Alabama Department of Archives and History building in downtown Montgomery, 624 Washington Ave. The museum is open open Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CT. Here is a schedule of gallery closures for renovations.