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| Photograph © P Clarke |
| I made these jackets and waistcoats for the 19th Indiana Regiment of the 'American Civil War Society' in the UK, as a second uniform. These uniforms, of the 11th Indiana Regiment of Volunteers (aka Wallace's Zouaves) of the American Civil War presented an interesting research project. The uniforms of the 11th were originally grey with red trim. As I'm sure you can imagine this caused great irritation in the Union war office (the enemy, the troops of the Confederacy (CS) wore grey). Not long after its formation, the regiment was instructed by the war office, in a letter to the commanding officer of the regiment, to change its uniform to one more fitting to a unit of the northern (US) army. Then I found there was a problem - in contemporary documents, the eye witness accounts of the uniforms seemed to be in complete conflict. They are described both as having a jacket with a separate waistcoat, and a jacket with a false waistcoat front. Similarly, they are described as being dark blue, and black. This may have been down to shoddy or inconsistent production, I guessed! And not impossible during the American Civil War. Then I discovered that first batch of the new uniforms was issued, but subsequently the troops were given a clothing allowance, and bought their own outfits. Meaning that after the first issue, the troops would have had their own uniforms made, presumably to their preference, within reason. The only consensus seemed to be on the blue tulip design, the sky blue trousers, and the white gaiters (both of latter being very similar to normal infantry issue). The customer(s) decided on a black cut-away jacket, with the blue tulips, and a dark blue waistcoat (without pockets). I must point out that as most of those involved already had trousers, I did not make the trousers pictured. |
| Photograph © P Clarke |
| Photographs © A Laverick |
| While researching the 11th Indiana, I was lucky enough to come across a photograph of one of the members of Wallace's Zouaves, in uniform, so that I could see how the original uniform was actually worn. |
| As can be seen in the pictures of the reproduction uniforms, they are worn with red kepi hats, which formed part of the original red and grey uniform, although the second uniform was actually worn with a dark blue (or possibly black) kepi. |
| The sketch shown left is an impression of the uniform of a cantiniere, or vivandiere. These were women who assisted, with water carrying, and in other secondary and back up roles (although many of them took part in an amount of fighting too). We know that the 11th Indiana had two vivandieres, but there is no record of what they may have worn. As the vivandiere was not an official role there was no strict uniform - many women simply wore adaptations of the old uniforms discarded by the men when new ones were issued or purchased. This sketch is entirely conjectural, but is based on both the uniform of the regiment, and adaptations made by vivandieres of other regiments. |
| I must give huge, huge thanks to the 11th Indiana in America, for help with my research. I must also thank P Clarke, and Anne Laverick, of The Original Re-enactor's Market, for allowing me to use their photographs of the uniforms being worn. |
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