Something that most of you don't know about me is that I'm an avid 'hat fan.' I've loved and worn hats my entire life, and have quite the collection of assorted hats. I'm sure by now that anyone who knows me knows that I'm also an avid American History buff, specifically the War Between the States and the events leading up to that tragic event.
So what this has to do with my hat collection is that part of this collection consists of five hats (reproductions, of course) from that war; specifically, two forage caps and three kepis. For those of you who don't know the difference between the two, the hat I'm wearing in the picture at the top of this blog is a forage cap; the picture below is a kepi. The difference is in the height of the crown and the way the crown sits.
(No, that's not a Yankee kepi, it's a Confederate General Officer's kepi. Confederate general officers and members of the general's staff wore dark blue kepis, and the number of quatrefoil braids denoted their rank. One braid for lieutenants, two for captains, three for majors and colonels, and four for generals. Some Confederate generals wore five braids, such as George Pickett.)
I bought my first forage cap way back in 1974 from someplace in New Jersey, believe it or not, and I wore that hat until I outgrew it. And when I say I wore it, I mean I wore it EVERYWHERE. When I graduated from Air Force Basic Training in August of 1975 and had my parents ship my civilian clothing to me, I made sure they included my forage cap. That cap is now hanging on a wall in my bourbon room under a picture by Mort Kuntsler named "Confederate Sunset." When I went to Korea in 1979, a cavalry kepi I owned at the time went with me.
Which brings me to the "old hat" I referred to in the title of this entry and the one picture at the top of the page.
I bought this forage cap in early 1999 from a company in Shepherdstown, West Virginia called "The Depot," and I think I paid $35 for it. As soon as it arrived and I got my first look at it, I was blown away by the quality and the authenticity. The cap was hand-sewn except for the leather bill, and it was absolutely historically correct in every way. The first thing I did was put a pair of crossed sabers on the crown as I'm a cavalry fan, and that was the only modification I've ever done to it.
Well, that was 27 years ago, and the cap is still going strong. There's a little bit of sweat bulging in the leather of the bill next to the sweatband, but that's to be expected. The leather sweatband is holding up fine with no signs of deterioration or rot AT ALL. (Usually the sweat band is the first thing to go.)
So today I got curious about the company that made the cap since I wouldn't mind buying another one from them. After about half an hour of research (thank you, ChatGPT) I discovered a couple of things the sorta blew my mind.
The first is that The Depot is no longer in business. It was a family-owned business which had a reputation for making THE BEST forage caps and kepis on the market at the time. They took pride in using the exact same historically correct shades of fabric, and constructed their caps the same way they were constructed in 1861 - namely, by hand. The cotton liner is also historically correct, as is their company logo stamped on the inside of the crown. The chin strap, buckle, and side buttons are also historically correct. I had stumbled on the Crown Jewel of forage caps and didn't know it.
The other thing I discovered is what kind of blew me away. The Depot had such a good reputation among re-enactors and history buffs due to the quality of their caps that, since the company no longer exists, the caps are now considered collector's items and can sell for anywhere from $100 - $150!
Well, shut my mouth!
So am I gonna sell mine? Oh, HELL NO! I love my forage cap and wouldn't think of selling it! (I'm actually wearing it right now as I'm typing this out!)
But there is this reproduction of "Stonewall" Jackson's forage cap out there that I've got my eye on...you can never have too many hats, y'know!
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