Huachuca Illustrated - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

file of soldiers...marching...to the wars against their wills...and consciences.”
Uniforms: The Army of the West
The Dragoons were uniformed for the field in dark blue flannel jackets, trimmed with
yellow lace, the markings of cavalry troops for decades to come. Their pantaloons were a
mixture of blue-grey flannel with officers and NCOs having a yellow stripe down the legs. In
1851 the distinguishing color for dragoons became orange. Their headgear was the distinctive
collapsible leather forage cap. Their saber belts, with shoulder straps, and carbine slings were of
white buff leather. They rode behind company guidons of red and white with the word “Dragoons”
lettered across it.
By the time they reached California, their uniforms were in tatters and a number of
expedients had been adopted. General Kearny himself was an example. He was described upon
his arrival in California by a lieutenant stationed there, William T. Sherman. The General of the
Army of the West had “an old dragoon coat on, and an army cap to which the general had added
a broad visor, cut from a full-dress hat to shade his eyes against the glaring sun of the Gila
region.”
As for the volunteers, they were furnished an annual clothing allowance of $42 and their
uniforms were often arbitrary. Many of the Missouri volunteers would ride into Mexico garbed
in Navaho buckskins traded from the Indians. At least one unit, the German Artillery, Company
B from St. Louis, was according to a newspaper account “handsomely uniformed in grey coats of
Kentucky jeans, and grey pants, with yellow stripe, forage caps, new Spanish saddles, saddle-