"Questions about shoulder epaulettes" Topic

I was going through the mold line cleaning process on several hundred AWI minis today. I noticed something on the Perry plastics that, as strange as it sounds I never noticed before on American Revolution coats.

The epaulettes. I don't mean the fancier officers' ones. I mean the cloth strap ones on enlisted mens' coats and jackets, passing over the cartridge box sling.

Somehow even after reading dozens of books and seeing both original and repro uniforms, cloth epaulettes eluded my attention!

So what is the actual deal with these? Perry's plastics British infantry have them molded on every left shoulder, with the cartridge box sling passing under it.

Photos of actual coats and jackets, original and repro.show the epaulette generally fastened with a single button to the shoulder. Seems more ornamental than functional.

Was this left shoulder epaulette a universal thing? Looks like some are the color of the coat and some are the color of the facings with a lighter colored trim.

In a lot of photos of reenactors and illustrations the cartridge box sling doesn't have the epaulette over it. So am I logical in assuming that either the soldiers just sometimes didn't bother to pass the sling under it and just wore the box sling right over it?

Or did some jackets and coats not have the epaulette? Was it a particular regimental thing?

Very much a regimental thing – while I am no expert on the AWI, for the Seven Years War pretty much all the French dragoon regiments had right shoulder epaluetes different colours for different regiments – while for the heavy horse, it was about 50:50 and again variable for each regiment as to what kind of epaulette

An epaulette without a fringe is called a counter-epaulette.

So the answer likely changed during the period. You can look at the earlier paintings done by Morier for the Duke of Cumberland, and they all seem to show an epaulet worn on the left shoulder to secure the cartridge pouch belt.

Early in the AWI, the clothing of the coats likely reflected the fact that many regiments wore their bayonet belt around their waist, but this quickly changed to them wearing them over their shoulder. This move likely resulted in changes to the uniform, perhaps unofficial at first, but likely done on purpose shortly after. This "extra" epaulet helped secure the bayonet belt. The other parts of a soldiers kit – knapsack, haversack, and canteen, were often dropped when going into combat, so a soldier would not want to fumble around with unbuttoning their epaulets then.

The officers epaulets are a bit more confusing. Most line officers (of hat companies), only wore one epaulet on their right shoulder, to secure their sword belt. Grenadier and Light officers wore two. There were a few regiments that wore two regardless of being a hat or flank officer, but I'd had to do some digging on that as I don't recall off the top of my head which ones.

Note that Majors, Lt. Cols, Cols, Brigadier, Major and Lieutenant Generals in the British army also wore only one epaulet on their right shoulder (regardless of the incorrect sculpting on figures). It was only full generals and the Field Marshal that wore two epaulets during the AWI – none of those in North America.

I'm both a re-enactor (British), and wargamer. Hope that helps. :-)

Thanks for all the great info guys, much appreciated!

it may be convenient to distinguish between 'epaulettes'- the fringed bullion doodahs worn by officers and shoulder straps- as it sounds- under discussion here.

It may also save ink if we accept that every epaulette is a 'shoulder epaullette,' given that epaulle is the French for 'shoulder'- epaullette therefore signifying 'a 'wee shoulder thingy' (clearly coined by a Jacobite exile).

I have no idea what the French for a 'wee elbow thingy' might be.