Kepi worn backwards!

[Andrew_Atkins]

This is a photo I purchesed off a fellow re-enactor that needs to be shared! My friend received it from a co-worker who bought it from an antique shop. On the back of the frame that the photo was in were the words Civil War Tin Type.

In the photo the man on the left is wearing a kepi backwards! The man on the right may also be wearing a kepi backwards or may just be wearing a smoking cap since he seems to be a lttle more stylish then his comrade.

[rpierson]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

That may indeed be a kepi worn backwards, but the image looks postwar to me. The background art has a distinct 1870-80's feel to me and the man on the left is wearing a style of vest that I usually associate with post war fashion. I could be wrong... obviously.

-Randall Pierson

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

Hallo!

IMHO.. if one looks closely at the "pattern pieces" or construction of the caps, they do not appear to be forage caps?

Curt

[rogue]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

By the backdrop the photographer used, and the cut of the clothing I would date this to just post-Civil War. The geometric backdrop is something that came into vogue in the 1870's. The pants are somewhat tailored, also post-war to replace the stove pipe Legs on the CW pants.
Should I add, IMHO, two post war working men wearing caps to absorb perspiration and keep their cake-eater haircuts neat.
Steve Sullivan

[Nathan Dodds]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

Looks like somebody discovered the original "cool dude", even if it was postwar. There has got to be a story behind that photo. Both men appear to have their hats on backwards, both are wearing vests, and both are smoking cigars.

[GreencoatCross]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

I read about a cap being turned backwards only once in an account by a member of the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters. He claimed to have turned his cap backwards to keep his red Third Corps badge from being spotted as he crawled between the lines at Petersburg to seek out a rebel sharpshooter. If you're wondering why he had a Third Corps badge on his cap after the corps was broken up in March 1864, some regiments of that command were allowed to retain them so long as they provided the badges themselves.

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

The use of corps badges in after the consolidations of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th corps could be a thread on its own. There are some interesting caps displaying combinations of the original corps. I have even seen a cap with a combined 24th 18th corps badge.

[rogue]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

American artist Howard Pyle painted "Minnesota at Nashville " at the turn of the last century and as I recall several of the soldiers in full charge posture in the dramatic painting are wearing their caps backward. A semi-document of the practice ?
Steve Sullivan

[Shockoe Hill Cats]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

Contributions from the Jays years ago:

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?8078-Hip-hop-Yank&highlight=hip+hop+yank

And I echo Mr. Sullivan, looks like a post-war image to me.

[FranklinGuardsNYSM]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

Men in the 14th Brooklyn are written about as twisting their kepis around to whichever angle was convenient to block the morning sun on the march to Bull Run (their havelocks having been "lost in the mail.")

[reddcorp]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

"Rally on the Brigade" cap?

Andy Redd

[Cameron]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

Post deleted

[Cameron]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!



This image of the Keystone Battery illustrates the forage cap sideways look.

Source: Brady Archive

[Cameron]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

While in the next image we see the more traditional "just plain backwards"

Source: Brady Archive

[Cameron]

Re: Kepi worn backwards!

These same men appear in a more recognizable image, just from a slightly different angle