This Confederate General officer’s cap with regulation braid was manufactured in early 1861. This style is copied from the French Chasseur pattern and we refer to them as kepis, but during the War the Confederates simply called them caps. The cap’s dark blue body is correct, and follows Confederate regulations for a general. The Maryland buttons are original and are sewn so tight that I cannot see the back marks. The cap is completely original and has no restoration whatsoever, yet it remains in excellent condition throughout, as the pictures will attest.

The cap’s interior is as remarkable as its exterior; it retains its original Southern maker’s label pasted inside the crown, which reads: "Barnum’s-Taylor Baltimore” This label refers to Robert Taylor, the Baltimore, Maryland hat maker.

Due to crooked Abe’s usurpation of power and subsequent overthrow and arrest of Maryland’s legitimate government, Maryland was unable to secede. However, she was a distinctly Southern state and was regarded as such before, during and after the War of Northern Aggression.

She provided ten Generals to the Confederacy: Arnold Elzey, George H. Steuart, William Mackall, Lloyd Tilghman, Isaac Trimble, Louis Little, James J. Archer, Johnson Bradley, John Winder and Charles S. Winder. Most of these men filled their roles remarkably well.

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