Stand By Your Colors

05/31/2026

A really great shot from the last block of the Red Badge of Courage. I produced most of the caps in this shot to include those worn by the Color Sergeant, Orderly Sergeant, Henry, Jim, Simpson, the Dandy Soldier and various other secondary and background characters

From Chapter Two - "The Red Badge of Courage" (1895)
"A moment later the regiment went swinging off... It was now like one of those moving monsters wending with many feet. The air was heavy, and cold with dew. A mass of wet grass, marched upon, rustled like silk."
- Stephen Crane

Photo by Julianne Tripp Hillian
JTH PHOTOGRAPHY

05/28/2026

1872 Caps this week

05/25/2026

A rather recent (September 2025) Berdan forage cap of mine has been torched and bedazzled to be some sort of Irish monstrosity and is up on eBay as “original.” Anybody sell this cap recently? Considering the timeframe, this feels like it could be easily traced

05/25/2026

For sale:

100% Handstitched Schuylkill Arsenal trousers in Ben Tart Kersey. The pocket and cuff facings are cut from a contrasting shade of K&P Kersey. The thread is a lumpy and uneven unbleached burnley & trowbridge linen. The waistband stampings show doubled size and Arsenal stamps in multiple colors. There are some SA garments that I’ve seen that had as many as 5 “SA” stamps, sometimes in varying fonts.

I cut these as a 34 waist by 32 length. The finished measurement suggests they may fit as large as a 36 waist.

$385 shipped

05/24/2026

McDowell Cap

05/21/2026

Today I was able to work on an incredibly cool project from the collection of Kevin Canberg. This Forage Cap was worn by Isaac H. Selner during his service with the nine month 128th Pennsylvania and is identified by Selner on the visor as being the cap that he wore at Antietam. It is one of those few instances where I hold no skepticism as to the authenticity as there are other extant 128th caps (with ventilators) as well as images this precise style being worn by other members of the regiment around this time (see MOH recipient Ignatz Gresser).

This cap bore witness to the regiments confusing and costly first battle at Antietam. Mustering in exactly one month and one day before this, the regiment had not mastered the intricacies of Battalion Drill and this, along with death of Colonel Samuel Croasdale at the opening of the fighting, contributed heavily to their clunky entrance into the fighting in and around the East Woods and Miller’s Cornfield. By the end of the fighting, the 128th lost a total of 34 killed and 85 wounded.

The cap itself appears to be the work of George Hoff & Company judging by the visor shape, lack of reeds, turned sweatband and overall pattern. The exposed pasteboard reveals newsprint constituting one of the layers of paper used. As the various ads list “South Street,” “Walnut,” “Chestnut” and other Philadelphia streets, it’s pretty cool to be able to work on a cap that likely has not revisited the city since the war.

Being from Bucks County where Selner’s company was from and making caps in the very neighborhood where this cap was made certainly added significant weight in helping to ensure that this cap will be around for generations to come.

05/21/2026

G&S New York

05/19/2026

English Kersey & Scarlet melton cap

05/18/2026

Sold

Sz. 7 1/2
1858 Regulation Cap with Saxony Blue infantry branch of service welt. I go back and forth on whether I think these earliest caps would’ve had labels or not. If you want one, I have the generic “US Army” label thought to be associated with the Schuylkill Arsenal.

$125 shipped

05/18/2026

I guess to most it just looks like any other brown linen, but my heart skipped a beat when I came across this in New York over the weekend