"Union Infantry in the Western Theatre" Topic

I was going to start painting some Union brigades from the army of the Cumberland (Chickamauga) and I was curious if most of the men would have worn a kepi or some type of slouch hat? What do other TMPers use? I was thinking of using a mix of kepis and slouch hats in my Union units but maybe this is not a good idea. I am open to any suggestions.

A mix of about 20-30% Forage caps and 70-80% slouch hats would be appropriate.

I would go with a mix. In my units there are 60% forage caps and 40% slouch hats. But then again it is up to the individual. As long as you do a mix of whatever percent you like it will work.

Perhaps it's heresy, but I paint 15mm and I've painted up "confederate" units as Western yankees, so I have mostly broad brimmed hats with a few forage caps. And pretty much everyone has a blanket-roll. No one can tell the difference at that scale.

BY

Depends to be honest on the unit – after all, many of the units in the West started in the East; Western units like the Minnesota and Michigan units often had mostly slouch hats, while the New York units often had mostly forage caps

That being said, it seems from photos that the more seasoned the units in the West were, the more slouch hats they wore! I tend to paint my Western units as either all or mostly slouch hats (probably about the same ratio as ACWBill)

An exception are the US Coloured Troops, who I always paint with forage caps – I have yet to see a photo of ACW Coloured Troops with many, if any, slouch hats

There's a lot of variety. I've been researching Illinois units of late. One of them, (17th I think) is almost entirely in shell jackets and slouch hats. There is some contemporary art of a different Illinois unit, perhaps the 7th, (by a member of the regiment) showing them at Shiloh in sack coats and kepis, everyone.

Frederick, I always found that a curiosity as well. I do the same thing when painting US Colored Regiments. I also, have encountered no photographs of them in slouch hats.

I had thought that USCT units in the coastal Carolinas wore slouch hats. I'll try and source this.

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas on ratios for slouch hats to forage caps.

ACWBILL has a pretty good formula. If you want to confuse things, some few units would be in Hardee hats, especially early in the war. I have a photo of a Michigan unit outside of Atlanta wearing Harees without the brims turned up; looking all the world like heavily armed Pilgrims.

Modified Hardee hats were very common in the west. Why buy a new slouch hat when you can unpin the one you were issued, cave in the top to shorten the height, or trim the brims shorter. Or all at once. Many of the slouch hats you see in photos are modified dress hats.

If you are doing 15mm, Battle Honors Western/Iron Brigade pack is great. They look more like western troops to me and include "Old Abe", the eagle mascot of the 8th Wisconsin. The poses are mixed firing line. The drawback is thin flag staffs. I have replaced a number with brass rods.

I find the barrels in that Battle Honors pack to be too thin for my tastes.

vtsaogames,

Thanks for the figure suggestions unfortunately my ACW armies are 20mm, so if anyone has some good suggestions for that size I am all ears.

I DID A federal infantry impression for 20 plus years, never wore anything other than a blanketroll, (didnt need anything else)…..wait, that didnt sound quite right. I never wore a knapsack, and I only only only wore a foragecap for specific LH programs, other than that it was a battered black or very dark brown civilian hat

"Modified Hardee hats were very common in the west. Why buy a new slouch hat when you can unpin the one you were issued, cave in the top to shorten the height, or trim the brims shorter. Or all at once. Many of the slouch hats you see in photos are modified dress hats."

You really don't need to do much modification. I'm a Yankee re-enactor and bought a nice quality dress Hardee a few years back. Even with the relative light duty we put the hats thru, in short order they look like a slouch hat. You just end up losing all the nice parts and it gets weather battered. I figure the real guys got issued the hats from inventory and it simply wasn't a priority to repair them.

Olaf03, you might want to consider the Blue Moon 18mm ACW line, which now has an array of figures suited to Western federals. These may close to the size of your 20 mm figures.

For 20mm the ImexAccurate line has a lot of slouch hats and get be augmented with plenty of lead from RSM/DPC, Kennington, Newline and Sgts Mess.

DCW1962 and Milhouse,

Thanks for the figure suggestions. I have lots of the Imex and RSM figures but I will have to take a look at some of the other manufacturers.

Does anyone make figures that could work for Wilder's mounted infantry in 20mm? Would it be best to use dismounted cav?

If I remember correctly, when they were first mounted in 1863 they were issued cavalry shell jackets. They promptly removed all the yellow piping. I don't have my research with me, and my copy of Blue Lightning is at home. However, the one confirmed picture of a member of the brigade in 1863 shows the soldier wearing a sack coat.

If that is correct, yes, you could use normal cavalry and just not paint any yellow piping. Getting mounted figures in sack coats would be a problem.

I wouldn't get too hung up on adhering to certain percentages. I think one might find whole regiments where very few men were wearing the forage cap. On the other hand, like someone said above, certain regiments--perhaps some recently transferred from The East--might be overwhelmingly dressed in the forage cap. I too was a reenactor for 20-plus years, doing both Federal and Conf. impressions, in what would have been the western theater of the ACW. It certainly feels better to wear the broad-brimmed hat, which gives you shade in the hot sun and means to keep the rain from running down the back of your neck in wet weather. Anyone who doubts this should try donning a forage cap and marching around in Mississippi, in summer. However, ultimately much depends on what the unit commander wants the soldiers to do and/or what he will allow them to do. I'm building some 25/28mm ACW armies, and they'll be western armies. I look for "Confederates" wearing the slouch hat, and paint them as Federals. But I try to find ones wearing sack coats, rather than shell jackets. [The ones wearing shell jacket and slouch hat can be thrown in the pile that's to be painted as Confederates.] It's hard to find any figures LABELLED as "Union" that wear the combination of sack coat and slouch hat. That's unfortunate; I'm convinced that hordes of the western Federals would have worn that combination. Oh well, my two cents' worth. Happy gaming, all!

My understanding is that the Army of the Cumberland had the proportion mentioned by ACWBill. However I have read some personal memoirs that indicated the Union Army of the Tennessee was all slouch hats. There was an anecdote that when the 11th and 12th Corps units showed up with their Kepis, the Army of the Tenessee soldiers laughed and made fun of them. I like the Blue Moon figures for the western troops.

The Atlanta Cyclorama depicting the Batte of Atlanta has the Tanks with a mix but predominantly slouch.

The Union side of the Battle of Atlanta was the Army of the Tennessee.

Here is some on a couple of Minnesota regiments in the west, pictures are in the state capital

link

link

Being only a recent convert to purchasing Yankees …i'm quite content to listen to ACWBill and Cleburne1863 on this one

Blue Moon does a couple of nice packs of western union infantry in 15/18mm.