Confederate Mess Names

The entire notion of a 'mess' as formed by most authentic groups has its roots soundly in the reality of the American CivilWar.From the moment that units formed, certain 'cliques' coalesced resulting in highly visible groups of men who ate and lived together as a team. In number these messes usually ranged from 4 to 12 men and were essentially a self-sufficient unit,always from the same company. Loyalties built up within messes created deep and lasting friendships and real esprit de corps. In the early phases of the war messes often went out of their way to signal outsiders of their identity --whether through sign posting the cabins of their Winter Quarters, or by more daily visible means as we will see in some of the quotes below:

From a letter of Private William Bull (Gorham's/Lesueur's Missouri Battery) to his mother, dated 21 May, 1862, reproduced in M. Banasik (ed.) Missouri Brothers in Gray. Camp Pope Bookshop Press. (1998), pg. 93:

We all tent and mess together and call ourselves the "Shirks." I think we have the best mess in the army. It would amuse you to look upon us some day and see us at work Ed B. is 1st Cook, Bob Young is 2nd cook, Jno. L. assistant. The rest of us do heavy work such as pitch and strike tent, get wood and water, etc. We get along finely, notwithstanding our name implies the contrary. The officers say we are the best workers in the company. We all had our hair cut off just as short as it could possibly be cut. You can imagine what queer looking objects we are, but it is very comfortable and I think I will always wear my hair so. We are all privates or cannoneers save Johnie who still has his position as Sergeant.

From a letter Sgt. James M. Williams, 21st Alabama Infantry to his wife, dated November 1861 reproduced in J.K. Fohnar (ed.) From that Terrible Field. University of Alabama Press (1981), pg.3

The red (night) caps arc the gayest and, I flatter myself the most admired of anything of the kind in camp. Mr. Turner and myself wore them constantly and some of the boys already are changing the name of our mess to the "Red Top" mess -- but we won't have it so -- we are the original and only "Pine Top Mess" and will bear no other name.

(note illustration accompanying this letter reproduced below)

In his journal of the Civil War, W.W. Heartsill of the 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles went so far as to give his entire company roll by mess. They included the following: Gilmer Mess (8 members), Coffeeville Mess (6), Cotten's Mess (5), Upshur Mess (5), Marshall Mess (Heartsill's own -- 7), Murray League Mess (5), Marion Mess (6), Doctors Mess (8), Orderly's Mess (6), Jeffereson Mess (5), Panola Mess (5), Tillery's Mess (7), Jarrott's Mess (5), The Cork Screw Mess (6), The Captain's Mess (8 --including three officers and five enlisted men), and Cush's Mess (11). (see I Bell Wiley (ed), 1400 and 91 Days in the Confederate Army, Broadfoot Reprint 1987).

It can be observed that Mess names stemmed generally from three sources of inspiration: self-effacing or informal fancy (e.g. Shirkers, Cork Screw, etc...), associated objects or 'totems' (e.g. Pine Top/Red Top), places of origin (e.g. Marshall, Panola, etc...), or the names or titles of prominent Mess members (e.g. Tillery's Mess, Captain's Mess, etc...). Nowadays we mostly see the first variety, and precious few of the other types.

There certainly remains much that can be done with historical research into the mess concept both North and South -- this is just a taster. Until then I leave you with the following from W.W. Heartsill' s Journal:

One by one the camp fires flickering light dies out, and now at 10 o'clock Marshall Mess has passed a motion by unanimous vote to go to bed, or in more appropriate language; "turn in".

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