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Are the uniforms for the Union Cavalry accurate?

posted 9 years ago by The_Khazi
8 replies | jump to latest

I read elsewhere that they were more representative of the US Cavalry in the Indian wars of the 1870`s 80`s.Any thoughts?

[–] MadTom 9 years ago

They were wearing post-1872 uniforms, with the officers having wide stripes on their trouser seams rather than much narrower piping. Most of their pistols and carbines were anachronistic as well. This is analogous to a Korean War movie with US troops wearing Vietnam War jungle fatigues and carrying M-16 rifles.

Keep in mind that John Wayne, John Ford and several actors from "The John Ford Stock Company" had, a decade earlier, filmed what was called "The Cavalry Trilogy": Fort Apache, Rio Grande and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon which were all set during the 1870s Indian Wars. My assumption was that John Ford and the studio still had those uniforms and equipment from those movies on hand and wanted to save money by reusing them.

[–] Aloysius_von_der_Trenck 8 years ago

Interesting. By the way, unless I missed something this was the last time The Duke wore a US Cavalry (Regular Army, as one of his characters would lke to say) uniform, and a colonel's! (he was General William Tecumseh Sherman in 'How the West Was Won', but Sherman was not a cavalryman and besides he was a general; as for 'The Undefeated' I don't recall he wore an uniform at all, just as Rock Hudson wore his CSA one.)

P.S. Or a 1918 American soldier shooting Germans with his M1 Garand!

EDIT. He was a colonel again in 'Rio Lobo' (1970) but did he wear a uniform—and a cavalry one? I don't think so, but I could be wrong.

[–] The_Khazi 8 years ago

I haven`t seen Rio Lobo for a while but I`m sure he`s wearing a uniform at the start of the film when the Confederates attack the train with the Hornets-maybe I`m getting confused with another film but doesn`t a reb knock him off his horse later when he`s riding in a stream?

[–] Aloysius_von_der_Trenck 8 years ago

Sorry for the delay in replying to your post, I have been out for a week. You're quite right, The_Khazi. I stand corrected. I looked it up and colonel Cord McNally/John Wayne is there wearing his cavalry uniform.

https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.notrecinema.com/images/filmsi/rio-lobo_459396_9801.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.notrecinema.com/communaute/v1_detail_film.php3?lefilm%3D9119&h=576&w=1024&tbnid=c5j4xhzZYdf3UM:&docid=BK7KmAyDsgBxtM&ei=fTDUVrqDIYHDUv3lk6AB&tbm=isch&ved=0ahUKEwj6tZ6H9JzLAhWBoRQKHf3yBBQ4ZBAzCAYoAzAD

As a matter of fact, he did as well in 'The Undefeated' ,

https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://i1.wp.com/www.doblu.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/undefeated324.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.doblu.com/2013/12/12/the-undefeated-blu-ray-review/&h=1080&w=1920&tbnid=2weasoPe1lAVOM:&docid=SrkEgbb1Vs-vAM&ei=MzHUVvzVE8H7UJ7nsOgI&tbm=isch&ved=0ahUKEwi8u_Xd9JzLAhXBPRQKHZ4zDI0QMwh-KFcwVw

So my memory failed not just once but... twice! My sole excuse: I haven't seen those two films again since the very early 70s and, hell, that's four decades and a half ago! But in that time I have been watching literally thousands of other films, including Westerns, of course, and memory, even a good one, is very tricky.

I suppose therefore that it would be safe to assume and say that 'Rio Lobo', in 1970, was the last time John Wayne wore the uniform of a colonel of the US Cavalry in a film, but after this failure... I'd rather not!! 

P.S. In 1959 either The Duke had a better taylor... or he ate less TexMex food than ten years later!! ;-)

[–] tropicaldiver2001 7 years ago

Look at how Union soldiers of the civil war, and US Army soldiers of the Indian wars in the 1870s and 1880s really looked from old photographs. Then see films made about those times. Not a lot of similarities. Hollywood really dressed them up.

The army dress uniform of the 1870s had Prussian overtones with spiked helmets. This was because the Germans had won the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and our army decided to copy them instead of using the older French-style kepis they had used in the Civil War. But you never see that in movies for some reason.

My guess is most soldiers, even officers, looked scraggily in the field because they had few washing facilities for their scratchy wool uniforms.

[–] The_Khazi 7 years ago

Interesting info, thanks to everyone for posting.So kepis were largely replaced during the Indian wars after 1865 for the Cavalry?Most films show Cavalry after the Civil war wearing cream-coloured hats rather than dark-blue.I presume these are "campaign" hats but still confusing.

[–] MadTom 7 years ago

So kepis were largely replaced during the Indian wars after 1865 for the Cavalry?Most films show Cavalry after the Civil war wearing cream-coloured hats rather than dark-blue.I presume these are "campaign" hats but still confusing.

The key word is "largely". Some of the dead troopers from Custer's Last Stand were still wearing kepis.

[–] MAGolding (1096) 6 years ago

If you wonder how accurate Hollywood got the costumes, culture, and customs of various Indian tribes and nations, study how accurate they got the costumes, culture, and customs of the "cavalry tribe" despite those being much easier to research. Errors in the depiction of the "cavalry tribe" certainly don't make one confident in the depiction of the far more alien and exotic Indian tribes.

And see my post "These boots are made for riding".