How often were English Accouterments used in the Armies of the American Civil War?

[OgreMester]

I was just curious about how often the Armies used British Imported Accouterments? I myself use the British style of Accouterments for my confederate impression as many of my fellow reenactors do as well. I was just wondering if any one had period pictures of soldiers wearing British Accouterments.

[OgreMester]

Re: How often were English Accouterments used in the Armies of the American Civil War?

sorry about my click craziness

[K Bartsch]

Re: How often were English Accouterments used in the Armies of the American Civil War?

Hi Joseph

The important thing to keep in mind is the origin of the leather accouterments worn by the unit upon which your impression is based (19th Georgia). Put another way, lets say for purposes of this discussion that 15 percent of Confederate troops wore Bristish-made accouterments. Lets also say that 80 percent of your unit was issued them. If this were true then you can see that it would be quite acceptable, and indeed desireable to use British traps. We can also see, it's not terribly relevant to know what the overall British accouterment usage was among Confederate land forces.

Generally, the folks who frequent this board strive for a plain, everyday, common (PEC) appearance -- I prefer NUG (normally, generally, generally :wink_smil .) My advice is to research the records of your unit to learn whether or not there were British accouterments likely present in any significant numbers within the ranks of the 19th GA. If not, or if it can't be determined, I'd respectfully encourage you to consider American accouterments -- of either US or CS provenance, since they tend to be more NUG in most cases.

Good luck in your research.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: How often were English Accouterments used in the Armies of the American Civil War?

Hallo Herr Joseph!

Welcome to the AC Forum!

Please review the series of postings on RESEARCHING and HOW TO RESEARCH.

With the AC Forum being "The Authentic Campaigner" website for the "Authentic Civil War Living Historian," the question you have posted is not proper or encouraged. (And is such as Trolls post to cause trouble.)

At a really basic level, the SEARCH feature on this Forum and other CW fora may have (and in this case already have) discussed or covered it. And basic reference books, such as ECHOES OF GLORY often have period images.
British accoutrement sets for Federal troops are rare, but do appear such as on some Massachusetts' units as part of 3,000 sets the state purchased.
Odds-and-ends "pieces" also appear- I am reminded the Lookout Mountain image of a company where ONE man is wearing an "Enfield snake belt."

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt
Moderator