Richmond Clothing Bureau 'red caps"

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Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Just finished reading "Red Caps" for Wily Pegram's Artillery Battalions: Issue of Kepis for Artillery in the ANV during 1863-1864 by Richard M. Milstead in the Spring 2019 issue of the Journal of the the Company of Military Historians. The article documents the issue of "artillery caps" "regulation caps", or "red caps" to some Confederate Artillery men. It appears two styles of artillery caps were made by the RCB.

So was it probable units like the Pee Dee (SC) Artillery and Palmetto Light Artillery (SC) were wearing red artillery caps in early 1864? An interesting article and it does seem to support that many Confederate artillerymen were wearing "red caps" during 1864.
 
Two variations of Richmond Depot artillery caps from http://adolphusconfederateuniforms.com/virginia-army-uniform-a-conjecture.html
artillery cap 1.jpg
artillery cap 2.jpg
 
Richard M. Milstead uses three color and one black and white image in his article. The caps images used in the article are from the Collection of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, and the Collection of south Carolina Relic Room and Military Museum. They match fairly well the above caps.

So did Pegram's Artillery Battalions make an efforts to obtain this type of artillery cap? This does appear to be the case in the chart used by Richard M. Milstead.
 
I found the article interesting. I do not know Richard M. Milstead, but I am assuming he is a known uniform researcher.
 
To my knowledge there are fewer than 10 enlisted RD kepis known, here is a picture of an artillery piece in my collection attributed to McCarthy of the Richmond Howitzers:

IMG_3411.JPG

Richard M. Milstead uses three color and one black and white image in his article. The caps images used in the article are from the Collection of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, and the Collection of south Carolina Relic Room and Military Museum. They match fairly well the above caps.

So did Pegram's Artillery Battalions make an efforts to obtain this type of artillery cap? This does appear to be the case in the chart used by Richard M. Milstead.
Crutchfield's Artillery was also known to have fought as infantry at Salyer's Creek with their distinctive red hats.
 
How common was it for a unit to wear a kepi the color for their branch? Was artillery red more common than say cavalry yellow?
Artillery red was way more common than yellow, which was difficult to obtain in bulk, though records do indicate that facing material was imported in blue, red, yellow/buff and even green. There are very few cavalry hats extant that show evidence of having the yellow or buff facings. IMHO this was a result of those colors being reserved for officers uniform facings.
 
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