"Grenadier's Miter: Practical? Tactical?" Topic

I can't remember ever trying on a miter cap of the size (and one would imagine, weight) worn by troops in the 18th Century, but just looking at it, it seems like a pretty impractical hat. I wondering if it had any practical use beyond making the troops look taller.

Does it actually stay on your head while running, or fighting? It looks really tall and tippy. Does it keep your ears warm or keep the rain off? Maybe it helps the troops to stand tall and march in unison? I know they took the floppy cap and "stiffened" it, but I'm just not sure why it was so popular. Because some troops had done famously well while wearing them?

How do you keep that thing from falling off, pin it to your wig? And glue the wig to your head?

Please enlighten me.

I know they took the floppy cap and "stiffened" it, but I'm just not sure why it was so popular.

Because it looked good, and also appealed to the trend in uniformity. It tracks perfectly with the similar evolution in hats becoming tricorns, as well as the "formalization" of cuffs, lapels and turnbacks.

As far as I can remember the mitre was introduced to allow grenadiers to throw grenades without jamming into the hat. The first miters were small and floppy. The later evolution into a taller and stiffer item was probably a matter of "fashion". Never forget also that the original grenadiers weren't the tallest men of the battalion but the more experienced and serviceable.

Fabrizio

Also a tricorne caught brimmed hats, when they slung their firearms to deploy grenades.

French Grenadiers in the WSS were often found wearing unofficial Dragoon hats instead of tricones for this reason.

As for how to keep it from falling off, 18th C. cavalry wearing fur caps kept them in place by a ribbon running under the queue (contrary to popular imagery, common soldiers did not wear wigs). It's possible that grenadiers did the same?

The "dragoon hats" were forage caps, which all troops were isued with for wearing in camp. It was the obvious thing to wear when you needed to sling and unsling your musket repeatedly and in a hurry. That's why dragoons, esp. in the French service, often wore theirs even when on duty, as did infantry pioneers. Confronted with the same problem, grenadiers went for the tried and tested solution.

In a way, the evolution towards tall mitres marks the time when grenadiers stopped actually lobbing grenades – for a tall cap would have been nearly as impractical for slinging one's musket as a brimmed hat. So by that time, yes it's prestige and the attempt to make men look taller. Prussian fusiliers, recruited from a population deemed less tall on average than Brandenburgers and Pomeranians, were given a mitre-like cap for the same reason.

Does it actually stay on your head while running…

Grenadiers weren't supposed to run. Nobody was supposed to run. Once soldiers started to run, the officers lost control of the unit.
Running is for the savage and primitive 20th Century, not the more stately and civilized 18th.

The purpose of the mitre cap was to make the grenadier look taller and scarier, while he "charges" at a stately pace.
Although not grenadiers, this is fast as a charge was.
YouTube link

Next question, ask about the sabretache, or the hussar's purse.

Agreed – the 18th century was not, to be diplomatic, the realm of practical in military fashion; the more pragmatic uniforms of earlier times were evolving just as civilian fashion evolved

Plus, as noted, line infantry did not run anywhere – except in a rout, which was the sort of outcome that no one was designing uniforms for

I shall ask the Opposing Forces when we do Trenton next Saturday. The Hessians who play are also very knowledgeable about both their kit and the 18th century material culture in general…

Eric

The mitre cap is attached to the back of their hair, which was often plaited to help hold the cap on their head.

Soldiers did indeed run/move fast, and did quit a bit in the AWI period.

While the British might have eventually stored their bearskins away later in the war (they belonged to the colonel, not the men – unlike the cocked hats), they did wear them up through the Brandywine campaign at least.

The Barry Lyndon charge is actually a bit fast, and the firing starts at rather long ranges, even for the French!

Some of our assumptions on when the fired might need to be modified. It was not uncommon for someone to open fire at 100 yards or more.

We have a movie as proof of when the French would open fire.

I fully endorse musketier's point about the mitre form reflecting the fact that by that stage grenadiers were not needing to sling their muskets in order to throw grenades- (although I suspect that even that familiar explanation is one that has been made with hindsight. It used to be said that the cap was to enable grenadiers to throw grenades without tangling with their hat brims, until somebody asserted that grenades were the own under arm. Is that actually true?). It's worth bearing in mind, though, that even some early grenadier caps could be quite high in the front.

I have also read the explanation that the soft-crowned fur brimmed cap worn by early grenadiers was simply easier to keep on than a broad brimmed felt hat and less likely to interfere with visiblity when storming a breach.

I think that in the end looking for practical explanations of the grenadier cap might be a red herring. Their essential function may well have been simply to be impressive, whether fur-trimmed to make the men look like wild Hungarians or with Royal cyphers embroidered on the frontlet to reflect the glory of the monarch.

It is also worth bearing mind that, as far as I am aware- although I stand to be corrected here- that French grenadier units- the first to be formed in western Europe- wore hats until the mid-18th century.

One serious limit on functional grenadiers dashing about would have been the satchel loaded with three or four heavy metal balls clanking on their thigh. Isn't that one of the reason why robust men were chosen?

It would be really nice to read a digest of contemporary accounts of grenadiers in action during the period when they served in the role for which they had been formed. It might be quite revealing.