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The Leather Forage Cap at West Point

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The Leather Forage Cap at West Point THE LEATHER FORAGE CAP AT WEST POINT .-. by Frederick P. Todd ' It is known that American soldiers at one period in the clear that this was the first forage cap to be adopted early 19th century wore soft leather forage caps, but the officially at the Academy. 'The best idea of its pattern extent to which this practice was followed, and by what can be gained from the colored engraving made by J. corps, is still somewhat of a mystery. Using the invalu- Hill in 1828, after a painting by George Catlin. It seems able data wllected by the late Colonel Allen L. Keyes, to be the familiar flat-topped,- - wide-crowned model one time Director of the West Point Museum, it is pos- commonly associated with the Mexican War. sible to launch an investigation of this subject via the This cloth forage cap was worn until 1834. Orders czdet c-iforn~worn at the U.S. Military Academy. No. 87, IJ.S.M.A., 23 July 1833, read as follows: Regulations for clothing, issued in 1824, specified that All forage caps to be issued to the Cadea hereafter, will be of the pattern now worn by the officers of the each cadet keep himself supplied with, among other Army, the material to be of goats' skin. things, "one forage cap, of gray cloth."' Apparently 7LO prevent unnecessary expense, the old pattern czp is permined to be worn until the 1st of April these caps were not received until the next year, for next; from and after which date every cadet will Battalion Orders No. 40, 22 April 1825, read: appear in a cap of the nea pattern. Mr. DeWitt [the clothier at the Academy] having The new leather caps were issued in time and donned received a partial supply of the forage-caps adopted for use of the Corps, Cadets of the 1st & 2d classes in April. Orders on 1 August warned cadets that they will immediately supply themselves; each cadet so must be "worn open at top.'! A contemporary observer soon as he is supplied with a forage-cap will put some mark by which he will be able to recognize it, reported .the new caps as being "of morocco with a visor, upon his citizen's hat and turn it into the Qr. Mr. made in three parts- the visor, the front half, the rear and is prohibited having a hat of the citizen's form in his possession, thereafter, when present at the half. These folded so that it could be carried flat under institution.2 the arm. The crease ran from ear to ear ..."J An From this date on there are frequent references to the engraving of a view up the Hudson River from the cloth cap, which wgs soon. sppljekto the-entire Bat-. - Academy, reproduced here, shows a cadet in the fore- talion cE Cadets. The above qu~tation.makes it ground wearing one of these leather caps. This engrav- ing Gas executed by ad; Smillie in 1836, after a 1 "Regulations of the United States Military Academy at West painting by Robert W. ~ei;,for the New York Mirror. Point," in General Regulations o/ the Army, article 78, re- printed in American State Paperr, Military Affairr, 11; 648-57. 2 A11 Battalion Orders cited are in MS order books in USMA 3 The Centennial of the United Stater Military Academy .... Library. Wash., GPO, 1904, 11, 93-4. Above: Co//ap~ib/elearhw forage cap in the collecfion~of the Na~ionalrifureurn; J~OW~open. Reloug: Same, shou~nfol~fclf fld. .. t'' The learlier forage cap was priced at $2.00 in 1839." .. , By that date plans apparently had been made to replace . ,... .. , ' it with a rlew pattern, for Major Richard Delafield, then . the Superintendent of the Military Academy, wrote .. defending it: "The leather forage cap now in use, al- .,: .. though a most unbecoming one, has great merit on the I,.. -. score of economy and durability. I would not change it, particularly as the cloth cap now prescribed for our use . is very uncomfortable, sitting as it does close to the . ... crown of the head, leaving no space for air room for the hair to assume its accustomed po~ition."~ ::. Delafield's words went unheeded, for in the last half .. ...'. ...- . of 1840 forage caps of the "new pattern" were inspected P. ... .:.. ._. .,, :. - .,. for issue.6 It is interesting to observe that these also were priced at $2.00, hence rhe new cioth cap could hardly have been adopted as a measure of economy. The .. .. style of this cap is not specified, but it has been illus- crated in several prints, notably the one in the United Stater Milifary Magazine of January 1841. Again we have the familiar "Mexican War" pattern, with wide I crown and sharply sloping visor, of gray cloth with a black ban?. We can now summarize the information available on the use of the leather forage cap in the Army, outside the Military Academy. Reference has already been made above to its being worn "by the officers of the Army" in July 1833. On 2 May of the same year it had been prescribed as part of thf ini:ial-- -uniform ..-. of the Regiment of Dragoons, established that !ear? The' description^ reads: "FORAGE CAP-Black leather, like pattern furnished Clothing Bureau." Army Regulations of 1836 , again prescribed the "black leather" cap for Dragoon officers and men.8 Provisions were made for adding a band of black fur to the cap ipwinter, and this practice, it may be noted, was also observed at West Point in Dark gray cloth cap, marked "1836" and "Hampton, New 1836 and thereafter. Hampshire." It has leather seams and a brass visor, and is collapsible; apparently a militia version of the Regular Army The Dragoon forage cap of bIack leather appears to ieather forage cup. From tha col!sc:ion cf Watsst.1;. P. Lewis. be ot the same pattern as that worn by cadets. It is illustrated in Theo. F. Rodenbough's history of the 2d There is an actual sample of this cap in the National 1836 1841, Dragoons as being worn in and and there Museum; it is of soft, pliable leather which folds into are other references to its use during the Seminole War.9 small compass without diffi;ulty. It thus seems safe to say that this leather forage cap was worn by U.S. Dragoons between 1833 and about 1841. The extent.to which Infantry and Artillery wore the leather cap cannot be determined without an examina- 4 "Proceedings of a Board of Inspectors of Clothing. &c.," tion of the records of the Quartermaster General at the July-Dec. 1839, MS.in USMA Library. National ~rchivesin Washington. This must wait the 5 To Col. J. G. Totten, 20 Sept. 1839, MS in Superintendent's research of another member. Furthermore, some caps in Letter Book, USMA Library. 6 "Proceedings," op. cit., July-Dec. 1840. the collection of Member Waverly P. Lewis suggests that 7 Orders 38, AGO. 2 May 1833. 8 Arricle 52; par. 13. the unusual ear-ra-ear form of rhe leather forage cap 9Froni Everglade to Canyon, N.Y.. 1875. p. 17. A reproduc- took root in militia styles, probably being worn by some tion of. chis mav also be seen in The Story. of rhe U. S. Cuualry, by Herr and wallace, Boscon. 1953. corps as their only headdress. .
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