ACW Regiment Flag question

[French]

Got an epic crapton of Cavalry,

I assume the ones with the wide hats are Confederate, like the infantry, did the Union ever wear those hats on horseback, or stick to those little hats, like the infantry?

[zippyfusenet]

Usual rule of thumb is that the Confederates mostly wore slouch hats, while the Federals mostly wore forage caps. This was true for infantry, cavalry and artillery on both sides.

Western Federal troops often wore slouch hats from fairly early in the war, although the forage cap remained in wide use.

You've picked the Tennessee theater in 1863 to model your forces. In that case, I'd advise Confederates in hats with a sprinkling of caps, and Federals mostly in caps. If you have a surplus of hats, you could model Federals in hats. Federal slouch hats were almost always black. There are anecdotes of Federal troops in the deep south (Louisiana, Florida) wearing straw hats, but I haven't heard of this in Tennessee.

[French]

Most of my infantry have the hats, if that makes a difference I can always change my direction to model my forces, such is the result of buying second handed.

[zippyfusenet]

Nah, Federal infantry in hats in Tennessee in 1863 is fine. If you have fewer caps, put all your Rebs in hats and save the caps for some of the Federal units.

I *love* getting a crapton of figures second-hand. Part of the fun is figuring out how best to use the odd bits. One time I painted up a regiment of SYW French dragoons in fur hats using surplus Austrian horse grenadier officer figures. Arguably they should have had their coat-tails pinned up rather than flapping loose, but pfft, 15mm, who's gonna see it at three feet? More recently I painted up a batch of 25mm draft horses for some 18th century limbers. I needed postillions to fill saddles - I drafted some cowboys in nondescript slouch hats and sack coats. Carved the revolvers out of their hands and filed the mustaches off their faces - they look pretty darn good as 18th century teamsters.

Actually, one of my favorite novels is Philip K. Dick's Confessions of a Crap Artist. I get it, I really get it.

[French]

Its easy for say Warhammer, since in 40k or fantasy anything is what I want it to be (within reason).
Historics I want to get right.
I did get these, which I have no clue what they are...

[zippyfusenet]

Sorry, I can't see those well enough to tell you. Pretty sure they're not ACW. Are the riders all wearing helmets? Do some of the helmets have turbans and others not? Could be two different sets of figures. Do their coats have turned back skirts? They *might* be SYW or AWI or French Rev light dragoons...shmaybe. Did they come with horses? What do those look like?

Lookit the figures in the pix in the '28mm AWI 17th Light Dragoons' thread, a little lower down this page. Is that them? Or some of them?

[French]

I think they are those Dragoons, also that dude in the weird navy looking hat, couldn't figure out his deal.
I'll try to snap one of him.

Some of the more interesting things I've gotten was some horse wagons and guys pulling horses and a bunch of wounded and dead Confederates.

They'll all get painted at some point, but right now its the Kentucky Volunteers

[French]

Getting to some Union guys, are these flags special due to the shape or are they just a neat shape? Were they for Cavalry or Infantry or what?

[zippyfusenet]

The swallow-tail flags on that sheet are cavalry guidons. Cavalry had regimental flags, but usually didn't carry them in the field. Guidons were carried one per troop. Wargamers often model an ACW cavalry regiment with one guidon on the command flat, as if it was the regimental color.

[RichBliss]

Its easy for say Warhammer, since in 40k or fantasy anything is what I want it to be (within reason).
Historics I want to get right.
I did get these, which I have no clue what they are...

The figure on the left in black looks like it might be an American Regular for the Mexican-American War.  The helmeted cav might be Minifigs French Dragoons.