Richmond depot artillery kepis

[poilu1917]

All,
Recently I been looking into the so called Richmond Depot artillery style kepis. These caps can be found with either blue band & crown with red body (caps 1 & 2 in the images below), red band & crown with blue body (caps 3 & 4), or blue band with red body & crown (cap 5). Some appear to be either made from a cadet grey or faded blue wool, satinette, or jean cloth as well as red.

So far, these five are the only originals of this style that I have been able to locate. Cap 4 is listed on Fred Adolphus' blog as being Pvt Royall of the Richmond Howitzers' cap, but if you compare it to Cap 5 which is listed as the same in EoG, you can see it is indeed a different cap. So one of those sources appears to be mis-identified.

Does anyone know of additional originals similar to these styles with possible ties to the Richmond Depot? Any additional information in general about these cap styles is greatly appreciated. We have found QM returns listing "artillery caps" being issued tp artillery units in the ANV, so there is a distinction being made on paper at least. Thanks in advance!

[floridawar]

Re: Richmond depot artillery kepis

Howdy, very cool comparison. Cap 5 in your sample is made to the Jan. 1862 regulations for artillery caps, with dark blue band and red sides and crown. I cannot say I've seen any other examples with reference to the Richmond Depot, but here are some images depicting regulation artillery caps from the seacoast;
At Charleston, Laurens st. battery, by Conrad Chapman:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.monstermarketplace.com/museum-of-the-confederacy-haversack-store/battery-laurens-street-by-conrad-wise-chapman-150x150.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.monstermarketplace.com/museum-of-the-confederacy-haversack-store/chapman-prints&usg=__FfbfRp05SHcj0-Mhoqei7KFTDRM=&h=150&w=150&sz=6&hl=en&start=2&zoom=1&tbnid=_A0BTobgGr9gHM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=96&ei=L4eCUf_bDY7b4AO4zYD4BA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dconrad%2Bwise%2Bchapman,%2Blaurens%2Bstreet%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&sa=X&ved=0CC4QrQMwAQ

Chapman's Charleston paintings also show some gray caps with red bands.

At Ft. Fisher, Wilmington, NC, by Frank Vizetelly:

http://www.nationalgeographic.fr/files/2012/05/11-vizetelly-view-inside-fort-fisher-white-990.jpg

Although I can't recall exactly, I believe that W.L. Sheppard of VA made a painting of his battery under fire (with a driver trying to control a pitching horse, etc.) which might depict red or red trimmed caps similar to those you posted (I recall some of the figures in the painting wearing caps...)

cheers,

Archie Marshall
Tampa Bay.