Quote Originally Posted by davedove
Thanks guys for the quick responses. I do know that whatever ethnic units were raised quickly reverted to standard uniforms and such. It's just that you always see stuff on the Zouave units, which I understand were very popular at the time, and I was wondering about the others.
The "Zouave craze" began with Elmer Ellsworth, an Illnois lawyer (who was a partner in Lincoln's law firm for a while) who formed a drill team called the "U.S. Zouave Cadets" that travelled around the country demonstrating "Zouave drill" -- usually Ellsworth would challenge the local militia company to a drill competition, and right after they would leave, the militia company would change to a "Zouave" company! :mrgreen: The Zouave also gained a lot of fame through the exploits of the French Zouaves in the Crimea, and many considered the Zouave the "beau ideal of a soldier". Ellsworth's Zouave cadet uniform was not totally "authentic" to the French style, however; some regiments went the "whole nine yards", such as the 5th New York (Dureya's Zouaves) and copied French style, while others adopted "bits and pieces" -- you see a lot of Zouave style jackets with other pieces of standard kit -- for example, Lew Wallace, the Colonel of the 11th Indiana (and author of "Ben Hur") refused to adopted the "Mohammedean Fez" for his unit.

The Zouave uniform comes from the Zouavea (sic?) tribe in North Africa, which was recruited as colonial forces by the French. The Zouave uniform lasted until WWI, although there are still French regiments who carry the name "Zouave", even though the uniform is long gone.

How does this relate to the Highlanders? Well, during the Crimea, the Zouaves and the "Jocks" developed a fast friendship, and many contemporary French and British drawings show Zouaves and Highlanders fighting in the Crimea -- how's that for keeping this "on-topic"? ;)

Cheers,

Todd