Too clean!

Didn't someone remark that Hudson's character spent most of his money outfitting his men?

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Langdon did remark that he had outfitted the unit and a lot of the commanding officers who had the money then did that. I think that is often why a lot of the units got the name of their commanders such as Landon's Regiment etc.

Most westerns at that time had not evolved to the standards today of expecting period accuracy in dress and grooming that today's westerns have. The western has certainly improved from the 50's when it seemed like the actors were cleanshavene and had their daily dose of Brill Cream. John Wayne could carry a western without such lack of attention to detail would not fly today. I think in The Shootist there was more attention paid to detail than most of the other. Rock Hudson was good but I wish James Arness had been in it. I that being annnounced when The Undefeated was being produces that Jaames Arness would going to to it.

Actually, while the south did indeed suffer
material shortages, the "ragged rebel" image is largely a myth. The Union blockade was more of a symbol than a practical deterent to the fast and elusive southern ships called "blockade runners". They managed to smuggle new uniforms made in Europe into the south even late in the war. Additionally, wool is easy to clean and very durable. Rebel uniforms were rarely "uniform" (one officer wrote thay they were more "multiforms"), giving rise to the dirty/ragged story, but disicipline and unit pride
would have ensured that Hudson's men would have cleaned their uniforms before Sunday inspections.