1st Afghan War - British Officers Forage Caps

[SirRoystonPapworth]

Hi All,

So, I am painting up a couple of armies for the First Afghan War and I have come up with a slight stumbling block.

Most officers on campaign wore a forage cap rather than a shako.
Now I have started painting these as black, based on the Foundry British in India book (my ‘go to’ for the period) and the Tim Reese plates.

However, I am starting to see more and more references to these being blue for line infantry & Bengal Light Cavalry.

Can anyone give me a steer on this? It’s becoming one of those minor things that becomes an all consuming rabbit hole… 

[EnclavedMicrostate]

I am not an outright expert, but from what I gather, the answer seems to be that the wool used for blue garments in the British army was generally dyed a very dark blue colour that might as well look black. I for one have painted 1860s British and Indian regiments using both black and blue, and while the latter is more accurate (and looks a little nicer), it's not an enormously significant difference when you get down to it.

[SirRoystonPapworth]

Thank you EMS.  You are spot on, especially with the minor detail bit - it had kinda blown itself out of proportion and I needed help to reel it back in.

Thanks again.

[carlos marighela]

It's a little more complex than that.

Forage caps were authorised at the end of the 1820s.  They were either issued in blue for line infantry or green for light infantry regiments. The early broad crowned versions had a coloured band. Red for Royal regiments, facing colour for everyone else. In the mid 1830s a simpler version with less pronounced crown was introduced which was nominally a solid blue or green but depictions of the 13th (Somerset) Light infantry show caps with a band in facing colour. Both types were used at the same time.  From 1836 peaked forage caps were authorised for other ranks but these seem to be more of a feature for the 1840s. Scinde, Gwalior and the Sikh wars.

Officers forage caps were blue or green as per the men but with a black leather peak and from 1834 the band between the crown and leather peak was black for non-Royal regiments.

So yes, whilst the blue is quite dark you'll need it to be sufficiently blue to distinguish it from the black band.

Officers did occasionally wear privately purchased faux shakos. They were a light wicker frame with oil cloth stretched over them, so as to look like the actual item in the foul weather cover. Could also have the white hot weather cover. The advantage was that they were significantly lighter and more comfortable than the actual shako. So, if you fancy, you can pop the occasional officer in a covered shako.

[SirRoystonPapworth]

Thanks Carlos.

Ties in with most of my reference. But I wonder why French & Reese went with black…

[carlos marighela]

Well the usual colour was quite a dark blue and remember such items were private purchase so no doubt there was variation in the cloth used.

[Juan]

This is a very good place to look for information: https://www.irondukeminiatures.co.uk/historical-notes