United States Army Headgear 1855-1902 - Libreria Militare Ares

NUMBER 30 23short "shell" jacket "for all mounted men," the1851 cap and its 1854 counterpart continued to beissued to all artillery units."' Sometime in 1857,however, before the adoption of the campaign hatfor the whole Army, there seems to have been someagitation in favor of the cap and the horseliairplume as opposed to the hat by one or more of themounted companies."" The agitation increased inthe next months to the point that even after thehat was prescribed for the whole Army in Alarcli1858, the Secretary of War instructed Jesup to issuethe 1851-1854 pattern with horsehair plume tothose light companies which preferred them to thehat.'°' Jesup then proceeded to call in all caps andplumes in stock at various posts around the countryfor such issue."" Rather oddly, some of the lightcompanies preferred the hat, for during the generalperiod there were instances of the issue of capsand plumes to some light companies and hats toothers.'"' Indeed, this seems to have carried over toas late as 1861, even after the War Department hadordered that the light artillery companies were touse the "old pattern imiform cap with red horsehairplume.""' In June 1861, Harper's Weekly carried awoodcut of Company "E," 3cl Artillery, definitelyequipped as light artillery but with all personnelwearing frock coats and hats.'"'Wlien several of the light companies first beganrequesting the caps and plumes. Colonel Thomas,the depot quartermaster in Philadelphia evidencedsome doubts as to the cap being strong enough tocarry the plume and as a result made several issuesof the "Ringgold cap, used prior to 1851.'""' Thisresulted in some small confusion because of the twodifferent types being in use at one time until BrevetLt. Col. J. B. Magruder, 1st Artillery, demonstrateda method of strengthening the 1851-1854 model sothat it would successfully carry the plume.'"" Thisslight modification, whatever it was, came to the attentionof the Secretary of War and resulted inGeneral Order 20 of 1860 noted above.'^"With the outbreak of war, this cap and plume,which could hardly have been more unsuitable forfield or combat wear, all but dropped out of sight.A search of thousands of photographs for the period1861-1865 has failed to uncover a single pictureof light artillery so uniformed, and a searchof letters emanating from the Office of the QuartermasterGeneral directing issues of such indicatesthat but few were sent to the troops. Lt. Philip S.Chase, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery, said thatit was rare for a volunteer unit to receive the capand plume and that he saw very few of them duringthe war.'"'In the latter part of 1863 there seems to havebeen a slight revival of interest in the cap. In September,Colonel George H. Crosman, the depotquartermaster in Philadelphia, instructed the militarystorekeeper at Schuylkill Arsenal to send 170light artillery caps with trimmings to New Bern,North Carolina, for issue to the "23rd New YorkBattery.'"'' And in November, in answer to a queryfrom Lt. Guy V. Henry, 1st Artillery, the QuartermasterGeneral replied that the uniform for officersand men of light artillery was given in "Article LI,revised regulations of 1861" which stated that the"hat" for "companies of Artillery equipped as LightArtillery [was to be] the old pattern uniform cap,with red horsehair plume, cord and tassel.'"" Thenin November, Meigs directed Lt. Col. D. H. Vinton,the quartermaster in New York City, to send 333"uniform caps. Light Artillery" with plumes, cords,etc., to New Orleans.'" Vinton, in turn, placed arequisition with the Philadelphia depot for 500light artillery caps and trimmings, the disparitybetween 500 and 333 seemingly representing Vinton'sdesire to build up his stocks of these items.'"Despite the fact that on 31 December 1863 there hadbeen on hand in Philadelphia 2345 light artillerycaps,"" Crosman, on 29 January 1864, let a contractwith W. C. Dare of Philadelphia for 1452 "LightArtillery Uniform Caps" according to "sealed samples"in his office, at $2.89 each, "each piece to bemarked with the contractor's name." The sameday he contracted with William Horstmann Brothersof Philadelphia for 1600 red hair plumes, 1600bands and tassels, and 374 brass eagles "for LightArtillery caps.'""Just what this Dare cap was can be surmised witha fair degree of certainty but with no absolutesurety. The stocks of the 1851-1854 pattern hadnot been exhausted and no contract for light artillerycaps, other than that let to Dare, was let by thePhiladelphia Depot during 1861 or the period 15August 1862 through 1865.'" There is no evidencein the record that a change in cap form was everrequested by Crosman or that such was ever authorized,and, unfortunately, the press copies of hisletters sent for the period November 1863 throughJuly 1864 cannot be found. Actually, under exist-