"Early War uniforms?" Topic

Just curious…Just started to watch "Gods and Generals" and viewing the "Battle of Manassas" scene i say a few uniforms that raised a question. One uniform worn by the Union was Blue pants, Red shirt along with a "Fez", it didn't appear to be a Zouave uniform. The second was worn by the Confederate side. It was what seemed to be "American Colonial" in style, along with tri/bi-corn hats. Anyone able to give me some insight or history about these uniforms? Of course I'm aware of it being a movie and Hollywood production and don't want to start a debate about how many buttons the northern frock coat and southern sack coat had, just some simple insight. Thank You.

That's probably a 'fire zouave', such as the 11th NY. They wore a combination of near-zouave items, among them the red fez, red shirt (usually with a fireman bib front) and Federal issue trousers. There are a number of variants.

One of the osprey books has some early war uniforms of the various state militia. They are probably dress uniforms rather than campaign ones, but there are many that are at least as colourful as napoleonic uniforms.

When the first troops were raised, many were locally raised by prominent citizens, town councils, etc. As such they chose their own uniforms and many of them were quite colorful – as noted verging on Napoleonic. There were bearskins, epaulettes, piping, etc.

However most of these were retired from service within a few weeks or months. After Bull Run/Manassas the two armies have pretty much adopted common uniforms for their troops with a few minor exceptions.

Yeah, The uniforms were quit "garish" to say the least. The idea of doing a unit of fire Zouaves is appealing to me. I happen to be a career fireman. This would add some color to my army…

My unit is one of the units in the Manassas scene from G&G. The red shirt, blue fez was the Fire Zouaves as noted. The colonial style was, from memory, a unit from North Carolina called the Washington Guards or some such. As a side note the 14th Brooklyn was almost in the movie, but the reenactors came up one person short to have enough to be used for CGI. My unit was the US Marines.

The Carroll Guards (later 20th Mississippi) wore grey frocks faced blue with tricorns, the Adams Rifles as well.

Tricorns were common in the early war Army of Mississippi but not for too long. The 2nd Miss also comes to mind for early war, they sported tricorns at Manassas, blue battleshirts with red edging, some had white stars on the collars, some on the hats.

I do recall the unit in blue regimentals faced white that wore more of a military bicorne but the exact units escapes me. North Carolina sounds right, I will see what I can dig up.

Sean

Both Volunteer uniforms and fgures are made in 15mm by QRF.

Stepman 3,

Saw your post and thought I would add my $.02. The 5th Virginia Infantry Reg't, one of the 5 VA reg'ts making up the Stonewall Brigade (prior to 1st Manassas it was known as the 1st Brigade)had a company (K) that wore the 'buff and blue' of Washington's continental line.

Check out this link, it might help with your questions:

geocities.com/csa5va

Larry

Stepman 3,

The Company of Military Historians "Military Uniforms in America" plate series includes two plates depicting uniforms of the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry (Ellsworth's First New York Fire Zouaves). Elmer S. Ellsworth formed the unit from New York City firemen in April 1861. It took part in the occupation of Alexandria, VA, where Ellsworth was martyred while removing an enemy flag, and fought at Bull Run. It saw service at Fortress Monroe and Newport News before being mustered out on June 2, 1862.

Their initial uniform was a light gray Zouave-type outfit, but this uniform wore out within a month. At Bull Run they wore regulation dark blue army trousers. Dark blue jackets with red trim had been issued (no details of these have been found), but most men fought in their red firemens' shirts and a red fez with blue tassels. Many wore black firemens' scarves and their fire department company badges pinned to their shirts. They were issued red blankets and blue sashes. some wore brown leather gaiters. Officers wore regulation blue army uniforms and a red kepi with blue band and gold trim.

On the Company of Military Historians website you can order copies of most of their uniform plates for a very reasonable price. These include one or two pages of detailed reseach notes. These plates (614 and 615) would really look nice on a career fireman's wall!

Thank you Larry… I really appreciated that bit of info…