"Confederate Hats and their color ranges" Topic

I cant remember where but I thought I read that the Confederates avoided black slouch hats for slouch hats in just about any shade of grey or brown?

Is that true or did they also wear black slouch (brimmed) hats?

They wore black slouch hats…

I'll defer to ACWBill, good friend, fellow gamer, and re-enactor, but I've never seen that statement.

Eric

Trust me, I hope I'm wrong and not sure where I read that. The passage is in my minds eye but it's blurry.

As I recall and from period photos Confederates did wear black hats but grey/brown were much more common

Surely there are enough photos from the period to test this one? It will be hard to tell black from a very dark shade of another colour but should give a good enough impression?

In the Trans Mississippi area the Missouri Guard and the confederates wore Grey or brown. The black hats were worn by the Union and this served as a field sign at least in MO and AR.

I generally don't agree with re-enactors or figure painters justifying how they depict Confederates by saying they would wear whatever they could get their hands on. That can be a slippery slope.

However, I have been reading a lot about Lee's march to Gettysburg lately. I have read many accounts of Confederates marching through towns and taking hats off bystanders and leaving their own worn out one in exchange. I guess they could have avoided the black hats.

Further, in my opinion, there is no person alive today more knowledgeable about Civil War uniforms than Don Troiani. I have all of his books with his published paintings. Recently I looked through them just on this question. I thought I perhaps had too high a percentage of black hats on my CDA figures. He definitely shows Confederates in black hats, but as Frederick said above, the other colors dominate.

Of course it is well known that Confederates scrounged the battlefield for clothing from the Union dead and even some of the wounded. If they wore these shoes and pants, there is little reason to think they would not take the hats too. Federal hats, when worn in lieu of the cap, were black.

Tom

I've worn a black slouch hat in the reenacting hobby,usually with an infantry blue wool cord around the crown whether I wore blue or gray.

The Texas units seemed to seek the black slouch hates. Otherwise they grabbed what ever they could get their hands on. New units typically had the army issued versions and they were per Region or state. Ie like NC had the distinctive grey. Reanctor sources are a good place to start, due to their prior researches.

If all else were equal, they probably would have preferred gray. But all else was never equal.

mildbill: I'm curious to know your source for the information that hat color was a field sign in the Trans Mississippi. First time I've heard that.

I was very involved in Civil War and Indian Wars mounted cavalry re-enactment for years. Of course in the ACW genre I associated with beaucoup infantry.

I would be very careful about relying on run of the mill re-enactor for historical accuracy. Kunstler did that with his paintings which are full of errors. Many re-enactors do not do that much research. Availability and cost are the important criteria for very, very many of them.

Tom

William Warner, I would have to look up because I cannot remember . My family history sez so, but we all know that sort of thing is unreliable. Sneads 'The Fight for Missouri' may be the source, but it may be several days before I can find it. Snead was the quartermaster for Price and a reporter by trade. Tried to tell the truth as he saw it. It might be in 'War on the western border'.
I once wrote an article on the Trans Missippi uniforms with references in MWAN but have lost my copy. It is almost Christmas eve and family time will hinder research.