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The Smithsonian Anderson Zouaves uniform
Kathleen Golden (Museum Specialist, Armed Forces History Collections, History of Technology Division) of the Smithsonian Institute has been able to locate photographs of the jacket you see here and is currently arranging for photographs to be taken of the waistcoat and pantaloons.
It seems the photographs of the jacket could be quite old and have been on file for some time. If that is the case it would explain why the pictures are black & white rather than colour. However, it appears that the trousers and the waistcoat have never been photographed. In her communication Kathleen golden wrote, “I rely on one of my co-workers to download the images from the camera and PhotoShop them if necessary”.
According to Kathleen the uniform came to the Smithsonian in a transfer from the War Department in the 1920’s. That being the case she was unable to tell us who wore it. However, she has agreed to take a look at the uniform to see if she can find anything to cast some light on the matter. Some things that are already clear from the black and white images is that the jacket is from the Advance Company (Co. “I”). The red lace appears to be worsted wool and the manner in which the trefoil and tombeau is formed is very clear. Somewhat surprising is the wonderfully ornate finish of the embroidered A & Z monograms. The jacket appears to be machine rather than hand stitched.
Below are links to other parts of the uniform.
The images below of the same Smithsonian uniform jacket have been supplied to us by Chris Sullivan of Stoney Brook Company which makes reproduction Civil War infantry trousers and were taken by him in the early 1980s. Chris has also supplied us with some details about the construction of jacket which follows.
The main body was sewn with a dark blue (log wood dyed) thread, of which most had oxidised to a dark brown, which was a common characteristic of this type of thread. The red trim was not the typical herringbone tape that you usually see on reproduction zouave jackets but was a worsted wool with a regular weave. The red trim was sewn on to the jacket using an unbleached (light tan or natural colour) thread. The sleave linings were sewn to the jacket lining using the same unbleached thread.
Rodger Sturke first described the uniform of the Anderson Zouaves in his article ‘62nd Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, (Anderson Zouaves), 1861-1865’, which appeared in Military Colector & Historian, Journal of The Company of Military Historians, in 1983. For an appraisal of Sturke’s article click on the following link.
