The famous kepi hat

As far as the Confederate States,

The Kepi was the regulation headwear, with the band to be dark blue, and the crown the color of the corps, with the regimental numbers worn on the front of the cap in yellow metal. The havelock was actually required by regulation, for both hot weather and in the winter, in foul weather, the tarred or rubber havelock was to be worn....... of course, we know things were MUCH different in the field for the Confederate soldier
 
Very cool 64th I thought it looked strange, I forgot about the Whipple. I think Dirty Billy makes a repro of one of those. Anyboby else got any cool headgear photos?
 
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Found it on a Kansas page, they claim it is a slouch hat.
 
If i was issued that hat,it trade hats with the very firts person i saw killed over....:tongue:
 
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Starbuck Kepi inside.jpg
Starbuck Kepi.jpgStarbuck Kepi inside.jpg

The pictures are of a Kepi made by Greg Starbuck that I own.

The brim is leather bound around by a thin piece of leather. The material outside is a tan (photo makes color look gray) color jean cloth with the leather chin strap held in place by Federal Eagle cuff buttons.

The inside shows the lining to be cotton type shirting material, with a thin leather sweatband hand sewn (note stitching) in place.
Nothing says "Civil War" like a Kepi Cap, but they sure are lacking in the "head protection" department!:cry:

Kevin Dally
 
Kepi outside.jpgKepi inside.jpg

I own two Kepi's for Confederate impressions...

This one was made by a Professor at Baylor University, (in the late 90's) who occasionally does events with us. No, he doesn't make em anymore, but I'm lucky to have one of his as an example. he did some research on originals to see what materials he needed to make these.
It has a stiff paste-board visor (layers of cereal box cardboard glued together) painted black, with a cloth edging sewn around it. The material is gray jean cloth. The leather chin strap is held in place with a couple of Federal Eagle cuff buttons. The stiff insert on the top section of the hat is also painted paste-board, covered by the jean cloth.

The inside is lined with white polished cotton, with a painted cloth sweatband hand sewn together. note the stitching on the sweatband, and the visor.

Kevin Dally
 
In the United States, the kepi is most often associated with the American Civil War era, and continued into the Indian Wars. Union Officers were generally issued kepis for fatigue use. A close copy of the contemporary French kepi, it had a sunken top and squared visor. It was often called a "McClellan cap", after the Union commander of the Army of the Potomac, G.B. McClellan. For field officers, the caps were often decorated in a French-influenced style, with a dark velvet band around the base and black silk braiding on the crown. The kepi was also popular with various state units and as privately-purchased headgear; e.g., it was standard issue in 1861 for New York infantry regiments. The kepi is not to be confused with the model 1858 forage cap, which evolved directly from the shako used by the regular army earlier in the 1850s (see the design of the crown, chinstrap, brim, and buckle).Essentially, the forage cap, described by some troops as "shapeless as a feedbag," was a less-expensive and more comfortable version of the earlier shako with the stiffening removed. The forage cap became the most common form of cap worn by U.S. regulars and volunteers during the American Civil War, though it is most commonly associated with the eastern theater of the war, since western troops generally preferred broad brimmed felt hats (see photos of Sherman's army parading through Washington D.C. at war's end). The forage cap appears in films such as Gettysburg, Gods and Generals, and Glory. Some Union units wore coloured variants, as some illustrative examples show:
  • 14th NY (from Brooklyn) – dark blue base, red sides, dark blue top, red circular insert
  • 12th NY – red base, grey sides, red top, white piping and later – dark blue base, light blue top and sides, white piping
  • 11th Indiana – all red cap
  • U.S. Sharpshooters – dark green (also used forage caps)
While some Confederate troops wore the forage cap (Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson wore the plain dark blue round-visored forage cap from his days as an instructor at the Virginia Military Institute), Confederate uniform regulations specified a French-style kepi. These were to be trimmed as follows:

  • ConfederateRegulars:
    • 1st pattern
      • Infantry – light blue base, grey sides and top
      • Cavalry – yellow base, grey sides and top
      • Artillery – red base, grey sides and top
    • 2nd pattern
      • Infantry – dark blue base, light blue sides and top
      • Cavalry – dark blue base, yellow sides and top
      • Artillery – dark blue base, red sides and top
The regulations were often ignored because of the scarcity of materials and the need for rapid production. The average Confederate kepi usually was a simple gray or butternut cap made of wool or jean wool. To save leather for shoes and accoutrements, by mid-war Confederate kepi brims often were made of tarred cloth; chinstraps were sometimes omitted. [3][4][dead link] Many Confederate units wore unique versions of the kepi. These included:

After the war the U.S. Army issued a series of kepi undress caps, characterised by their increasing smartness and decreasing practicality. The last model was issued in 1896. When the United States introduced a revised blue dress uniform in 1902, the kepi was discontinued in favour of a conventional visor cap with wide top and a steep visor.

The Army's current field cap, with its flat top and visor, is a variation of the kepi. It was adopted after World War II and was "blocked" with heavy starching and ironing until it was replaced with a baseball-style cap during the Vietnam War. The present-day Army cap was introduced in the 1980s with the adoption of the old-style BDU uniforms, and was retained when the ACUPAT digital-pattern camouflage uniforms were introduced in 2005.

Nice post, great info !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
The Kepi, like the McDowell, is completely useless in the field. They thought it looked cool. Reminds me of the army beret, another stupid, useless piece of headgear that someone thought looked cool.
 
As far as the Confederate States,
I thought I posted to this thread but I think it got lost in the ethernet. My cable connection was acting up last week.

The above refers to Confederate kepi's. Did this apply to Officer kepi's??
I was told that the regulations allowed for Officers to wear their regimental ID on the front of their hat. Some argue that was not correct. Of course, as it has been said here, the wearing of kepi was not the norm for the Confederates.

Note my Avatar image shows me wearing an officer's kepi with the Regiment ID on the front just above the chin strap. The problem with that is the buckle for the chin strap rests next to the brass numbers, so I had to move it off to the side.
 
The Kepi, like the McDowell, is completely useless in the field. They thought it looked cool. Reminds me of the army beret, another stupid, useless piece of headgear that someone thought looked cool.
The Forage is ment to help you Forage. It also kept the sun out of your eyes. It was not compleatly useless.
PS
im not implying that forage caps are just as good as full brim hats.
 
The Forage is ment to help you Forage. It also kept the sun out of your eyes. It was not compleatly useless.
PS
im not implying that forage caps are just as good as full brim hats.
The Kepi isn't the same as a forage cap. I'm not sure if the brims were the same. It probably depended on who made them. My McDowell, by Dirty Billy, doesn't keep anything out of your eyes.
 
Had to throw this guy in here after I came across him. I saved it because of the night cap comming out from under his Kepi, kinda like the guy in the previouse set with the one under his slouch. Looking more closely though there are several neat things in the photo. Ga. State jacket, cool moustach, but check out that canteen tin drum style with one convex side, leather strap, wood stopper on what appears to be a leather thong, and IT's COVERED! I have seen debated as to wheather or not these were ever covered well boy's there you go.... oh and uh girls:unsure:

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