"Caps And Kepis..."

Cough Cough...

Hack Hack...

Good Lord!!!

I just can't get over this lung crap...  and I've lost my voice again today.

We are out of class today so I had planned to go to Vicksburg today and look at the Confederate line positions...

The last time I went down, I spent so much time looking at specific places that I had never studied before that I only got through the Union lines before the park closed for the day...

... but I figured I would be better served staying at home and trying to get somewhat better so I can try to teach tomorrow.

I remember when Dad took us to Vicksburg back once upon a time... and he bought me a "soldier's cap"...

Being from Mississippi... 

I had to have one of these.

... but I don't know...

it didn't look right.

It didn't look like the ones on TV that Johnny  Yuma wore...

'Johnny Yuma...'

Nick Adams

... and it didn't look like the one that Mushy wore on 'Rawhide'...

'Mushy'

A couple of years ago... while working on my genealogy, I discovered that I had family members who served in the Civil War... on both sides... but then again, it was the war that was brother against brother, wasn't it?

During the time that I was researching battalions and campaigns, I became interested in the head wear that the soldiers of that war and time wore.

Of course, I knew that there was great interest in re-enactors who go to great troubles to attend various battle re-enactments... and they pay such detail to clothing, arms... shoes... even the stitching on the hats and clothing.

There are people who even have established themselves as sutlers, and they attend various re-enactments... and sell clothing and gear to the re-enactors just as the sutlers actually did in the Civil War.

I decided that I wanted a "real" Civil War cap... and since I had discovered that I had two great-great uncles who were at Vicksburg with the 87th Illinois infantry... I had one of these individuals make a cap for me...

1858 Forage Cap

This cap is SO cool!!!  These are the hats that the average Union soldier in the Western theater would have worn...  it was called a forage cap because the soldier could use the bill as a handle, and go out and collect berries and other things he may later want to eat.

James Garrison Coles

Great Great Uncle

This is the same kind of hat he is wearing in this photo... and although the photo isn't too clear, notice that he is wearing it with the bill bent upwards... like Mushy's above... and not like Johnny Yuma's... which is bent more like a baseball cap.

I just recently had this fellow HERE to make a Confederate kepi for me... he also crafted the Union Forage cap above!  The workmanship is incredible!

It is magnificent!

Incredible workmanship!!

He is in such demand for his work!  He has such a backlog of work that there is about a three-month waiting period.

I have learned of another relative from that time what was a captain in the 46th Virginia Infantry...  I am thinking that I need a cap for him as well...

This would have been the style of cap he would have worn... 

This is all way too cool to me...

Now if I can just get over this pulmonary issue...

ARGH!!!!

~Jim~