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Post by TRK on May 3, 2007 18:20:50 GMT -5
If you think of Texas Mounted Volunteers (i.e., "Rangers") in the Mexican War of 1846-48, you probably conjure a picture of men dressed in buckskin hunting shirts and breeches, homespun shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and other Texas-frontier garb. That's somewhat true, but after digging in the muster rolls for Michael Chevallie's Battalion, Texas Mounted Volunteers, in the National Archives, I came away with a new picture of what these guys looked like.
Early in the war, Texas mounted troops were evidently responsible for obtaining their own clothing, and there evidently wasn't much uniformity in their dress. However, as the war dragged on into 1847, the rangers were increasingly drawing items of regular U.S. Army clothing from quartermaster depots in Monterrey and Saltillo. For example, a sample pay stoppage for one member of Adams' Company of Chevallie's Battalion for the period Jun. 30- Aug. 31, 1847, included these charges against his pay:
1 jacket [i.e., a U.S. infantry or dragoon jacket], $2.66 1 pr. shoes, 1.22 2 cotton shirts @ .43 The muster rolls for Adams' Company from August 31 to December 31, 1847, showed extensive pay stoppages for clothing. Virtually each man drew 7-10 items, but a few drew no items. For example, some drew two flannel shirts, many drew greatcoats, and a smattering drew forage caps. A sampling of items drawn in this period and their costs:
1 pair overalls (i.e., wool pants) $2.28 1 pr. drawers .35½ 1 pr. stockings .24½ 1 cotton shirt .43 1 forage cap, .95 1 blanket 2.22
Robert H. Taylor's Company, Chevallie's Battalion, drew a large number of both infantry and dragoon jackets in the period of August 31 to October 31, 1847. However, from October 31 to December 31 of the same year, the men in that company drew very few items of U.S.-issue clothing, but perhaps half of the men drew blankets--no surprise, since winter was approaching.
I collect anecdotal descriptions and officially recorded information on the dress of *all* branches and units of both armies in the Mexican War, and would appreciate hearing from anybody with esoteric information on the subject.
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Post by Herb on May 4, 2007 9:36:59 GMT -5
Interesting stuff, the last couple of months before I retired from the army, I was put in charge of the 2d Cavalry Museum, the 2d Dragoons of the Mexican War. They had a few interesting pieces, a couple of 1st Edition Books, rememberances, published prior to the Civil War. Some really interesting comments from Fort Jessup, to Corpus Christi, then the actual war. Obviously, a lot of observations of the Rangers, especially McCullochs' company. Unfortunatly the regiment and its museum have been restationed to some of it's Cold War haunts, Vilseck, Germany.
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Post by TRK on May 4, 2007 9:55:00 GMT -5
Wolfpack, McCulloch was something else! He was a man of many great achievements, but his scouting expedition to Encarnacion, to size up Santa Anna's army a couple of days before the Battle of Buena Vista, is one of the great recce stories. Getting back to the clothing subject, McCulloch himself wrote that he and one other man, W. I. Phillips, were able to circulate close to the perimeter of the Mexican camp because they were both "dressed a good deal like Mexicans." For a few years I've been trying to track down a copy of an obscure eyewitness report of that mission (published in the Houston Democratic Telegraph and Texas Register, August 2, 1847). Frederick Wilkins' book, The Highly Irregular Irregulars, contains a reference and brief excerpt from the report, but every major library with a run of that newspaper reports that that issue is missing from their files. Wilkins passed away a few years ago, so there's no telling where he found that newspaper.
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Post by Herb on May 4, 2007 10:07:00 GMT -5
Wilkins passed away a few years ago, so there's no telling where he found that newspaper. I did not know that, I really liked his four volume set, I was hoping for more from him. Ben McCulloch, is one of my favorites, I only know of one biography on him and irc, it cost quite a bit. I'd really like to see a good new bio on him.
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Post by Jim Boylston on May 4, 2007 11:01:52 GMT -5
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Post by TRK on May 4, 2007 11:34:42 GMT -5
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Post by sloanrodgers on May 4, 2007 11:57:30 GMT -5
I have Cutrer and Rose's (Steck) books, plus a 1877 copy of Samuel Reid's Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch's Texas Rangers.
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Post by mustanggray on May 4, 2007 16:59:27 GMT -5
Interesting stuff on the rangers drawing federal issue clothing. I knew they drew some federal issue arms and accoutrements but the clothing is something else! I've seen references to ROT buttons dug at Buena Vista that is supposedly linked to some rangers or maybe Texian infantry... quien sabe?
Scott McMahon
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Post by Jim Boylston on May 4, 2007 18:15:45 GMT -5
A quick interjection to say, "Good to see you again, Scott! Don't be a stranger." Now, back to the topic... Jim
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Post by sloanrodgers on May 4, 2007 19:48:53 GMT -5
It was my experiance in the army (86-90) that a troop received his initial issue in basic training, then spent the rest of his enlistment buying and scavenging items that actually fit. I didn't have trouble with uniforms, but supply put my poor big feet (12' are comfy) in 11' boots. My toes remained curled up until I was able to trade with a fella who was issued some foot longs. When I got to Bragg, I traded my German winter boots for some jump boots in preparation for going to Airborne School. These got mussed-up in Panama, when I was helping off-load dead and wounded from a Chinook that had been hit in the collective. As they lowered the ramp a wave of blood and hydraulic fuel (sorry! flashback) washed down onto our footgear. After we stretchered the casualties to the MASH, a nice officer put us in for a complete re-issue, even though we only needed boots. My point is that rangers took whatever they could get and found serviceable. I'm sure they wore a colorful mixture of U.S. Army, Mexican Army, Indian, civilian and buckskin clothing. This is revealed in some early ranger narratives. John C. Hays was known to wear wear a simple leather cap and blue roundabout jacket during the Mexican War.
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Post by jagjetta on May 29, 2007 15:57:30 GMT -5
John C. Hays was known to wear wear a simple leather cap and blue roundabout jacket during the Mexican War. RangerRod: That is interesting stuff on Jack Hays! I am not sure I know what is meant by a "simple leather cap", though...Did your source suggest that he was wearing a leather dragoon cap of the early 1830s? Leather was not generally (for obvious reasons of comfort) considered a material for caps. Or, perhaps, could your source actually be referring to a cap of oilskin material or a woolen cap with an oilskin cover? John A-G Iola, WI
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Post by TRK on May 30, 2007 9:04:27 GMT -5
Hays' outfit probably changed from day to day and week to week. Samuel Chester Reid described Hays as he appeared at the beginning of the 1846 Monterrey Campaign as "...dressed very plainly, and wore a thin jacket, with the usual Texian hat, broad brimmed with a round top, and loose open collar, with a black handkerchief tied negligently around his neck." (Reid, Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch's Texas Rangers, 1847, p. 108). On September 21, 1846, during the fighting at Monterrey, he was seen wearing a bandana for a headdress after he'd lost his hat. (James K. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, Texas A&M University Press, 1987, p. 140).
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Post by sloanrodgers on May 30, 2007 11:20:01 GMT -5
RangerRod: That is interesting stuff on Jack Hays! I am not sure I know what is meant by a "simple leather cap", though...Did your source suggest that he was wearing a leather dragoon cap of the early 1830s? Leather was not generally (for obvious reasons of comfort) considered a material for caps. Or, perhaps, could your source actually be referring to a cap of oilskin material or a woolen cap with an oilskin cover? The reference is pretty vague and I would not read into it too much. Mexican War Vet Albert Brackett just said that he was wearing a black leather cap. Who knows what Col. Jack Hays was wearing exactly? This comes from Steve Hardin's Osprey book on the Texas Rangers.
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Post by mustanggray on May 30, 2007 12:21:17 GMT -5
The cap in question would probably have not been the M1833 hogkiller but rather a leather version of the civilian "forage" cap... the M1839 cap. I've seen tons of dags showing men in what appear to be oilcloth or painted caps made on this pattern and I would imagine the leather cap would have been the same pattern.
When I started putting together my physical impression for a ranger in Hays' company I had a leather cap made up by a friend and I wore the hell out of it. It did get a bit warm in the summer but not unbearbly warm and it worked great in a rain storm... leastways for keeping the TOP of my head dry! We also found that it floated quite admirably after it was knocked off by a muskeet limb and the rest of the gang rode by trying to dunk, er... retrieve it with their ramrods for me.
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Post by TRK on May 30, 2007 13:04:32 GMT -5
More on leather caps:
James K. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays (1987), p. 175, reprints a description of members of Col. Hays' 1st Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers as they appeared in central Mexico (quoting Albert Brackett, General Lane's Brigade in Central Mexico): "They certainly were an odd-looking set of fellows, and it seems to be their aim to dress as outlandishly as possible. Bobtailed coats and 'long-tailed blues,' low and high-crowned hats, some slouched and other Panama, with a sprinkling of black leather caps, constituted their uniforms; and a thorough coating of dust over all, and covering their huge beards gave them a savage appearance."
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