- Joined
- Aug 25, 2012
This is a piece about a pre Civil War/Civil War Michigan company.
For full dress, the Detroit Light Guard wore tall black bearskins (also called showy bearskin shakos in one period source), which they had recently purchased for $1,500. The fronts of the bearskins were embellished with two gold tassels. Alternate headwear was blue full dress caps with white pompoms and a tiger head badge. One major from the 51st Regiment, had a less shinning description of the Detroit Light Guard’s bearskins; the “Detroit Light Guard in elegant uniforms except the monstrous cap, which is some twenty-four feet - or rather inches high, and as uncouth in appearance, as would be a quarter of a barrel of beer (minus the beer) upon their craniums.”[ii]
Katcher, Philip, American Civil War Armies (5) Volunteer Militia, Osprey Pub. Ltd., London, 1989, p. 16.
[ii] “Military’, Grand Rapids Daily Eagle, January 24 1857, p. 3, col. 1.
For full dress, the Detroit Light Guard wore tall black bearskins (also called showy bearskin shakos in one period source), which they had recently purchased for $1,500. The fronts of the bearskins were embellished with two gold tassels. Alternate headwear was blue full dress caps with white pompoms and a tiger head badge. One major from the 51st Regiment, had a less shinning description of the Detroit Light Guard’s bearskins; the “Detroit Light Guard in elegant uniforms except the monstrous cap, which is some twenty-four feet - or rather inches high, and as uncouth in appearance, as would be a quarter of a barrel of beer (minus the beer) upon their craniums.”[ii]
Katcher, Philip, American Civil War Armies (5) Volunteer Militia, Osprey Pub. Ltd., London, 1989, p. 16.
[ii] “Military’, Grand Rapids Daily Eagle, January 24 1857, p. 3, col. 1.