a metal number."- In 1839 officers of horse artillery 

 were authorized red horsehair plumes instead of cock 

 feathers."^ In 1845 enlisted personnel of both light and 

 horse artillery were authorized horsehair plumes and 

 bands and tassels."* 



Although Garland said much of the 1832 uniform 

 was copied from the British, this cap, cylindrical in 

 form, was a radical departure. It was more nearly 

 French in origin and design and represented the first 

 of an almost unbroken line of caps based on those of 

 the French Army, patterns which continued until the 

 adoption of the helmet for mounted units in 1872. This 

 is not without explanation, for American officers were 

 officially \isiting France as well as Britain during this 

 period. In addition to sending home British materials, 

 General Wool forwarded to Washington from Paris in 

 1832 drawings of all current French uniforms."' The 

 British Army and many elements of the French Army 

 retained the yeoman crown cap for some years, but 

 French light ca\alry units had adopted a cylindrical 

 pattern toward the end of the Napoleonic era. Al- 

 though there is no .specific mention of French influence 

 on record, an examination of headgear of the period 

 leads one to conclude that this modification was most 

 probably based on the French cavalry pattern."" 



Fourteen of these caps have been examined (figs. 23- 

 25) and all follow the official description with toler- 

 ances of no more than ^4 to /o inch. All are enlisted 

 men's models of heavy felted wool rather than the black 

 bea\'er prescribed for officers "' and measure //a to 

 7^4 inches in height, with a top diameter of 7iA inches, 

 and the jacked leather crown or "tip," sunken /o inch 

 and lapping over the sides 1 inch. The bottom of the 

 cap carries a 1 inch leather band with a 3 inch soft 

 leather sweatband welted to it on the outside, folded 

 under, and fitted with a drawstring. The visor, or 

 "poke," is convex and somewhat pointed, measuring 

 3 inches at its widest and 12 inches side to side, the 

 underside painted green in some cases, black in 

 others.""* The sliding chin strap, with brass buckle and 

 leather keeper, terminates in plain brass buttons wired 

 to the cap at either end of the \i.sor. In most cases the 

 insignia is affixed to the cap with wooden pegs running 

 through stapes. Although most of the caps carry the 

 label "H. T. Gratacap 392 Broadway, N.Y.," others 

 carry the labels of John Holloway, William Cressman, 

 and Wm. H. Horstmann."" This cap was also worn by 

 the "engineer soldiers" of the Company of Sappers, 

 Miners, and Pontoniers when that unit was formed in 



Figure 25.— Infantry Cap, 1832-1851. 



1846 and was officially termed a "shako" for that unit. 

 It had a black worsted, spherical pompon 3 inches in 

 diameter instead of the tall plume, and a large engineer 

 castle beneath the prescribed eagle as a cap plate. ^^° 

 The chin strap buttons on the specimen in the national 

 collections are of the standard engineer pattern of the 

 period. 



One documented specimen of an officer's cap of this 

 model is known. It conforms closely with the enlisted 

 mens although of superior materials and workmanship 

 (fig. 26) . The most noticeable difference is in the \'isor, 

 which is flat rather than convex and stitched at the 

 edge, indicating two-piece construction."' 



There were many pros and cons as to the practicabil- 

 ity of this cap, with the cons predominating. Whereas 

 several of the m;ore clothes-conscious officers such as 

 Philip Kearney liked the cap and thought it compared 

 fa\-orably with European dress headgear,"" there were 

 numerous complaints regarding it from the frontier 

 posts. Colonel George Croghan, the Inspector General 



28 



