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I just received a delightful book by Michael A. Peake called Blood Shed In This War: Civil War Illustrations by Captain Adolph Metzner, 32nd Indiana. In addition to giving an overview of Metzner's life and the history of the 32nd, the book contains beautiful reproductions of Metzner's wartime drawings and paintings of his unit in camp and in the field.
A curious feature of the illustrations is that they invariably show NCO chevrons pointing up. You can see an example of this on Amazon's page for the book (zoom in on the soldier to the left of the officer firing a pistol on the cover): http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Shed-Thi.../dp/0871952696
My first reaction was that this had to have been a mistake, but Metzner was a company commander in the unit and made these drawings and paintings at the time. A possible explanation is that a number of the men of the 32nd had served in the 3-month 11th Indiana Zouaves, who wore their chevrons this way (as did some pre-war "Zouave Cadet" units according to Philip Katcher's American Civil War Armies, Vol 5), and that these men continued the practice throughout the war.
I don't know whether this argument is undermined or reinforced by the fact that Metzner also shows cavalry and artillery NCOs with upside down chevrons. Maybe the practice in his own company affected his perceptions of others.
Or maybe this wasn't the only unit (apart from Marines) that did this. I know a previous discussion here turned up a photograph showing a soldier in camp with inverted chevrons.
My question is, does anyone know of any other units, with the exception of Marines and early war Zouaves, who wore their chevrons upside down?
A curious feature of the illustrations is that they invariably show NCO chevrons pointing up. You can see an example of this on Amazon's page for the book (zoom in on the soldier to the left of the officer firing a pistol on the cover): http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Shed-Thi.../dp/0871952696
My first reaction was that this had to have been a mistake, but Metzner was a company commander in the unit and made these drawings and paintings at the time. A possible explanation is that a number of the men of the 32nd had served in the 3-month 11th Indiana Zouaves, who wore their chevrons this way (as did some pre-war "Zouave Cadet" units according to Philip Katcher's American Civil War Armies, Vol 5), and that these men continued the practice throughout the war.
I don't know whether this argument is undermined or reinforced by the fact that Metzner also shows cavalry and artillery NCOs with upside down chevrons. Maybe the practice in his own company affected his perceptions of others.
Or maybe this wasn't the only unit (apart from Marines) that did this. I know a previous discussion here turned up a photograph showing a soldier in camp with inverted chevrons.
My question is, does anyone know of any other units, with the exception of Marines and early war Zouaves, who wore their chevrons upside down?
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