Fusileer

grossmusic

Cadet
Joined
Jan 31, 2013
Location
Orlando (formerly of Chicagoland)
Sometimes spelled Fusilier (European).

In the context of the Civil War, how would you define a Fusileer? Or a Fusileer regiment?

Is it just about the flintlock weaponry? Did any Civil War units define themselves by this obsolete weaponry or is there a newer, more profound meaning to the word?

Fusileers are notorious for flamboyant costume-like uniforms... Anyone know why & how that was perpetuated in the Civil War?

I'm looking for descriptive, poetic, academic, etc., definitions based on the understanding of Civil War buffs.
 
IIRC, Fusileers were originally units equipped with early flintlocks, and since they didn’t have the always burning matches of matchlock musketeers they’d be assigned to guard the gunpowder stores of the army. Thus, they tended to be both the best equipped and best trained men in a given military, elite units basically. Fancy uniforms came along with that status, naturally. As the flintlock became derigure the role faded but the name for elite units or units which once held the role and wanted to keep the tradition alive stick. I’m not aware of any Civil War units using the moniker but you could probably find one somewhere. In such cases, it would likely be a militia unit either carrying foreward a prerevolutionary term, or just looking for the coolness factor.
 
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