Cadet Uniform?

There's a great deal of similarity, however, the records we have indicate that our John Henry Thomas was born May 25, 1842 and died August 25, 1888 in Fairfax City Cemetery of Pneumonia.
Found his grave stone and the two are one in the same, the records are off as can be expected, his marker states he was born 25 May 1843 and died 25 August 1888. Full name John Henry Clay Thomas.

Birth: May 25, 1843
Death: Aug. 25, 1888
Expired Image Removed

Confederate Veterans Buried in Cemetery

Thomas, John H.: 4th Sgt., C. A, 43rd Btin. Va. Cav.; Sect. I, Lot 39.

Not., Confederate Soldier with a C.M. designation indicates they are listed on the monument to tbe Confederate Dead.


Family links:
Spouse:
Fannie Gwynn Thomas (1849 - 1907)*

*Calculated relationship

Burial:
Fairfax City Cemetery
Fairfax
Fairfax City
Virginia, USA
Plot: Sect I Lot 39
GPS (lat/lon): 38.84729, -77.31229

Created by: Anne Rupert
Record added: Sep 06, 2003
Find A Grave Memorial# 7841958
 
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Do your records indicate what units JHT was in? Dates can always be wrong particularly with 19th century record keeping.
I'm pretty sure about the dates, and I was able to corroborate our information (birth/death/ spouse) with his tombstone on findagrave.

It looks like he was a 4th sergeant with company A. of the 43rd Battalion cavalry; however, I only learned this through findagrave with hardly any military background described in our records.
 
Here's my take and it's worth exactly what it costs....
2 of the subjects are either in their late teens or very early 20s. The center one would have stopped cutting his hair around age 16 or so. I say it's a wig and they are in some sort of theatrical production, or simply horsing around.
And the boots/shoes on the "cadet" are not polished as required. Also a school cadet's belt buckle would certainly be school specific instead of a generalized "US". The picture of the Austin cadet has no belt and the uniform code does not call for one.
 
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Here's my take and it's worth exactly what it costs....
2 of the subjects are either in their late teens or very early 20s. The center one would have stopped cutting his hair around age 16 or so. I say it's a wig and they are in some sort of theatrical production, or simply horsing around.
And the boots/shoes on the "cadet" are not polished as required. Also a school cadet's belt buckle would certainly be school specific instead of a generalized "US". The picture of the Austin cadet has no belt and the uniform code does not call for one.
Many schools utilized "surplus" from the Civil War, shoe shining was a later phenomenon and post war it's simply called blacking and as such required the shoes to be blackened and not shined. Due to the picture's inclusion in the papers donated by the family, there is certainly some sort of attachment......
 
I agree with the familiarity and you are correct re blackening and that footwear is not - compare it to the black bill on the kepi. Regarding the belt.....even at that time, a cadet would not add something to his uniform nor take away. Today we call it being "out of uniform". In the uniform regs for the Austin school, I see no belt wearing mentioned.
When young, my uncles would wear their great grand dad's Confederate uniform in school plays.
 
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It would be interesting to find out exactly how long Thomas served in Co. A as sgt. He is listed in Williamson's book "Mosby's Rangers" as 4th sgt. of the roster Company A in the appendix. He's also mentioned by name in a description of an encounter in Leesburg. Mosby's memoirs does not mention him at all. The Fairfax County Historical Society might have more info on him and his family.
 
I agree with the familiarity and you are correct re blackening and that footwear is not - compare it to the black bill on the kepi. Regarding the belt.....even at that time, a cadet would not add something to his uniform nor take away. Today we call it being "out of uniform". In the uniform regs for the Austin school, I see no belt wearing mentioned.
When young, my uncles would wear their great grand dad's Confederate uniform in school plays.
I do not believe this to be the Austin school as the uniform does not compare (sleeve knots are not similar). Surplus was utilized for schools; belts, muskets, swords etc. Particularly muskets that were cut down and sometimes barrels replaced with wooden "broomstick" barrels, making them cadet training/drill weapons.

I know that when I was in a military school, we received all kinds of military surplus, we drilled with '03s and M1s, of course this was in the mid 70s. The drill team had the chrome plated M1s, which were incredible.......
 
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