Logwood

Before the advent of synthetic fiber's (initially introduced in the early 1900s), all fabric for clothing and home fashion was made from natural fibers. Flax, cotton, wool, and silk are the four largest natural fibers that were widely used and are thought to date back to 3000 - 5000BC.

Natural fiber	Estimated date
Flax	5000+ BC
Cotton	3000-5000 BC
Wool	3000 BC
Silk	2600 BC

http://www.fabriclink.com/University/History.cfm

One of the steps involved in fabric making is call weaving. This method involves interlacing a set of vertical threads (called the warp) with a set of horizontal threads (called the weft). This is done on a machine known as a loom. The result would be cloth that could be either of a plain weave or in decorative design depending upon how the loom was dressed and the skill level of the weaver.

By using a specific method of weaving and the choice of a certain yarn, fabric can be woven to different types, such as broadcloth, corduroy, osnaburg, etc.

The most commonly used natural fibers in Confederate military clothing are wool and cotton. In general, the cloth could be made of 100% wool, 100% cotton, or wool-cotton mixed. 100% wool means that both warp yarn and weft yarn are wool. 100% cotton means that both warp yarns and weft yarns are cotton, and last, wool-cotton mixed means that both the warp and weft use a different yarn. In this case, it used cotton yarn as the warp, and the wool yarn as the weft.

Below are the examples of confederate military cloths based on the above description's:

Wool-wool (100% wool): broadcloth and kersey
Cotton-cotton (100% cotton): osnaburg and cotton drill
Wool-cotton: jeans cloth, satinette, and cassimere.

by Fenny Hanes

Picture 1.
Warp and weft in plain weaving
http://en.wikipedia.org