Uniform Question

Jace Beleren

Private
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
I was at a reenactment the past weekend and a unit showed up for the first time. Ive never seen any uniforms like theirs. They wore richmond type 1 or 2 jackets, (richmond grey), White cotton trousers, gaiters, black "hardee looking" hats (undressed). They wore blank belt plates (marine?/Militia?). Their cartridge box slings were white canvas, and they carried wooden canteens. Chevrons were black tape, and all I was told by one of my pards is that they do 1861. Does anyone know what they were portraying? I would like to know i never got the chance to ask.
 
Thats what I was thinking.Sounds like they missed the train stop at Manassas.I dont have a clue,but i am sure someone will show up soon enough that knows.
 
yea it was strange, their officer had shoulder boards, and carried a straight nco looking sword. Plus the odd thing is; they had the strangest manual of arms. It was like the British manual of arms(18th Cen), but with strange touches.
 
Yes, it Looked like Gilham's, but there were slight tweaks. It was a very flash drill, with alot of slapping of rifles.
 
YES! Some looked just like that, but others had Shell jacket and white trousers. But with out the green trim
 
Yeah! just like that but with hardee hats and white gaitors, their officer was very impressed with us, were LA Special Batallion 40 strong.
 
Sounds like a modern version of the VMI and VPI Corps of Cadets uniform (VMI is Gray Blouse, Tech is Blue) with white trousers and crossed white belts with black tape trip. VMI uses Shakos but I believe they employed Kepis or Mexican War era wheel hats during the war. There also seems to be some debate about the color of the trousers as a few VMI sources indicate the trousers were light gray during the war.
 
I'm not much of an expert on uniforms(yet,hehe),but could this be just a sort of unit affectation like those Florida straw-hats?Apologies to the Fl boys if this is a real documented thing.
 
One way or tother,I'm going with early(very) war.This would be something that I would expect to see at 1st Bull Run
 
I know for a fact that they are not VMI, because there is a VMI unit that sometimes shows up. There was no VMI on my reports, come to think of it there was no Virginia and we marked these guys down as "militia".
 
With so many early war units wearing their militia uniforms or uniforms they adopted when the unit formed it would be hard to guess. Many pre war militia units wore white trousers. Photos of them would have helped.
 
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