American Zouaves -- fascinating, but... why?

[Kazansky]

As far as I know, the Zouave regiments of the American Civil War were regiments of light infantry volunteers who wore North African inspired uniforms. My question is... why the uniforms?

Their tactics are scarily effective, and would be moreso if they had appropriate uniforms, like dressing in green or black instead of bright red and blue. Also, they're not even Muslim!

 

[rapier17]

Military fashion. The French Zouave's were famous for their ferocity and élan, as well as their stylish uniform, so regiments on both sides of the American Civil War adopted the uniform.

 

[Kazansky]

But why copy the French? Roger's Rangers was already an effective light infantry regiment that existed in colonial America in the previous century, and in my opinion they had better uniforms. Why was there this sudden desire to copy the oddball uniforms of a European power that copied them from the North Africans?

 

[rapier17]

But why copy the French?

The Zouave's fame was contemporary to the American Civil War so it was an obvious example to copy. The colourful and flamboyant uniform was considered to be quite dashing and no doubt regimental commanders hoped that the famed fighting capabilities of the Zouave's would be imparted somewhat onto their men if they were dressed as Zouave's. That's all it is, aping famous, and rather unique, fighting regiments of a fellow industrial power.

 

[Austupaio]

But why copy the French?

Why not the French? The French being thought of as a joke, militarily, is only a recent trend and the French were, just as in the Revolutionary War, vital background players in the Civil War.

 

[Patchouli Knowledge]

General George B. McClellan had first spread to Americans the idea that the Zouaves where the ultimate soldiers after having served as an American observer during the Crimean War. He witnessed first-hand their effectiveness and brought back stories about how they were the French equivalent of the Highlanders.

The real craze started when New Yorker Elmer E. Ellsworth befriended a former Zouave surgeon that had served in the Crimea, after which he became obsessed with the idea (he'd already been fascinated by all things military since childhood) of American Zouaves. In 1860 he raised the United States Zouave Cadets, the first such unit in the US. He took his new unit on a tour of the Eastern US, wowing the public and developing an enormous celebrity. After the rampant spread of newspaper stories about Zouave exploits and images of them, most of the US was enthralled by the idea and it was only natural that when the war broke out a lot of people raised Zouave units. Why not? the US military had always modelled itself on the French. Their regular uniforms were copied from the French, so why not raise a few Zouaves?

 

[Captain Pyjama Shark]

American military uniforms already had a bit of French inspiration even without the Zouaves.  Note the prevalence of kepis, a very distinctly French hat.

 

[Vicccard]

A bit? More like completly based on. French was the fashion.

 

[rebelknight]

A bit? More like completely based on. French was the fashion.

Don't tell that to a modern American blogger or YouTube commentator or you'll get thousand of downvotes and thousand of bad comments.

Its sad that most American know nothing of history in general.

There peoples there who honest to heart genuinely believe France never won any war.

I want to strangle them!

 

[Vicccard]

There was no hate from the Germans towards the French in 1860, and besides, many German immigrants had immigrated years before. There was no great hate the other way around, either.

 

[Captured Joe]

No, German historians generally said (from 1870 onwards) that the Franco-Prussian or Franco-German enmity was born during the Napoleonic wars (1806 and 1813 were key elements in it for them), but these are the same people who marginalised the south German states as traditional allies of france and enemies of other German states, like in the Confederation of the Rhine...

 

[Vicccard]

The 'hate' in 1813 was not so much hate, but more a sudden extreme wave of nationalism in Prussia (and Prussia alone). It wasn't about destroying the French, but about regaining some national Pride and without French troops on their soil. Then again, while it's called the Liberation war, the only real countries that got liberated were Prussia and the Netherlands, with all other nations just switching sides or being defeated (Like Denmark and Poland). Or in case of the Westphalians, being annexed by Prussia and then treated as low dirt.

Seriously, if there was anything a German in 1813-15 hated more then a Frenchman, it was another German.