"76th penn keystones zouaves" Topic

Have been painting up some of the Perry plastic zouaves and I notice on the enclosed information sheet that the 76th zouaves was only one company, the rest in normal uniform. Is this correct ? in the couple of books I have there is no mention of there being only one company in zouave dress.

Thank you,

Dave.

You could ask here too….

link

Zou-zou-zou!!!!

Troiani has a print of the 76th. The documentation states the uniform was manufactured by the Schuykill Arsenal in Philadelphia. Would a unique arsenal manufactured uniform be issued to only a single company in a regiment?

Paint the whole regiment as ZOUAVES. It's your army.

Regarding issuing uniforms to a specific company, the answer is yes. You have to understand how the depot system worked.

For a quick and dirty, the QM department let out contracts for clothing and these were, when completed, sent to the nearest depot. They were stockpiled and issued as requests came in. However, that didn't mean that a depot only issued to troops in it's geographical area. If one depot was short a certain number of, say, jackets, it was send a request to the next depot, or to whichever depot had sufficient numbers on hand to make up the balance of the order.

As regarding specialty uniforms, such a zouaves, Berdan's, or anything NOT on the regulation clothing list, a unit commander could request the issuance of such clothing to his command. However, there are a couple of caveats in play. A fully sewn/constructed uniform, to include cap, trousers, vest (if needed), leggings, etc, was to be forwarded to the depot, along with a list of the numbers required, and how many of each size. The depot would then contract to have them made, or perhaps made them in house. It all depended on work already being done, manpower to hand, etc. In addition, the cost of the clothing, minus the government allowance for regulation clothing, was charged to the Colonel of the regiment (or captain of the company)and he had to fully pay that bill before the clothing would be forwarded.

This system was the same for both sides during the war. For example, there exists in the Mannassas NPSmuseum, a jacket, which is a part of a uniform made under contract for the Washington Artillery in Lee's Army. These were paid for by the unit itself, and produced at the Richmond Depot. The jacket is made of English Army Cloth and piped in red worsted wool on collar, cuffs, and the front edge. The cap and trousers were likewise made of the same material, and with red piping where appropriate.

So yes, it is fully possible that one company from the 76th could have had zouave clothing made and issued to them, at whatever additional cost it might have been above the normal soldier's allowance, provided that the Colonel approved of the contract.

Thanks for replies so far, I have only painted up one stand as Zouaves at the moment so not a problem to paint up the rest in ' normal' dress, in fact it would look quite good on the table I would say, I just can't seem to find any historical reference to the fact ( apart from the Perry sheet that came with the box) that only one Co wore it !

I've never heard it was just one company. I thought it was the whole regiment.

There were some units with companies in unique uniforms but it was my impression that the of the 76th were issued zouave uniforms

I use my 76th Zouaves using Brother Against Brother for skirmish along the coast. Soooo……guess which company was on the line that day!

Normally, companies were formed first, then assembled into regiments. So it's possible that at least some companies already had (distinctive) uniforms before being assigned to a regiment. Whether it remained in a distinctive uniform or eventually replaced it with more normal items is another question.