Saturday, January 21, 2012

Whose Uniform?

From an exhibit at the NPS in St. Mary's, Georgia:

2 comments:

RG said...

The Uniform seeks to represent the United States Regiment of Riflemen - in existence from 1808-1821. By the time of the Forgotten Invasion of 1815 the CAP Plate design was most probably different - see
The Project Gutenberg EBook of American Military Insignia 1800-1851, by J. Duncan Campbell
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38738/38738-h/38738-h.htm#img139

for examples of what the various CAP plates looked like over the years

The Forgotten Invasion site at http://www.forgotteninvasion.com/index.html
tells the tale and with characters..the Rifleman featured provides a good synopsis of the unit uniform etc. "My name is Rudy Whitley and I am a rifleman in the first-ever U.S.
Regiment of Riflemen, which was created in 1808. Our rifle is the Model
1803 Harpers Ferry, which is a .54 caliber weapon that is slower to load
than the smoothbore muskets that the infantry use, but is deadly
accurate. We also carry a large knife for close combat. Two of our main
jobs are patrols and long distance raids. Also, when in battles, we act
as skirmishers and target enemy officers and artillerymen with our
long-distance rifles. We got ideas for some of our battle tactics from
the Light Infantry and even the Indians. We are the first in the field
and the last out. One of our main missions is to snipe and kill the
British officers, non-commissioned officers, and musicians. Our uniforms
are distinctive, because of our elite status. Our summer uniform is a
style of hunting coat that is green with yellow fringe. For winter and
dress, we have a yellow-trimmed green wool cutaway coat and trousers
similar in pattern to other troops. Our headgear is a cylindrical felt
cap trimmed with a brass, diamond-shaped plate, a yellow band and
tassels, and a bottle-green feather plume.
for more on the Rifle regiment(s) see Historical Marker database for Fort Atkinson.

Also I recently added a Fort Russell, Illinois marker to recognize its War of 1812 legacy: "The fort was built by Governor Ninian Edwards and named for Colonel William Russell of Kentucky, who commanded ten companies of Rangers, organized by an act of Congress, to defend the western frontier against the British and Indians."

Great site! Keep up the good work and thanks for linking to "My Military History" research interests blog.

PalmsRV said...

Thank you very much for your informative comment! (And for the links) Cathy @ palmsrv