Jean Cloth Union forage cap

[BCIDick]

Re: Jean Cloth Union forage cap

How about those Zouave outfits? Oooooh let's not go there.:wink_smil

Bob Firth
Awkward Squad Mess

[Slouch]

Re: Jean Cloth Union forage cap

I believe all Federal impressions need a good issue shirt. However, I feel "civilian" shirts are equally as good to have. Countless Federal soldiers wrote about how horrible the issue shirts were against the skin. Why would anyone presume that Confederates recieved goods from home but not Federals? Further, look at the thousands of cotton shirts provided by the USSC and USCC.

Just recently I read of a Federal soldier requesting a home-made dark blue sack coat from home...and he received it. Im not saying everyone should have home-made sack coats, just making a point about clothing from home.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Jean Cloth Union forage cap

Hallo!

IMHo...
When EVERY man in a company is wearing something DIFFERENT in terms of uniform, accoutrements, gear, and arms- no TWO men look like they belong in the same company- and does not take into acccount what is researched and documented for that unit, time, and place- which takes into account such varied elements as:

1. How close, or far, the unit is to its initial "outfitting" in time.
2. The nature of the service such as a brutal marches or protracted campaigns
3. The strictness or laxity of the commanding officer
4. Druthers, fads, fashions, and experiences learned by veterans as to to maximize/optimize/comfortize their clothing and gear, and how to "personalize" to themselves what the Government issued or they procurred on the side to supplement that (say shirts or socks from home, the rarer excpetion of "private purchase" for those lads who could afford such and had access to such).
5. Random mix elelments like destroyed or decimated units broken up and reformed into larger new configurations.

While "universal" statements are always dangerous (use of universal "always" so noted).... I believe a good Rule of Thumb is to look to the surviving Period images of men in the field and NOT look towards other reenactors for that Period "look."

IMHO, the Hobbyism or Reenactorism of striving for the "Cookie Cutter" image (*) is just as historically wrong as striving for the "Every Man for Himself" image whether U.S. or C.S. (documented and researched , time and place specific, exceptions so noted.)

Others' mileage will vary...

Curt

* Note. Even men receiving the same things, did not wear them exactly the same ways, as the Period images usually show...

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Jean Cloth Union forage cap

What can be done to make Union troops look less like automatons and more like individual men.

Uh... dude, the whole point of a military is to get individuals to act as one. A big part of this is to dress in a uniform so comrades can recognize each other, make mental-impression upon the soldier, as well as have interchangeable equipment when the scheisse hits the privy and the "elephant is seen" in combat.

"One team, one fight..." It has been the same idea since armies first marched the earth- no different in the 1860s as it is today.

True, there is room for a certain minimal amount of individuality via "private purchase items", distinctive unit insignia/uniform items, and items sent from home. However if you have ever been in a military organization before, the 1st Sgt. will quickly tell you what the prescribed uniform for his soldiers needs to be and that your particular "individual-lovin'" arse needs to be in that prescribed uniform whether you like it or not because as a private, you obey orders from lawful higher authority.

Get "fru-fru" all you want, but if you get caught getting too much that way with your uniform, your NCOs will quickly remind you that as an individual, you ain't no "individual" in a uniform in this Army- and it ain't gonna be any pleasant reminding upside yer head either.

Bottom line: If the unit is wearing distinctive unit insignia pieces/uniform prescribed by that unit's leaders, that's about as "individual" as it gets. Irregular unit issue can happen and certainly did, but most of the time in original pictures, the soldier has at minimum the correct hat, trousers, jacket, and shoes for his unit when they were issued to him by the unit quartermaster authority. Uniform standards are enforced by NCOs if they are doing their job correctly, they know what their soldiers are wearing.

Perhaps your sergeant will let you wear that slouch hat or civilian shirt instead of issue items...maybe you didn't get certain issue items? As always, proper first-account research into what your impression requires for time, place, and unit is all that you need to answer those kinds of questions.

When you become a general or high-ranking officer, you can privately-purchase yer duds. (See also Custer, et al.) Besides that, wear your sleeping cap or camp hat around camp only and not on-line for muster formation, or any other dad-blane formation for that matter.

Be proud of a good-looking uniform and wear it correctly to do justice to the soldier that wore one like it when he fought the real war. We all owe that to the "true hardcores" memory.

And...

If you are really into wearing pink undies under your uniform, just make sure no one sees them, nancy-boy. LOL

-Johnny Lloyd

[hiplainsyank]

Re: Jean Cloth Union forage cap

Joanna, Please back up this very broad statement with hard data of some sort.

I made this statement based on my observations of photographs and sketches from my nearly 30 years of reading on the Civil War, from the photo of portions of Buell's army crossing a river as part of the Perryville,campaign through the famous Lookout Mountain series. And comparable unit images from eastern troops as well. While it's always assumed that eastern Federals always wore forage caps, I have always been amazed at how many are shown wearing civilian hats.

I also presumed that the western Federal wearing of hats was common enough knowledge that it did not require citation, which would have been difficult to detail in any case because it comes from many sources.

Perhaps I should have added what others did; that variations on the sack coat/forage cap happened often enough but depended on the time, place, and unit.

[JacobReichwein]

Re: Jean Cloth Union forage cap

I know a guy who thinks he's "hardcore". He wears a McDowell cap, shell jacket, a big ugly cravat, red socks, camp shoes, and has his pants rolled up to his knees. And honestly, he looks like an idiot. I dare you to find me a picture of any federal soldier who ever looked like that.

Look at a picture, they all look exactly the same. It's not about being "individual" If that's what you want, go be a fashion designer