Thread 17992590

Greetings, greetings, greetings! Am I glad to see you again. Sorry for being absent for so long.

Anyway, ITT we will discuss uniforms, banners and military gear of the Union army in American Civil war. If you have any photos from ACW reenacting events, feel free to send them here!

And yes, keep it civil here. If any of you yankees and rebels want to fight, please do it on fashion topics

Also, I should say this, the /uni/ threads about 19th century uniforms will become a little more complicated.

Basically, due to a huge amount of wars and uprisings happening in the century, and me not really wanting to leave out some interesting topics, I won't break down the threads by countries, instead covering a particular region. (For example, there wont be a separate thread for Crimean war, instead it will be featured in the East Europe uniforms thread)

Anyway, have a nice read

Starting off with the 1st Volunteer Minnesota regiment.

On 14th of April 1861, governor of Minnesota, Alexander Ramsey, was visiting Washington and after hearing about the fort Sumter attack, decided to send 1000 men from his state to help with the war with the South. Minnesota regiments were the first regiment that was given by any state to fulfill the Lincoln's 75 thousand men mobilization order.

Since they were one of the first volunteers, there was a problem. The uniforms for half of the men in the regiment were made by their wives, and, ironically, the uniforms they made were grey. The other half received red jackets, bought by the state with the help of the St. Paul church

I think you can imagine how they looked back then.

In such unordinary clothes, the regiment took part in the first big battle of the ACW - First battle of Bull Run. The first Minnesota regiment fought on the Henry-House hill and was one of last regiments to leave the battlefield. It also took the most casualties than any other union regiments in the battle. Only after first Bull Run they were given regular blue clothes

1st Minnesota regiment also took part in the battle of Gettysburg, where they managed not only to hold the attacking confederate forces, but they also managed to stage a counterattack and hold the enemy until the reserves arrived .

The regiment was disbanded on 29th of April 1864, but many veterans of the regiment were recruited again to serve in Virginia

Following up on "Grey Union" regiments, this is 2nd New Hampshire infantry regiment. Following up Lincoln's mobilization order, so much people from new Hampshire volunteered, that they had to form a 2nd regiment. Most of the soldiers in the regiment were pre-war militias so grey uniforms were somewhat their legacy.

Just like 1st Minnesota, the regiment fought in the first battle of Bull Run and the battle of Gettysburg. In both battles they had very big casualties, with many soldiers being taking prisoner by the Confederates. So much so, it had to be sent away to Point-Lookout due to how much loses it had.

And just like Minnesota regiment, it was given regular blue clothes after first Bull Run that it would wear until the regiment was disbanded in 1864

Next up we have 203rd Pennsylvania infantry regiment, also known as "Birney's sharpshooters". It was created in 1864, at the time when the original "Berdan's sharpshooters" were ceasing to exist. Due to that, there were more green uniforms, than there were people that could wear it. The 203rd received the remaining green uniforms and trousers, that had several changes. For example, the ammo haversack was changed, with the brass eagle on it being removed.

The 203rd was created in Philadelphia and was later moved to Virginia. Despite the name, a lot of times the regiment wasn't used as sharpshooters, but as regular infantry. For example, that was the case in the Fort Fisher siege on 15th of January 1865. The regiment had heavy losses, losing a lot of officers inside the fort.

From march to june of 1865, the regiment would first act as railway guards in North Carolina, then they would move to Raleigh and occupy it until they were disbanded in June 1865.

One thing of note, unlike the Berdan Sharpshooters, the 203rd did not receive the Sharps rifle, instead being armed with Springfield musket, most likely the 1864 improved version

>39th New York Infantry regiment "Garibaldi's guard"

Do not let the name fool you, the Garibaldi guard did not fully consist of Italians. In fact, it was the most international regiment of the ACW.

It was mostly formed of the Italians from New york, but the regiment itself was commanded by a hungarian, the surgeon was german, and people in the regiment were from England, Switzerland, Portugal, Croatia, Bavaria. They even had several deserters from the French foreign legion. Most of the soldiers already had military experience from wars in Europe.

39th went trough almost the whole war, from first battle of Bull Run, to the southern capitulation. After Harpers Ferry surrender, the whole regiment was taken prisoner, but later released during the prisoner trade.

The regiment uniforms were similar to Italian Bersaglieri, wearing the Vaira hat, that was decorated with cock feathers. They wore dark blue tunics with red collars, and, occasionally, red shirts.

>62nd Pennsylvania regiment

Led by Samuel W. Black, it was first supposed to be 33rd Pennsylvania regiment, but due to officer changes, the number was already taken by another regiment. Most of the times, it was simply referred to as "Black's regiment".

First battle it took part in was the battle of Yorktown. The same year, the commander, Samuel Black was killed and the regiment joined the army of the Potomac, taking part in all the major ACW battles.

And just so you'd know, Samuel Black was a lawyer.

>72nd Pennsylvania regiment "Baxter's Fire-Zouaves"

The regiment was created by Edward Baxter, a close friend of Lincoln. It mostly consisted of the firemen of Pennsylvania and wore the zouave uniform, similiar to the French zouave uniform for reasons i am not aware of. Almost all firemen teams of Philadelphia had volunteers in this regiment, so that is how they earned their name.

The regiment took part in the battle of Gettysburg, and the siege of Petersburg. It lost around half of its men, and was soon disbanded. Most of the veterans of the regiment became militiamen and then returned to their jobs as firemen after the end of the war.

>>17992657
Any more details on the hat? It looks somewhat like a german ww1 helmet.

>>17992850
It does look like a Stahlhelm, yes. But, as far as I'm aware, it is just a very specifically shaped wool capi. A lot of illustrations show the 2nd New Hampshire regiment in the trenches, so my guess is that they gave them an experimental version, that would be more comfortable to use while entrenching. Or maybe the capi's were made by the militia's relatives, like in the 1st Minnesota case

>>17992974
Did some more research on this, and in all the sources their hat is called "jaunty forage cap".

However, it is actually "Puriton and Ham Havelock" hat that was distributed to almost all New Hampshire regiments. It was inspired by the Pith helmet and was created to protect the soldiers from bad weather, mostly rain.

It was a modified Havelock hat, that several people described as "looked like a pumpkin"

*Purinton and Ham

Anyway, here is a picture of a New Hampshire soldier wearing this type of hat

bump

>>17992590 (OP)
Forced to fight a war neither wanted because of Abraham Lincoln's lust for money and power.

Coming back to my duty on searching for magazine prints on different old websites.

Union soldier of the American Civil war book is a very detailed book that describes almost everything the Union soldiers had, from their uniforms, to their rations. Great source, if you are a reenactor.

https://psv4.userapi.com/s/v1/d/DJgBWeDmK5RVyv4cWMrEowrcVkTq_JDtl1TQ0c2CSKsOPmEpXqBM03tzr-IgDD4hVSfVn9A0nCaLZ0Y-fL16237wYv9M4knG4XgnYrjSNlq6Ufdg/Union_Soldier_of_the_American_Civil_War.pdf

I fear that those videos are the only thing i can really contribute to this thread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8MAlu2NEps&list=PLkaaNLbRcoslKOXncrbbZZJ_nhc-wACH4&index
2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqeT6g4iLew&list=PLkaaNLbRcoslKOXncrbbZZJ_nhc-wACH4&index
3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2OzOhqr0R4&list=PLkaaNLbRcoslKOXncrbbZZJ_nhc-wACH4&index
4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhfXDJVi6EA&list=PLkaaNLbRcoslKOXncrbbZZJ_nhc-wACH4&index
>>17992998
Thanks mate! Looks really interesting.
>>17992826
>similiar to the French zouave uniform for reasons i am not aware of.
Iirc Zouave uniforms were just fashionable at this time. And used as an incentive for men to enlist - like "Look at how /fa/ you look! You'll get loads of girls!"

>>17993893
Apparently, American Zouaves started their journey in 1860 in Chicago as a military sports-like club "American Zouave cadets". You are right on this, they wore the uniforms due to how /fa/shionable it looked.

After ACW broke out, zouaves were both on Union and Confederate sides. Most of them were american, although there were zouaves of algerian and irish descent. I will tell more about zouave regiment later in this thread, because the main editor of a website im taking most of the info from is a huge autist when it comes to zouaves, so he made a specific category for them.

Anyway, here is an Osprey magazine about the American Zouaves: https://psv4.userapi.com/s/v1/d/_KXyep8NySw0sEacD7cQv65aUv9oR4IJZm7q0CRudtcoswpzg2IyaYLh7iEmiP6a7LRTF42juDyRA8i2GIn4JjwM_bIc8Na-mKRT08DqSERnQCfO/Osprey_-_Elite_062_-_American_Civil_War_Zouaves.pdf

P.S. If knotelposter will not see this, i will be sad

>Union Zouaves: New York edition

Most of the zouave regiment were made in New York, for some reason.

>5th New York infantry regiment "Duryee's Zouaves"

The regiment was created by a New York businessman Abram Duryee, who managed to create the regiment, arm it and find the uniforms for it within a single week. The regiment consisted out of volunteers, mostly students and lawyers. Uniform looked like north-african zouaves. The regiment took part in the battles of Big Bethel and Bull run, and was disbanded in 1863.

>9th New York Infantry regiment "Hawkins Zouaves"

Created by an enthusiastic lawyer, Rush Hawkins, the regiment was the first one to be made in Manhattan, in order to fulfill Lincoln's mobilization order. One of the reasons, why they were made a zouave regiment, is that Hawkins loved rare books and he might have learned about zouaves from one of them.

>10th New York Infantry regiment

Zouave regiment, also known as "National Zouaves, was created in the first weeks of the war, becoming a part of the Potomac army and being stationed at fort Monro. It is the most unfortunate regiment, because at some point their zouave clothes were taken away, and they had to wear regular uniform. During the battle of Manassas, their banner was stolen by 18th Georgia infantry regiment. Also, little known fact, a lot of the members of this regiment were a part of Freemasonry

>11th New York Infantry regiment
First zouave militia regiment, it was created by Elmer Ellsworth, and consisted mostly of firemen, receiving the nickname "Fire Zouaves". It only took part in the first battle of Bull Run, and was disbanded afterwards.

>41st New York Infantry regiment

The regiment was created in Yorkville, New York and consisted, mostly, of germans. Although, out of all units in the regiment, only unit A would wear the zouave uniform. Other units wore Prussian Riflemen uniform. Unit A recieved the nickname "De Kalb's Zouaves" in honor of a American war of independence hero, Johann de Kalb

>53rd New York Infantry regiment

A short lived regiment, made out of French immigrants. Disbanded in the spring of 1862.

>140th New York Infantry regiment

One of the 3 regiments that in 1863-1864 were given zouave uniforms not initially, but for the diligence during drilling.

>146th New York Infantry regiment

The uniform of this regiment was different, as it had blue and yellow colour pallets, instead of red and blue. That was because their uniform was based on Algerian Tirailleur units of the Grand Armee.

>165th New York infantry regiment

In the end of 1862, veterans of the Duryee's Zouaves would offer extra money to volunteers, due to how many loses the zouave regiment took. There were so much volunteers, that they formed a specific regiment, made out of 8 companies. The regiment had a lot of members killed during infamous Port-Hudson attack

Let's test your knowledge OP

What regiment is the uniform based on?

>>17994285
11th Mississippi, i believe.

But, dont get ahead of the horse. Confederate thread will come too, but not now.

>>17994298
>Confederate thread will come too, but not now.
Hope to see some Confederate Zouaves, especially the Louisiana Tigers. I’d also be curious to see any depictions of Confederate Indians in the western theater.

>>17994189
>If knotelposter will not see this, i will be sad
I think he sees this thread. Don't you worry ;)
>>17994257
>Other units wore Prussian Riflemen uniform.
Kino.
Do you have anything on the cavalry?

>>17995005
Here are some pics of the Union cavalry. But ill go into more detail and send the links to the Osprey print tomorrow

Here is the full print of the Osprey Union magazine: https://psv4.userapi.com/s/v1/d/akly8dOWF1uMHfZ-1-oZ49b20JorZpmG9i0plVNOW8AhB6kRh2UxxCEQ0NgMBaqe6FcSZTzxmItXgArjFOat6L0NuyLW8JecMghrweeUBOkWm49U/American_Civil_War_Armies_2_-_Union_Troops.pdf

Sadly, I could not find any more detail on the cavalry itself, but I found a lot of magazines on different US regiment, from sharpshooters, to Irish brigades

>Union Sharpshooters

The 1st sharpshooter regiment in the Union was created in order to kill enemies of importances, like officers, artillery crews. The 1st regiment was called "Berdan's rifles", because of its founder. Those Sharpshooters used Sharps rifle. Berdan later manufactured his own Berdan rifle in 1868.

https://psv4.userapi.com/s/v1/d/voDAqgABJyp9TV1Bv5v8s4gaVYYMD5o1cEkh-q4QaRfhi1Ai4YRVwT1RL75qpVy_7OIpOr2awwHeqh7eChK84CxUVNxz2KpSj1xt5xJEp1AnfGDhSfUSRA/Osprey_-_Warrior_060_-_Sharpshooters_of_the_American_Civil_War_1861-65.pdf

>>17996106
Thx. There wasn't much about cavalry but a nice ressource regardless.

>>17992590 (OP)
The US Army has never looked this great since the war

>>17994298

Good answer. Two of my ancestors served in that regiment.

>>17992798
>>17993893
>gun down shitalian
Based southern patriots

>>17997146
you will not believe this, but both sides had italian regiments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Regiment,_European_Brigade

>>17997155
>The regiment was disbanded on May 2, 1862, one day after the New Orleans fell to Union forces.
What could been had CSA won whole siege?

>>17997155
Even Thai, Serbian and Poles fought both side.

>>17994298

Good answer. Two of my ancestors served in that regiment. One was in Company A (University Grey's), the other (his father) was a regimental surgeon.

>>17997205
Interesting. Looking forward on you giving more info in the upcoming Confederacy uniform thread.

>>17997197
>What could been had CSA won whole siege?
New Orleans? Once Farragut got past the river forts it was over. Neither side had much in the way of infantry so the Union couldn’t occupy it and the Secesh didn’t surrender until Farragut threatened to shell the city into rubble. The breakup of the Italian regiment sounds similar to the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, mostly mixed race Creoles who were initially rejected by the CSA, then they reconsidered when New Orleans was threatened but they never saw action, though many of them ended up fighting for the Union.

At the time of the American Civil War, with two million men under arms, a US Army that in pre-war days had depended upon a minute number of technical troops now required virtually an army of specialists alone. Special sharpshooters were recruited for skirmishing duty; men whose wounds would have led to their discharge in the past now found themselves guarding important posts in the Veteran Reserve Corps; and large numbers of civilians found themselves in uniform as members of the Telegraph or Hospital Corps.

https://psv4.userapi.com/s/v1/d/_3xeq50VlyJuslUz9uNXaItNo1oxMih6XugW0LyaRftzPEHfYM2cfYSn_drpiY3GYbMm9jnlfdBwxGNW7_LbRQAYTsRMc-S8lzffNQ04R88AqV0dNPzjUg/ACW_Armies_3_-_Specalists_Men_at_Arms_179.pdf

If you need me to find more detail on a specific regiment from this document, tell me, and I will try my best

bump

The War between the States' is the term used for the American Civil War throughout much of the South even today. Many on both sides - not just the South - felt that they were serving their states as much, if not more, than their central governments. Many of the states agreed; the state governments raising their own units, commissioning their officers, and supplying their men. Indeed, many of the units that fought the Civil War were supplied in large part by their own states rather than by the central government's quartermasters.

This Osprey magazine depicts uniform of the state troops, their special insignia and and units. If you are from US - go give it a look, and maybe you will find your own state here.

https://psv4.userapi.com/s/v1/d/GWQ81BejyhNJbGGl-Coz3ngiBcOP5uHQrll2xkWpoz5jLLbrhkaBghfYer_WIo4yGCsOAx5wGPhOa1zrTVT0DK---TDA1ehUeCaG4Jusg-sdacFvs9SZzQ/ACW_Armies_4_-_State_Troops_Men_at_Arms_190.pdf

Uniformed volunteer units were raised by individuals, usually from an area's social élite who had enough spare money and time to spend on such enthusiasms. They voted on their unit designation, their officers and non-commissioned officers, their unit rules, and their uniform. Many future leaders learned their skills in these ranks, and volunteer militia units formed the core of many fighting units on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line.

Militia uniforms were strange, to say the least. Most of them looked like they were a part of the Napoleonic war corps, not a 1860s army. But at the same time, it is the exact reason why they should be paid more attention. Once again, all states of that time are in the magazine.

https://psv4.userapi.com/s/v1/d/m2GEayW1GCOctY76-US7gG8Zh2apXCrWD12KJWigaS2t1VqrbHdw78jsUyQVkXFCjw7EqlxkiRqxPX31rO6p5Z47Jhov6weolvHv_98bHqnPFXYCA_CZ-A/ACW_Armies_5_-_Volunteers_Men_at_Arms_207.pdf

And the last, but not least Union army Osprey magazine i found is about Irish-American regiment of the ACW. Irish, just like Italians, fought on both sides of the war, so you will see both the blue and the grey here.

https://psv4.userapi.com/s/v1/d/IiHzDChpvXwGd-_mipGTZUAuBpejONMjSLgkSKlkj4bwAoEIw3RpiUub11EtK8W7bPs2xfMzgPxlYDfuyhp7N7QYQQLWLstEkO7GGyded0CZOi18yPDMeg/Irish-American_Units_in_the_Civil_War.pdf

I may have ran out of magazines, but I've found another goldmine. It is on a russian website, but don't be scared, its just pictures. And they are worth it believe me. Sending all of them here will simply not be possible.

https://vk.com/album-2448074_60928840 - Osprey Union army art

https://vk.com/album-2448074_114388761 - Don Troyani Union army art

https://vk.com/album-2448074_137868847 - Union army uniforms and insignia (mixed artists)

https://vk.com/album-2448074_69888795 - US cavalry uniforms and gear

https://vk.com/album-2448074_152705231 - ACW Musicians

https://vk.com/album-2448074_197372981 - Signal Corps

https://vk.com/album-2448074_147737421 - Medical personnel and hospitals

https://vk.com/album-2448074_86106776 - Union regiment of colour

https://vk.com/album-2448074_46306431 - Reconstruction photos (Russian festivals)

https://vk.com/album-2448074_87197884 - Reconstruction (US festivals)

https://vk.com/album-2448074_73170436 - Ranged weapons

https://vk.com/album-2448074_79110001 - Sabres and knifes.

>>17997314
Orleans can be easily defensive?

>>17999288
A low lying city surrounded by water, almost all troops sent away for the Shiloh campaign, couldn’t finish the monster ironclads that would have btfo Farragut, and the river forts were flooded with high water. “The glories of Chalmette will be repeated!” as if the ghost of Andy Jackson would show up. A virtually bloodless massive W for the Yanks.