2nd Regiment of Missouri State Guard

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
This is part of an illustration from an article, The Johnnie Reb of 1861. by M.R. Green. This article was from 1975 and is now a bit dated. Is he wearing some kind of button less Zouave jacket and vest? He seems rather well equipped and has a pack. Any opinions on the illustration?

vir 2.jpg
 
I'm not familiar with the uniforms of the 2nd Regiment in particular, but such a uniform would not be typical of the Missouri State Guard as a whole. Pre-war Militias, such as the Washington Blues, that became part of the MSG continued to wear their own uniforms, but most wore civilian attire, battle shirts, etc. Many also wore the forage caps that they still had from their service during the Mexican War. The weapons they carried were also just as varied.

I realize these photos have already been posted many times, but they still serve as good examples of the types of clothes members of the MSG wore.

missouri-state-guard-soldiers-medium.jpg


http://www.civilwarvirtualmuseum.or...ek-campaign/missouri-state-guard-soldiers.php

10931536_795446640503033_7552765686686123564_n (2).jpg


http://ozarkscivilwar.org/photographs/duvall-thomas-william-duvall/

Duvall-Henderson-cased-30172.jpg


http://ozarkscivilwar.org/photographs/duvall-henderson/

HUGHES-JOHN-T-30121.jpg


http://ozarkscivilwar.org/photographs/2253/

I also came across this post, which describes some of the various uniforms used:

http://www.history-sites.com/cgi-bin/bbs62x/mocwmb/webbbs_config.pl?md=read;id=21227
 
This is part of an illustration from an article, The Johnnie Reb of 1861. by M.R. Green. This article was from 1975 and is now a bit dated. Is he wearing some kind of button less Zouave jacket and vest? He seems rather well equipped and has a pack. Any opinions on the illustration?

View attachment 83371
There probably was a company that was that well equipped, but it would be in the minority for sure. Wealthy people often uniformed in the beginnings.
 
I was of the opinion that the state Guard had a few uniformed military companies, but most men wore civilian clothing or battle shirts.
 
2nd MO (Minute Men) Vol. Militia - ? Zouaves

http://www.oocities.org/zouavedatabase/cwuni.html


  • Missouri
  • Polk County Rangers - MO State Guard Militia ("red trowsers and gray jackets cut in zouave style" & "baggy red zouave trowsers and short gray jackets")
  • 3rd MO Regt., U.S.R.(Reserve?) Corps., Co. A - Turner Zouaves
  • 31st MO Inf. - Wide Awake Zouaves
  • 2mo.jpg
 
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Pvt John Straw 3rd Div Missouri State Guard WIS Wilson's Creek
1/6 plate ambrotype of Pvt. J. Straw from Calloway County, MO. He is on the left with unidentified friend. It appears like he has a pistol butt under the left flap of his jacket. He was wounded at the Battle of Wilson's Creek on Aug. 10, 1861. Man on the right is wearing a homespun battle shirt. Image came from an old collection out of Jefferson City, MO.

Image from my collection
 
The confusing part of the state guard for things like this is its organized by Divisions, theres 8 divisions, without knowing what division, theres no way of knowing which 2nd Regt he is referring to

However within the regts of the various divisions there would be sometimes companies that were prewar militia, with prewar uniforms and equipment
 
I wonder how many of the were actually uniformed. Not a lot of time to get them made up for service. I am sure some of the men had them, but I would think the majority of them wore battle shirts. maybe a few old US uniforms, Mexican War, or later. What the men actually wore would be the most interesting part of the story.
 
Hard to tell, a lot of the named companies were, like 1st cav regt 2nd div, out of 13 companies
Company B Monticello grays was
Company L Canton guard was

company F Knox County Guards may have been, not sure

You pretty much have to check every counties history for the named companies, but the county histories will say a lot of times if they were prewar and uniformed
 
This is all pretty interesting to me, because I was always under the impression that they weren't uniformed--at least in early June of 1861 on the field just east of Boonville. I have no evidence whatsoever of that. It has just always been my assumption, because I know they were not well armed or well trained and I know small squads were coming in from everywhere to join the main body in Boonville when the war officially broke out here. It will be quite an eye opener to me if I find that many of them were uniformed. I will certainly keep an open mind to that possibility.
 
Been looking through my MSG book the only possible lead I have is 2nd inf regt 6th div Company A is the Miami guards but cant find for sure if they were uniformed and if so the color

The Militia companies named after their uniforms , the Benton County Blues, Independence Blues, Johnson county Blues, Morgan Blues, and the Washington Blues were all not in a 2nd inf regt
 
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