Forage caps do not look the same sometimes

[aidenmac17]

Why do some forage caps look different sometimes instead of the normal looking forage caps, spanning in different styles in the curved style of the hat. Why is that?

Some of them look like them m1851 shakos and some of them lookin like the trunk off of an elephant...

Also please type the names of some types of kepis and forage caps and such...



Cheers!

 

[Salterr]

There is a type 1 and a type 2. Type 2 has a wide crown and short flat visor. McDowell style have the short curved visor. There are a good deal of different makers as well.

 

[RedRover]

The US Army regulations of 1858 called for a forage cap of blue cloth. These were mass produced for the enlisted soldiers. There were some minor variations among those produced by contractors to supplement the military production at the Schuylkill Arsenal facilities at Philadelphia. They were of a simple pattern, without a separate band, and no particular stiffening inside other than at the top of the crown.

The officers had to purchase their own uniforms from tailors or outfitters. There were variations on the "shape" of their forage caps based upon their taste and the company they bought them from.

From the Uniform regulations...

For example, General McDowell and many of his staff wore variants with a crescent shaped visor, and rather taller crown than found on the Government issue forage caps.

Here's an example purchased/worn by the chaplain of the 6th Vermont Volunteers.

Others, for example, like General McClellan, preferred for a forage cap something slightly more akin the French "kepi" pattern, with a separate band (somewhat stiffened) and rather lower crown, and straight visor.

Here's General McClellan's forage cap:

Many Union soldiers, disliking the somewhat shapeless Army issue forage cap, privately purchased blue kepi's the soldiers called "McClellan caps."

Other's referred to them simply as "kepis" or "chasseur caps." But McClellan cap seems to have been popular with the Union soldiers. A veteran of the 21st Massachusetts Volunteers recalled..

Here's an army medical steward wearing a privately purchased "McClellan cap" as a forage cap...

Among the general issue forage caps provided to the troops by the Government, as mentioned there were slight variations based on the maker. Mainly in the width of the circular crown piece, and perhaps shape of the visor. Here's just a sample of some late war forage cap producers under government contract...

Irrespective of the maker, once delivered and paid for, these forage caps were distributed to the troops indiscriminately despite any minor variations in pattern, color, etc.; just "forage caps."

In recent decades, Modern collectors etc. classify the US Army government issue forage caps as "type I", for example with a narrower crownpiece, and "type II" with a wider one, for their own purposes.

Similarly, it has recently become customary to refer to the forage caps with a crescent visor and tall crown, as a "McDowell" pattern cap. Though the term was unknown in the 1860s.

The kepi/Chasseur/McClellan caps were common among the various Militia corps too, which wore commercially produced clothing from outfitters too. Like these fellows of the 22nd New York State Militia in 1862.

Or the 7th New York with their Gray ones...

The 7th New York State Militia had adopted these "fatigue caps" (as they called them) in 1859, to be patterned after the French style we often call the "kepi."

 

[Allyn]

At the risk of insulting the Army, these caps were not very flattering. Was there a reason why they were designed to look like the soldier was wearing a lopsided pancake on top of his head? Maybe there was some functionality that I am missing . . .

Mea culpa.

 

[Salterr]

At the risk of insulting the Army, these caps were not very flattering. Was there a reason why they were designed to look like the soldier was wearing a lopsided pancake on top of his head? Maybe there was some functionality that I am missing . . .

Mea culpa.

There was a lot of foreign influence when it came to our uniforms and headgear so it resembles a lot of French styles of the time. The shakos were unpopular and removing the hat stiffeners made them more comfortable. The new floppy design is essentially the shako minus the stiffener

 

[RedRover]

At the risk of insulting the Army, these caps were not very flattering. Was there a reason why they were designed to look like the soldier was wearing a lopsided pancake on top of his head? Maybe there was some functionality that I am missing . . .

Mea culpa.

I should say too, they are the "forage cap" of the Army, intended for wear when digging "sinks," chopping wood, or other fatigue duties when the uniform was unsuitable for wear; including perhaps on the march and in battle, etc.

The Uniform of the Army at the time included the hat with lots of brass bling and an ostrich feather...

The soldier's were aware of how sloppy the forage cap looked, and, as noted by John Billings in "Hardtack and Coffee" some of them purchased fancier "kepi" types with some stiffening, a lower crown, etc., similar to what many officers wore from General McClellan on down. But they were often found less durable than the plain, homely but sturdier Government issue forage caps.

During the War most of the troops found maintaining the uniform hats in "parade" condition was a pain, and did without them, substituting the humble forage cap. And here the forage cap's stiffened round crown came in handy, as the Union soldiers frequently put their uniform hat insignia on the top of their forage caps for uniform purposes...

Perhaps about the only thing going for these 1858 pattern forage caps was that they were distinctively military. The old cloth forage cap, worn through the War with Mexico and into the mid-1850s, was essentially identical to common men and boys' cloth caps of the time.

 

[Dan Kohli]

The authentic reproduction forge cap that I bought off a friend, was based on a wacky forage cap that the maker thought was made by Schuylkill Arsenal.

 

[RedRover]

The authentic reproduction forge cap that I bought off a friend, was based on a wacky forage cap that the maker thought was made by Schuylkill Arsenal.

The Schuylkill Arsenal facility made clothes, including these forage caps, by cutting out the pieces and bundling the materials and thread, etc., and letting the kits out to sewers in and about Philadelphia. They returned the finished garments for inspection and payment, and received more garment kits.

The arsenal received large quantities of contracted garments, including forage caps, during the war.

In the emergencies of 1861 especially, the Army accepted some contract garments that swayed way off from the "sealed pattern samples" that they generally compared the garments to. Contract garments were initially accepted by the Army in various cloth and even colors, with more concern for quick delivery, etc.

By the end of the war much of the confusion etc. had been worked out, and contracts handled better.