146th "Garrard's Tigers" Zouave Uniform

It's about time that I got around to posting the 146th zouave uniform. Especially once you consider that I made it for an event in May, and that it is now August.

The 146th New York Infantry started the war off as a regular volunteer regiment, dressed in New York State Jackets, with standard trousers, hats and equipment. Once the 146th absorbed veterans of the 5th New York, a zouave regiment, they were issued a brand new uniform. This uniform was almost a direct copy of an Algerian Turco uniform, consisting of a fez, red sash, gaiters, and sky blue jacket and pants. The uniform was produced at the Schuylkill Arsenal in Pennsylvania.

This belonged to a drum major in the 146th

Given that I began putting this uniform together less than a week before the event, I took less time than usual to take pictures. This means that there are no pictures of the fez, sash, or gaiters in production, only the jacket and trousers.

 The Jacket is, except for the trim, fairly straight-forward. It's a standard six-piece body, without any padding, collar, pockets or buttonholes. This meant that the jacket actually went together very quickly. The inside was lined in jean cloth, a standard for many Schuylkill Arsenal products, and copied specifically from an existing 146th jacket. The edges of the inside were faced in self-cloth, which was whipped down, as can be seen in the above picture.

The edges of the body had a 1/8" cording attached. The side piece of the body had a vent cut into it, and the cutting takes some time there to create two loops, reaching across the vent.

Less than an inch behind the cording, trim is added, again following the edges of the body. Along the sleeves, the same trim was added to create chevrons near the wrists.

The sleeves were lined in plain muslin, a standard for many Federal garments.

The (almost) completed jacket. The body is closed by a single hook-and-eye near the neck, and the sleeves each will have three buttons. The only thing left to do is add on the final buttons. The design on the front, the tombeaux, was added in thinner trim than the trim near the edge. All the trim was felled down.

The trousers were a good deal more complicated than the jacket. The legs were cut into perfect rectangles, and were very large. The excessive material was gathered and pleated into cuffs at the bottom of the trousers, and pleated in to the waistband at the top. This has an effect of creating very baggy legs, while still allowing a good fit on the waist and ankles.

The pockets were larger than standard infantry trousers, and were centered directly on the side seam, meaning that the opening to the pockets was cut in the middle of the pocket bag, which lay half on the front of the trousers, half on the back. A slightly confusing set-up, especially when making this the night before I needed them.

                               

Nevertheless, it all worked out in time. Here's the completed impression at the Wilderness, on the 150th anniversary. The black hat, in lieu of a fez, is actually documented in an account of a 146th Zouave at the Wilderness.

And what would it be without a tintype to go along with it? Period photography always helps thing look better, even if it's not needed. I'm standing second row, second from left.

That's the entire impression. Except for the trousers, very simple and straight-forward. I have many more projects which are building up a backlog, so I don't know which one I'll showcase next.