The search for an appropriate head wear.

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Forum Host
Joined
Aug 25, 2012
I thought we might take a new look at Civil War caps and hats and how the experience of the Civil War impacted the U.S. Army's search for proper head wear.

The Civil War should have clearly demonstrated to the U.S. Army what kind of head wear was best for soldiers. But did the U.S. Army use the information gained during the civil War? To better understand this we should look at Army head wear in the years leading up to the Civil War and the use of caps and has during the Civil War. Then if we look at Army caps and hats in the few years following the Civil War, we can see what the Army leaned about soldiers' head wear during the Civil War.
 
The U.S. Army gain some experience during the Mexican American War with the correct head wear for soldiers during a war. The standard cap of this period was the 1839-1851 Forage Cap. These cap are broken down into type I, type II, and type III styles, but all three types are similar. In general this type of cap seemed to be a piratical form of cap for soldiers.

In 1847 the U.S. Army tested the Voltigeur or "Andrews" Hat for foot troops. This was a wide brimmed hat that could have two sides turned up and worn like a bicorne, with three sides up like a tricorne (cocked hat), or the brim down all around like a cowboy hat. This hat did not prove satisfactory and was never adopted for the entire Army. This failed experiment probably discouraged the Army from considering brimmed hats for a almost a decade.

The next Army cap was the 1851 Pattern cap. This was tall and stiff, and often did not look sharp after long use. It was probably reasonably practical and the Army changed to the 1854 Pattern Cap which eliminated the color bands but did not much changed the basic cap.

The 1858 Pattern Forage Cap replaced the older patterns for fatigue duty and in general was similar to the standard Civil War cap but a bit taller.

The Army tried hats once again with the 1855 Pattern Cavalry Hat. These were much like the 1858 Army Hat. The 1858 Pattern Army Hat was the basic Army Hat during the Civil War.

Officers did wear bicorne style chapeaus During the pre Civil War period, but were officer dress hats and out side of the subject of our thread.

With the 1858 Pattern forage Cap and the 1858 Army Hat for dress (at times worn in the field as forage hats as well), the Army did have fairly practical head wear at the start of the Civil War.
 
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