Uniforms Civil War use of Voltiguars and Foot Riflemen buttons

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
In another thread I talk about South Carolina uniforms. I seen in the article that the coat had Voltiguars and Foot Riflemen buttons. So I am guessing that South Carolina rife companies and or regiments would have used these of perhaps South Carolina had some in storage and simply used what ever brass buttons they had on hand.
 
These Voltigeur buttons were used by Hampton's legion when supplying his troops with their fall fatigue uniforms in October 1861 in Va. They were issued grey cassimere coats and pants from Charleston with yellow trim and stripes an example of which is in the SC State Military Museum in Columbia, which is the Bomar Coat if I am not mistaken. They had old stores of Voltigeur buttons from the Mexican War Hampton acquired to be used for these uniforms. The purpose of the Legion was to be a Mounted Artillery and fast moving Infantry unit that acted as one, hence Hampton's idea of using yellow trim and their buttons modeled on the French Voltigeurs and taken from the US Voltigeurs that were disbanded after the Mexican War with the same idea.
 
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