Uniform Quiz

[major bill]

Here is a plate from an older modeling magazine. Paul Stevenson discusses uniforms from the First Bull Run era in Sunday Picnic Uniforms. Can you name the 6 uniforms? I think 2 are real easy, but the other 4 are not real easy.

 

[AUG]

Top right is the Washington Artillery, I believe.

Bottom right is the 1st or 2nd Rhode Island Infantry?

 

[major bill]

Very good two right answers. Now it gets harder. We have 2 more Confederates and 2 more Union soldiers from the First Battle of Bull Run

 

[major bill]

Four black and white illustrations form the same article. Again a couple are easy and a couple harder.

 

[AUG]

In the above illustration I can tell two soldiers on the right are from the 79th New York Highlanders.

Are the two on the left from the 7th Louisiana Infantry? I can see an "A 7" in the officer's kepi, so Co. A, 7th Louisiana?

 

[AUG]

Also, looking at the top illustration again I can tell that the guy at top left in the gray uniform with blue trim is from the 4th Alabama Infantry. Thought it looked familiar. Noticed the same uniform in the Troiani print of the 4th Alabama at Manassas below.

 

[major bill]

You nailed 3 of the 4 . I am very impress. Now we need the officer on the left. I do not see a "7", if he had a number on his head gear it would be a "b" and a "4". All we need is the Confederate state that had a Company " B", 4th regiment at First Bull Run.

Interestingly he appear to wear "French peg trousers".

 

[AUG]

You nailed 3 of the 4 . I am very impress. Now we need the officer on the left. I do not see a "7", if he had a number on his head gear it would be a "b" and a "4". All we need is the Confederate state that had a Company " B", 4th regiment at First Bull Run.

Interestingly he appear to wear "French peg trousers".

By "A 7" I mean the officer to the left in the black and white illustration. So 7th Louisiana or 7th South Carolina?

In the colored illustration top left is 4th Alabama Infantry.

 

[Klaudly]

I know only 5 uniforms (of confederate soldiers)

 

[Yankeedave]

Who are the two union bottom left?

 

[James N.]

I easily recognize the B&W illustrations as the work of one of my favorite military artist & reenactor George Woodbridge:

These are all from a set he painted ca. 1960 for a Life Magazine Civil War Centennial series.

 

[major bill]

The article ID the uniforms in post #1 are:

Top are Confederates, left to right: Corporal 4th Alabama, Officer Hampton's Legion Infantry, Private Battalion of Washinton Artillery of New Orleans.

Bottom are Union: Sergeant 2nd Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers, Drummer 12th New York State Militia, corporal 1st Rhode Island Detached Militia.

 

[major bill]

The article attempts to list all the uniforms worn at the First Bull Run. Here is a table included. The issue is the magazine failed to print the key to the table.

 

[major bill]

I think I should post the last to sets of illustrations from Paul Stevenson's article. The first two are Confederates; Officer Madison Rangers, and Private company "H" 6th North Carolina.

These last two are so easy I will just post them.

This is the kind of Civil War uniform information modelers were getting to work with the early 1980s. Military Modelling was considered a good source for uniforms in the 1980s.

 

[donna]

Just love the uniforms. Thanks for posting. This is a lot to learn.

 

[MaryDee]

Not that I'll remember all this, but it's most interesting! It also illustrates how, early in the war, it was very easy to confuse which side the other guys were on!

 

[Tennessee_Mountainman]

I easily recognize the B&W illustrations as the work of one of my favorite military artist & reenactor George Woodbridge:

These are all from a set he painted ca. 1960 for a Life Magazine Civil War Centennial series.

Love it, especially the one with the 1812 flintlock. :3

 

[Yankeedave]

Meagher's zouave looks like he's holding a cell phone.

 

[beanbomb]

Interesting how it says that the 1st Virginia kept their hair long, while regulation says to keep the hair short. Did the 1st Virginia actually do this?

 

[James N.]

Interesting how it says that the 1st Virginia kept their hair long, while regulation says to keep the hair short. Did the 1st Virginia actually do this?

The best evidence (and likely source for most later illustrations) is probably this sketch by artist-correspondent Alfred Waud who was apprehended by the regiment during the Maryland Campaign in 1862 and detained while his belongings were searched to determine whether or not he was a spy. In the meantime, he was busily sketching his captors, providing what is probably the finest study of Confederate cavalry in the field. Here are his original sketch and the engraving based on it as it appeared in Harper's Weekly:

It appears that the description in Life was an exaggeration; though many members have long hair, the dapper trooper standing at the left obviously does not, nor do many others like the fellow lighting his pipe at the right.