Итак, я нашел по поводу униформы: http://www.history-of-american-wars.com/civil-war-uniforms.html

Гляньте раздел The Ragged Rebel Myth, где "развенчивают" миф о том, что у конфедератов не было нормальной формы. :)

Serious researchers have concluded that the Confederate records reveal facts to the contrary. Their conclusion, based on their studies, is that the image helped explain their ultimate defeat--plausible denial. It was not that they were ultimately beaten in battle; not that their strategies failed; not their generals were fallible. The rationale for the loss was first explained in the southerners oral history of the war as a defeat predicated on limited resources (as described above) and portrayed by the image of "Johnny Reb" in tattered rags. They produced a pictorial history that heavily relied upon the images of the dead Confederate soldier whose uniform always reflected a tattered appearance.

Если вкратце, то, банально, обе стороны старались использовать этот миф: северяне, чтобы показать "дикарство" южан, а южане, чтобы оправдать поражение "недостатком ресурсов", который также в этой статье опровергается. Такие вот хрестоматийные мифы.