Near view of a "Sibley" tent

[ca. 1861–1862]

From "War Memories" catalog: Early in the war the soldiers were much more comfortably sheltered than they were as the war progressed. This view shows a "Sibley" tent mess; these "Sibley" tents were nice large tents, and could comfortably hold from ten to fifteen men. When the Army moved up the Peninsula (from Camp Winfield Scott, before Yorktown,) early in the Spring of 1862, we bade farewell to our comfortable large tents, and thereafter each soldier carried his house on his back. From the Spring of 1862 till the end of the war we lived in "dog tents" or shelter(?) tents as the government miscalled them.