Talk:Uniforms of the Union Army

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Military history: North America / United States / American Civil War C‑class

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2nd Lt.[edit]

The insignia shown of a Union Second Lieutenant is incorrect. The correct insignia should be a plain blue shoulder strap surrounded by gold (no bars). The insignia shown is that of a Union First Lieutenant.

Will somebody fix the error on the miniature file for the 2nd Lt. Rank Insgnia on the table in the article? This mistake has been up since February and nothing has bee done. Please, somebody who knows/is able to do so, replace the icon so that it is correct.--Underwoodl06 (talk) 05:13, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi-Res Images[edit]

It looks as though the National Gallery of Art has recently made available some high resolution albumen photographs of Union uniforms. You can access and download them here.

Countrabands?[edit]

I understand USCT units made up of liberated slaves, "countrabands" wore red trousers. Of course I am no expert. Paul, in Saudi (talk) 04:39, 14 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Major's Insignia[edit]

In the section on insignia, the person who previous wrote this section said that the rank of major was represented by a GOLD leaf while the next-higher rank, that of a Lieutenant Colonel, is, of course, a SILVER leaf.

This is wrong, of course; why would a higher ranking officer have his insignia represented by a more base metal than the rank of an officer right below him?

The answer, of course, is that the lower-ranking major didn't wear a GOLD leaf, he wore a BRONZE one.

I've obviously changed this; majors wear a BRONZE leaf, not a gold one and Lieutenant Colonels wear a SILVER leaf.

The same goes for the US Navy; a Lieutenant Commander wears a BRONZE leaf while a full Commander wears a silver leaf; these two ranks, of course, are the equivalent of a Major and a Lieutenant Colonel in the other service branches.

Satchmo Sings (talk) 18:30, 26 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

They're intended to be gold in appearance, even though the modern insignia is made of brass. Regards, AzureCitizen (talk) 22:47, 29 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Well, let me chime in here with no cite. IIRC, there were no insignia for majors or second lieutenants until World War I. Second lieutenants wore an epaulet with no insignia. They gain a silver bar when they were promoted. In the same way, majors wore an empty field-grade epaulet. The story I was told is that the gold versions were added in WWI to avoid confusing the allies. But since I have no cite for any of this, I have not edited the section. Paul, in Saudi (talk) 06:12, 30 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Paul. You're spot on about the gold second lieutenant bars not turning up until World War I. Oak leaves for majors, however, dates back far earlier (1836 according to the Army). You can read up more about it at the Army's Institute of Heraldry here. AzureCitizen (talk) 12:51, 30 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Gold and silver was a distinction of branch in the army from 1780 to 1851.

General’s stars were silver (for contrast) because they were placed on a gold epaulet.

When the other badges were created for the shoulder straps in the 1830s the bars for first lieutenants and captains and the leafs for majors matched the proper color for their branch. The leafs for lieutenant colonels and the eagles for full colonels were in the opposite color. Full colonels also began wearing opposite color (for contrast) eagles on epaulets.

The gold and silver as a branch distinction was abolished in 1851. All epaulets were now gold and all ranks except majors and second lieutenants wore silver badges on them. On the shoulder straps the badges were silver for generals, colonels and lieutenant colonels and gold for majors (they did wear the leaf on the shoulder straps), captains and first lieutenants.

Epaulets were abolished for all but generals in 1872, and replaced with shoulder knots. Majors began wearing the gold leaf on the shoulder knots at this time. The bars worn by captains and first lieutenants were also changed to silver in 1872. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gghbsab (talk • contribs) 18:00, 28 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hats?[edit]

I don't think the hats pictured in this article, or in any of the links from this article to the Wikipedia hat articles, look anything like what most people think of as the typical Civil War hat, namely a flat top that is angled forward and shorter vertically in front. See http://www.fcsutler.com/fchats.asp --Westwind273 (talk) 04:45, 7 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Shoulder Straps[edit]

The colors of the shoulder strap centers are incorrect.

US Army Uniform Regulations of March 13, 1861 Paragraph 95 states

“cloth of the strap as follows: for the General Staff and Staff Corps—dark blue; Artillery—scarlet; Infantry—light or skyblue; Riflemen—medium or emerald green; Dragoons—orange; Cavalry— yellow”

The information seams to have come from the book Civil War High Commands by John and David Eicher. Were the Eichers got this information is unclear but the colors described come from pompons worn on dress uniform caps form 1851 to 1858. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gghbsab (talk • contribs) 17:03, 28 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]