Top hats

[Old Soldier]

The uniforms were quite .. original at the start of the War. The existing regular regiments were clothed by the State and were provided by the individual states in the case of the militia. The uniforms of volunteer regiments were often the whim of the founders of those regiments who chose - and paid - for them. So we have zouaves, redcoats, even kilts and bagpipes in those regiments. However, in the field, the 'standard' uniforms predominated - mostly because they were provided by the State in quantity, they also cost less and were more practical than those at the start. The volunteer regiments really ceased to exist after the first year as more were incorporated into the field army.

 

[Dacluver]

@Dullknife @Quantrill's Missouri making an online find a grave about quantrills men. There is a doctor in there that was executed by the yanks. He has a prewar image in a top hat.

 

[DoctorKingSchultz]

Yes, hats of the "stovepipe" form were still fashion in the early 1860s. Worn both formally and in "morning dress" (basically business attire) by many.

In George Caleb Bingham's 1854 election painting, you can see top hats yet about, though the more comfortable slouch hat was most common:
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By the 1860s, the tall hats were still fashion..


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Cairo, Illinois post office, 1861, at least one chap in a stove-pipe at right:

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As mentioned above, they were not part of the period "military fashion" and not universally worn among the citizenry, but some were employed by militia, Confederates, etc. where necessary.

Here's a group of Charlestonians posing with a field piece in 1861, in their citizen's dress, some including top hats. Very likely militia.

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Here's a wartime Indiana Home Guard:

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When Company A, 6th Indiana Regiment of Volunteers formed in April, 1861, before they received any uniforms, the fellows posed in their civilian dress:
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Such hats are not the best for active military service, but considering the poverty of suitable clothing among the Confederates, they might be put to use in a pinch as evidenced by some period sketches.

Edwin Forbes sketched Confederate Prisoners taken at the Battle of Chancellorsville, VA May 3, 1863, showing some...

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After their raid into Ohio and Indiana, General John Hunt Morgan's Confederate cavalry were described as rather un-uniform, having appropriated a wide variety of clothing along their long ride by the time they were imprisoned at Camp Morton:

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An from a Waud sketch of some of the more destitute prisoners collected from Lee's army at the siege of Petersburg in 1864:
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Brigadier General Joseph Finegan, commanding Lee's Florida Brigade in the last year of the war, was noted as customarily wearing his citizen's coat and top hat and waving his cane at the Battle of Cold Harbor in June, 1864.



When Lee's army marched into Pennsylvania in June, 1863, the militia of the State was called forth to defend Harrisburg:
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At the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, local citizen John Burns joined in the battle in his modest stove-pipe:

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At President Lincoln's second inauguration in March, 1865, there was still a top hat or two to be seen among some gents in the crowd:
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And in 1866 they still might be seen among some in Congress:

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I realize the read is old, but I wanted to add:

Stovepipes were not really the fashion of the 1860s - those still wearing them as the decade progressed were increasingly years out of date! There is not a stovepipe in this image.

This is not a stovepipe. A stovepipe is even higher than this.

Stovepipes are more like these, there's several in this one you've definitely got correctly.

John L Burns in one of several of the photos taken during this shoot. This is not a stovepipe or particularly tall. Most of these images show top hats hardly much taller than at most other points in the century. Stovepipes particularly refer to a style within a range of about a decade.

Lincoln is also not a great reference at all for what the popular fashions of the 1860s looked like. Stovepipes went away aside from the very early 1860s, these aren't the most fashion forward crowds. Of the individuals and groups here - a veteran of a war half a century earlier, a middle-aged president and Congressmen - they're going to be some of the most conservatives parts of society. Thank you for sharing nonetheless, this is a great thread sir.