Hat Eagle/Pin

[MarkTK36thIL]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Anatomical left or right?

[ezra parker]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Isnt the one reference to the officer that chaged out of the frock into a blouse on the boat mention that he tore the insignia off his"CAP"?

Sean Cowger

[Matt Woodburn]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Mark, anatomical. Think of your left hand and your right hand as a guide. Enlisted loop on the left, officers on the right. Go through every manual of arms and the sword in your head and it will make sense.

Sean, there is mention of one officer in a cap and blouse. So the officer of that company can go with a cap.

All else, refer to our posted guidelines and we'll do a convincing, uniform job.

[Arch Campbell]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

As officers weren't issued uniforms, they of course had more leeway in personalizing their look and didn't necessarily look much like the men they commanded.

Per the 1861 U.S. Army Regulations, all ranks and branches except enlisted men of the infantry were to wear their dress hats turned up on the right. (Left/right is from the point of view of the WEARER.) This was a holdover from the days when Scott's was the standard infantry manual, and the basic "carry" was in the left hand- making a brim sticking out on that side impractical. Of course, once the manual changed to the U.S. Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics this was reversed, with "shoulder arms" moving to the right arm. So, in typical army logic, the only men charged to wear their brims turned up on the left are the only ones that would have found it inconvenient.

Of course, officers wearing dress hats would THEORETICALLY also be wearing the officer's version- brim bound in black silk, three feathers, and silk embroidered insignia rather than brass. As Matt (who is the final arbiter for purposes of this event) mentioned above, photographic evidence shows a wide array of interpretations by volunteer officers who were, after all, commissioning their own clothing.

(OK Matt sneaked in a reply while I was typing, so some of this was already answered!)

[Jeremy Bevard]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

"Sean, there is mention of one officer in a cap and blouse. So the officer of that company can go with a cap.

All else, refer to our posted guidelines and we'll do a convincing, uniform job."

Not to kick a horse but to be clear as possible does this mean you want all/majority of officers to be wearing a dress hat instead of a cap?

[Ike Gatlin]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Paul,
Thanks for the photos... does that "hook" possibly connect to an "eye" on the brim of the hat?

Ike Gatlin

[CompanyWag]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Ike,

On the original hat it came with, the hook engaged into a cut in the brim slightly inside the two rows of stitching. This could easily have been installed this way by a prior collector enhancing a surplus hat, however I've seen other originals assembled with a slit in the brim. In an earlier conversation, someone stated that the hook was supposed to engage in a sewn loop or thread loop (as opposed to a metal eye), however I personally have not seen one like this and don't know the source of his information, though it sounds plausible.

Either way, the visual effect is the same. Only the portion of the plate below where it is narrowest (where the legs join the body) cover the upturned edge of the brim. The two loops of the plate only go through the hat crown, not the brim. Too often I see reenactor hats where the eagle plate sits too low and covers way too much of the brim.

Paul McKee

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Here's my shot at recreating an eagle pin:



Here is a detail shot of the eagle.

Here is a detail of the attachment of the eagle inside the hat.

I removed the hooks from the back of the eagle and made my own hooks out of brass wire, according to the pics back at the beginning of this thread. My soldering was pretty ugly, but you don't see that when the eagle is installed. ;)

To attach the eagle, I cut a small slit in the brim, just under the stitching as well as the crown just opposite the loops. A piece of leather from some old belting is run through the loops on the inside of the hat to hold the eagle in-place.

Enjoy!

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Hallo!

Here is an image of the 1855 cavalry hat, showing the embroidered eagel holding up teh brim and the cords:



I think some of the "problems" with the dress hat comes form some suters marketing/offering a M1858 AND a M1861 Hardee hat.

I have hypothesis that the Army took the eagle device from the 1854 shako which was worn on the front, and simply replaced the lower loop with a hook for the 1858 dress hat. And that vendors looked to artifact 1854 eagles and copied them moreso than the 1858 hooked version.


Uh oh. Tornado sirens.

Curt

[CompanyWag]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Well done, John! Its the little details like this that'll keep us from merely looking like mainstreamers sportin' hat brass.

[Pious Jeems]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Thanks John for posting that picture, now I have something to go by in my placement. Never had a fancy hat pin before.

[thad gallagher]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

I found that if I have my pin aligned like Mr. Wickett's the top of the pin is almost at the top of the crown of my hat. I had to lower it down a touch, but it is close. Now if I could just be better at soldering.

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Thad,

Have a look at some of the originals on the ha.com site...
One or two show the eagle pretty close to the top of the crown. The crown of the hat in the pic I posted is every bit of 6" tall. However, if you've seen the old "Company Wag" article, you've seen the dimensions on a sampling of original hats, a significant portion of which had crowns less than 6" tall.

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

The one supplied to me for the event Bully Buy from Mr. Filthy William was one that has the two vertical prongs. I'd like to get the one with the 2 loops/hook combination. Anyone got one I can borrow? I don't have a solder gun, unfortunately.

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Hat Eagle/Pin

Don't worry Johnny, nobody is going to inspect the inside of your hat. Most of us have the same one.