"Wilders Brigade of Mounted Infantry" Topic

Hats, what hats would they have worn, I know they were issued Cavalry uniforms, but would that have been Kepi or Slouch?

I know a lot of Union troops in the western theatre wore the Slouch and the re-enactors site for this unit has most of them in slouch, with an odd kepi?

Anyone know a better answer?

My understanding is that they were issued the 1858 Hardee hat, but sutlers that accompanied the army sold civilian slouch hats (black or dark blue mainly) that the enlisted men were allowed to wear if their army-issued hear gear needed replacement. Very few kepis, if any at all.

You can't go too wrong to assume various darker colored hats for almost all the guys in the Army of the Cumberland and the Army of the Tennessee(Grant), with some exceptions but not many! Many various styles of hat also were worn

I am looking at this from a manufacturing point of view. The fewer sculpts the quicker they can be released.

Cavalry uniforms without trim, as they tore it off, hats not kepis and of course hatchets.

Reenactor link with descriptions of modified gear with annotation

link

What scale will the figures be?

The brigade were issued, as noted by Knight Templer, with cavalry uniforms including short jackets, but for certain the 17th and 72nd Indiana and the 98th Illinois removed the trim; I can't find a clear record, but it seems likely that the 92nd and 123rd Illinois did as well

The most common headgear was a small black hat with no trim – some troopers wore kepis (I have a picture of one on a private in the 72nd Indiana), but they seemed to be quite rare and hats as noted were more common

From the point of view of manufacturing, you would not be far off if all the sculpts had hats – as noted, a small hat was most common, and it appears that Hardees were almost as uncommon as kepis

One other thing – for most of the war, they were not issued with sabres (until 1865, and even then only four companies in the whole brigade) but were all issued with hatchets, which they wore on their saddles – the weapons issues were actually more mixed than one would think, with the 17th and 72nd having Spencers rifles, the 93rd and 123rd a mixture of Spencer rifles and carbines, and the 92nd a mixture of Spencer and Burnside carbines – that being said, if you stuck to Spencer rifles or carbines, you would not be far off the mark

Might depend on WHEN. For instance, when were they issued with cavalry jackets? Probably not the instant the received horses. During the Tullahoma campaign they were still part on an infantry corps.

Don: From the regimental history of the 72nd Indiana it sounds like they were issued with cavalry uniforms at the same time they were mounted, in 1863

I think they got the uniforms before the mounts, uniforms being easier to come by than mounts. That is because they were converted in campaign.

They did before they got tack as they had to improvise it to ride.

Release would be in 6mm and 28mm, just finalising the to do lists for both ranges. Timescalewise they should be done within the next year but I am not promising.

Information I have says they had cavalry uniforms while they were still trying to find enough horses and to get their Rifles sorted out, so I assumed they had them from the first point that they were designated Mounted Infantry.

Fredd – Right you are – they were designated as mounted infantry from the get-go; the Union armies in the West had a big problem with nimble Confederate raiders and agile cavalry, and one of the solutions proposed was to develop mounted infantry as a sort of "quick reaction force" with substantial firepower – Wilder volunteered his brigade for the task, but two of his original regiments balked at being mounted so were transferred out and two more were transferred in – as Knight Templer astutely notes, they were transferred in the field, so it was not exactly orderly

After all that discussion (worthwhile as usual) you will likely sell a scad of them as they are a pretty powerfull outfit in most rulesets, as they should be! And by the way, Eastern (Union)armies should not get any without loud outcrys of protest from ANV partisans!

:) docdennis1968, yes I know they are seen as an uberunit, but it was more to try and cover all the more common variations, in their defence there were as many men in Wilders unit as there was in the Iron Brigade which also is on the list, at the moment there are 4 kinds of zouave headgear on the sculpt list as well.