I have a union kepi hat and was wondering if someone had more information on it?
This hat is solid navy blue, with a patch or emblem on top of a eagle stitched in gold with blue background, where the bill and hat meet there is two cords hook together to form a sort of knot on the right side of the bill, has some sort of unit sign or something on the front that looks like two wheat or grain type things with two lines inside which are a 5 and a 3 on the first line, and the second line having either a SV or a SU. I found this in the attic and it’s in really good condition. Where can I find more information about this? Or can someone help me?
Normally, kepi hats had a buckle-type wrap in the front, not laced up knots- that’s pretty rare, you usually only find those on top hats as worn by officers, not on average soldier kepi hats.
It’s most likely an SV and could stand for one of two things. The first is that it stands for “State Volunteers” and the number is likely a unit designation. Regiments in the Civil War went by numeral, followed by state name. e.g. 19th Indiana Volunteers, etc. It was not uncommon practice at all for soldiers to be given hats at the beginning of their enlistment with their unit on the front of it as you are describing. They typically wore out though and were replaced with standard issue, no emblem, basic kepi’s. What you have is probably a kepi that was first issued to the regiment early in its enlistment.
The other possibility is that after the war, there were many Civil War organizations that went by the designation of “Sons of Veterans” and they commonly placed the letters “SV” in the fronts of their hats. I wouldn’t know what the number stood for then- maybe a chapter number or something, but they were typically fancier hats, which would explain why there’s so much decoration on it, and a tied not instead of buckle in the front. It would also much more easily explain the good condition of the hat since it would not have been worn by a soldier who probably wore it day in and day out for possibly years at a time.
The eagle emblem is probably a dead giveaway but since I can’t see it I can’t say.
The grain thing that you are describing is decoration and doesn’t mean anything. It was common for leaves to be wrapped around designations or ranks (See, e.g. the Confederate General insignia. Google/Yahoo it. If that looks the same as what you see on your hat than its just decoration. If not, then it could be something else)
As far as additional information, your best bet is to find your state’s historical society, take a picture of the hat and email them, or better yet just take it in and ask. I GUARANTEE they probably have a Civil War buff who knows exactly what you have and they normally get a joy out of people bringing in their old antiques for them to look at and say what they are (or aren’t).
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