Part of Civil War @ Charleston Website
By Brent Brown.
Over the years of re-enacting, many correct and incorrect items have been used. Often a great deal of research is needed at just the right archive or just the right books are needed to nail down the no kidding nitty-gritty on some object. American Military Equipage, 1851-1972, by Frederick P. Todd (the first three volumes compiled into one, 602 page book we call volume I) answers many questions. If it can be found, $200 is not a bad price. Correct battle flags for the Army of Tennessee probably will require research in Battle Flags of the Army of Tennessee, by Howard Michael Madaus & Robert D. Needham. This thin, soft cover, 152 page book now commands $200. And I thought I got took when I bought it new several years ago for $35. Imagine, $35 for a thin soft cover book. Then there are topics that one might consider highly technical in nature and requiring serious research that are really remarkably easy to a find in sources readily available to almost everyone
.For years reenactors, like their forbearers, have adorned their hats, forage caps, and kepis with almost every descriptions of plant and animal parts. Among these items are white-tailed deer tails, (the Buck Tails), evergreen sprigs, pine needles, straw and grass stems from the fields, hawk and owl feathers, duck feathers, and maybe the most popular, the ostrich plumes. Ostrich plumes were sported on many officers’ personal hats. But the most obvious use of the ostrich plume, was on the Federal Model 1858 officer and enlisted Hardee or Jeff Davis hats.
However one feather that is found only on some reenactor headgear but definitely not on the War Between the States soldiers’ headgear is that of the ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus). The Chinese ring-necked pheasant was introduced into Oregon in 1880, about the same time the English pheasant was introduced into the New England states. America’s version of the ring-necked pheasant that is common in many Northers states is a hybrid of these two variation. How long it took to actually establish the pheasant as a surviving population in North America is speculative, but it is well after the 1861-1865 period. The ready source for this information was Comption’s Encyclopedia, 1993. In my case it was the Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia, 1994 version, under the title pheasant. Often the answer to authenticity questions is right under our nose, well, on the screen anyway.