The men who made up this western army were a mixture of Civil War veterans, farm boys, ex-clerks, salesmen, and criminals trying to stay one jump ahead of the law. Boredom and grinding discipline were their usual lot, and so, when the paymaster showed up, many were likely to waste their pay ($13 per month for privates) on whiskey, gambling, and women. The western soldiers were indeed a tough, rough-looking collection of men, but when Lord Wolseley, a British Army commander, visited the American west in the 1880’s, he declared that, man for man, this small army was the best in the world.
In the post war years on the western plains, much of the equipment was from the Civil War. Uniforms had remained pretty much unchanged. This officer is wearing his Civil War frock coat and sash. The only exception is his privately purchased hat, a trend where officers started to pregressively dress in an ununiformed appearence in the field. Mostly likely this was due to the inadequacy of the U.S.Army uniforms being too hot in the summers and not warm enough in the winters out on the deserts of the western territories. |
