US Civil War Highland Regiments

[macwilkin]

Not to my knowledge. I've been studying the Late Unpleasantness for a good 30 years - with a particular interest in uniforms - and I've never heard of a Confederate Highland regiment.

There were certainly Scots and those of Scottish heritage in the Confederate service, but not organized as a "Scottish" regiment in the sense of wearing tartan and having pipes. (I've seen photographs of Confederate soldiers wearing checked trousers - but not tartan)

I just found a reference to a couple of Scottish companies in South Carolina in Ron Field's The Confederate Army 1861-65 (1): South Carolina & Mississippi (Osprey Publishing). Field quotes an article from an 1870 issue of the Scottish American Journal which describes the uniform of the Union Light Infantry (so-named to honour the Union of England & Scotland in 1707) which wore trews in Government Sett, bonnets and thistle buttons on their coats. Field also mentions the The Highland Guard, established in 1857, and evidently wore a uniform based on the 42nd Regiment's (The Black Watch) uniform.

Personally I would take this with a dose of salts until I could see Field's sources. I doubt that such uniforms were worn in combat, but it would be an interesting research project nonetheless.

Regards,

Todd

[wvpiper]

see post below