US or Confederate kilted units? Ever?

[SlackerDrummer]

My brother told me recently of reading about a South Carolina militia regiment (?) of which it was said in one of the local ethnic newspapers of the day wore full highland regalia. This was in his researching his first-person persona for the upcoming 150th Anniversary of the Firing on Fort Sumter in April of this year. I have asked him for source information and will let you know what he provides.

[beloitpiper]

***. This is what I found too. Did not notice if they mentioned the tartan, altough they did mention the kilt was box pleated...

FTA:
"Cameron of Erracht Trousers in the large military set with a tartan repeat of 9". The tartan was matched and had a Victorian trousers cut to them consistent with common trousers of the late 1850s"

"The kilts were made of the same Cameron of Erracht. They were not pleated to the line as is common in military regiments, but to the set as seen in civilian kilts. The kilts are very odd and unlike any kilt before or since thanks to their unqualified manufactures. They were box pleated, and used two tartan straps that buckled into suspender buckles on either hip. Because of their lack in size variation, suspenders were worn with them.

Original Kilt information: http://emuseum.nyhistory.org"

[macwilkin]

My brother told me recently of reading about a South Carolina militia regiment (?) of which it was said in one of the local ethnic newspapers of the day wore full highland regalia. This was in his researching his first-person persona for the upcoming 150th Anniversary of the Firing on Fort Sumter in April of this year. I have asked him for source information and will let you know what he provides.

I am researching a Louisiana unit from New Orleans that was a Highland Regiment. Nothing substantial so far.

TJW

[macwilkin]

The US Army - as befits a force that had the French as allies during the Revolution and the British as adversaries, for most of its first 150 years of history emulated French military styles. Americans wore their medals like the French, wore facial hair like the French, adopted bugle calls, kepis, the works. They raised regiments of Zouaves because it was the French style, and the French style was, at least until Napoleon lll, a winning one.

Was there ever - even once - a kilted US or Confederate unit raised perhaps during the Civil War? Americans would see redcoats in kilts as enemies who fought them in two wars in North America, so I find it hard to imagine, but I'm curious. What do our experts say?

Yes, the US Army did emulate the French -- but also the British as well, specifically in regards to the regimental system of organization, the use of a National Colour and Regimental Colour, etc.

Which medals do you refer to, btw? The US Armed Forces did not adopt any formal system of awards and decorations until the establishment of the Medal of Honor during the Civil War; the "campaign medal" didn't come about until after the Spanish-American War.

During the Indian Campaigns of the late 19th century, the US Army adopted much from the Prussians, including the spiked helmet (also worn by the British Army) -- a US military attache at the American embassy in Paris was mobbed after the Franco-Prussian War for wearing one, for obvious reasons.

And whilst some Americans might have viewed Highlanders as the enemy, the regimental history of the Royal Highland Regiment specifically states that the Black Watch took no battle honours for the Revolution because it was a war between "kith and kin".

T.

[macwilkin]

Post deleted.

T.

[piperdbh]

One of my fellow teachers is a CSA reenactor and recently told me a story about the 79th New York wearing kilts into battle, but the aprons kept getting caught in thorns. They switched to tartan trousers, but the fabric still got caught. They then switched to regular-issue uniform britches, which didn't get caught in thorns.

I don't know if there's any truth to the story, but it's interesting to think about.

[Lallans]

And whilst some Americans might have viewed Highlanders as the enemy, the regimental history of the Royal Highland Regiment specifically states that the Black Watch took no battle honours for the Revolution because it was a war between "kith and kin".

T.

I remember seeing a movie about the Battle of New Orleans in 1814, where US troops led by Col. Andrew Jackson are being set upon by Highlanders with their terrifying war pipes blaring and with Congreaves rockets also shrieking overhead... I think this was the movie that also inspired Johnny Horton's song about the battle... anyway there was a strong Scots presence there, as a psy-war element of the enemy British forces!

[macwilkin]

I remember seeing a movie about the Battle of New Orleans in 1814, where US troops led by Col. Andrew Jackson are being set upon by Highlanders with their terrifying war pipes blaring and with Congreaves rockets also shrieking overhead... I think this was the movie that also inspired Johnny Horton's song about the battle... anyway there was a strong Scots presence there, as a psy-war element of the enemy British forces!

That would be the 93rd...who were wearing trews at Chalmette. There's a great scene in the 1950s version of The Buccaneer where a "dirtyshirt" says of the pipes, "They give me the willies" -- to which, Andy Jackson (played by Charlton Heston, a kiltie from the Clan Fraser) replies, "That's the general idea".

Had the 93rd gotten the support it needed when it temporarily took an American redoubt at New Orleans, things might be a bit different today.

T.

[Biathlonman]

Confederate raiders came down from Canada in mid-Civil War and shot up the town of St Albans Vermont - which must have been rather a surprise for the locals. Can't have helped relations with Canada much.

And of course we got substantial Fenian Raids in return - with casualties on both sides - mostly ours. But the member who provided the link to the 79th New York Volunteers opened my eyes. Fascinating, surprising reading.

The prejudice against the British way of waging war was a huge problem amongst the Allied generals in WW2 - recent scholarship is very clear. Some American generals acted as if the War of 1812 had just ended. Pick up one of Rick Atkinson's first two books of his still-being-written trilogy. The US has never seen the British Army as a role model and followed the French way of things until they realized they the French had stopped winning wars.

[macwilkin]

The US has never seen the British Army as a role model and followed the French way of things until they realized they the French had stopped winning wars.

Well...not exactly. The French as a role model declined after 1870; see my previous post.

Yes, there were noted Anglophobes such as Admiral Ernest King and "Vingear Joe" Stillwell, but there were also American military leaders, especially at the turn of the 20th Century, who believed in the idea of the "Anglosphere" and looked to Britain as an example, especially given the rise of America as an "Imperial" power. For example, Alfred Thayer Mahan used British Naval History as an example for American seapower, and Teddy Roosevelt believed in the Anglo-American friendship, save that slight disagreement over Venezuela in 1895.

Individual American military personnel also came into contact with British and Dominion/Imperial Forces during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, where the US Marines and the Royal Welch Fusiliers developed an alliance that lasts to this day. The 1st Marine Division developed a similar affinity for the ANZAC forces they fought along side with in the Pacific, and the former adopted "Waltzing Matilda" as their official march.

US forces also came into contact with British customs and traditions; the "China Marines", for example, and their counterparts in the Allied occupation of Iceland in 1941-42, the "Polar Bear Marines" (my great-uncle was a Naval Corpsman with them) re-introduced the concept of "Mess Night" or a "Dining In" to the Corps.

T.