Uniforms Walhalla Riflemen

[Harrison1871]

I think I see dark collars, dark cloth shoulder straps (epaulets wuthering out fringe, but fringe on the officers). I also think I see two buttons on the coat sleeves. At least the officers might have what I call 'French' cuff with flashes on their sleeve. These flashes covered where the sleeves could open, originally to reenfoce the flap and to prevent fraying, but by the Civil War many of these were purely decorative and the sleeve cuffs did not open (false flashes or false button patches).

The officers in the image may have false button hole trim, again originally used to prevent fraying about the button holes. It was fairly common for both officers and enlisted to have these 'French' cuffs with false button hole trim, often the offices had more buttons on the sleeves than the enlisted men.

For our forum members who are not uniform people. 'Polish' cuffs had pointed turn backs on the cuffs so the cuffs could be unbuttoned and pulled down over the top of the hand to keep it warn. But leave the fingers free to fire the musket. "'French' cuffs might or might not have a cuffs that could be turned down. 'German' cuffs were usually a strait turn back. By the Civil War many turn back cuffs were unfunctionable and were just cloth decorations. See the US Army frock coat points cuffs and the turn back were nothing more than a pointed cord trim. Some Army frock coats did have cuffs that opened.

Again perhaps a real uniform expert will comment and correct me.

I agree with all of this! As far as the style of cuffs, the rule book only specifies: "the cuffs to have two buttons each" this doesn't necessarily rule out Polish or Swedish cuffs, but I would say that most likely this refers to French cuffs, especially after looking at the photo.

 

[Harrison1871]

Another interesting thing (to me at least) is the lack of swords for the officers. It seems to me that almost all units, whether militia or regulars, furnished their officers with swords. Yet I don't see any swords or for that matter any sidearms at all. Is there any explanation?

 

[major bill]

This is an example of a 'German' style uniform worn by an early Civil War unit. While two figures wear New York issue uniform and one wears a Zouave uniform, the other three wear 'German' style uniforms. Note the shorter coat that flares over the hips. The enlisted men wear colored cloth straps, colored collar. In this case the cuffs are of the 'French' style. Also note the trousers are gray. Other ethnic German units wore different style uniforms, but these are a fair example of "German' style uniforms.

 

[Harrison1871]

Exactly what I meant when I said "German" uniforms! These are a prime example of the German American fusion of this time period, and I would say that the Walhalla Riflemen's uniform pretty much fits the bill for this style of uniform, at least as far as the coat is concerned. It is interesting to me that a predominantly German unit would field French influenced zouaves, considering the animosity between the German states and France at the time. It is also somewhat disappointing to me that so many interesting uniforms were replaced by government issue uniforms and never got to see real service.

 

[Mississippian1861]

Out of curiosity, I looked up how many German born men were living in Pickens County in 1860. The records show 41, with the vast majority of them being in the reasonable age of military service. Almost all living in Walhalla or the part of Pickens County that became Oconee County just after the war.