Hi Steve,

I don't have immediate access to my notes, but I know you're definitely confusing the "3 Months" and "3 Years" incarnations of the units you mentioned.

For example, the 10th Indiana (3 Months) was issued "light blue jeans suits" in late May 1861; however, another entry in the 1863 Indiana QMG's report indicates the regiment also received at least some "gray" uniforms. The 10th IVI first received "gray" uniforms with "black facings" upon its reorganization as a 3 Years regiment in September 1861. Even more confusing, the 10th IVI thereafter received "blue kersey" jackets and trousers on 17 November 1861 after it deployed to Kentucky (source for this is a Louisville AQM telegram to Indiana state authorities). These were presumably worn at the Battle of Mill Springs (19 January 1862). To top things off, a least part of the regiment then received trousers "of a sky blue" in mid-February while it was still encamped at Mill Springs KY. Dark blue jackets were still being worn through the Corinth Campaign, since an image of Private Samuel McIlvaine, Company D, wearing one of these can be precisely dated to 3 May 1862 based on one of his diary entries.

Now to address your question, I suspect the 8th IVI also received blue jackets as well as dark and/or light blue trousers when it reorganized pursuant to its deployment to Missouri in September 1861. By this time, a Regular Army QM had arrived in Indianapolis and was setting up a QM depot operation. One of the Indianapolis papers (I believe it was the "Journal") mentioned that a certain amount of Federal-issue clothing had already arrived by the end of August 1861 and that it, too, was blue. The 32nd (German) Indiana was also organized at the same time as the 8th IVI and "Harper's Illustrated" woodcuts, dating to November/December 1861, show a number of its men also wearing jackets and forage caps.

If you haven't done so, you might want to review the Regimental Correspondence File for the 8th IVI, which is available on microfilm through the Indiana State Archives. This might provide clues although, as a rule, the RCF's usually contain mostly routine administrative items. A look through the Oliver P. Morton Telegraph Books may also provide leads, since that's where I found important info about the 10th Indiana's uniforms. If you're really adventurous, then a trip to the National Archives to look through, among other things, the regimental order and clothing books for the 8th IVI may also be in order.

You may also want to take a look at "Todd's Military Equipage" (Vol. II - State Forces), which may be of help as well although you need to be careful: much of the research is 40-50 years old and is often now, at best, debatable or even flat-out wrong.

I do have some other informatio that may be of assistance to you, so feel free to contact me privately at markj@purdue.edu

Regards,

Mark Jaeger