Uniform – Chapeaus!

Of course, another necessity for military service in the #revwar is headwear! This is a tricky subject for French grenadiers in this period. Up until 1776, like British grenadiers, they wore a bearskin, or “bonnet de peau d’ours”. However, the 1776 reforms instituted by the Comte de Saint-Germain included a prohibition of these, requiring that grenadiers would wear chapeaux like the fusiliers. Although many of his changes were later rolled back by the 1779 Reglemente, this one stuck.

What le Gatinois should wear, however, is not quite so simple. An eyewitness account of Rochambeau’s army (which landed in New England in 1780) suggest that at least one regiment, le Soissonnais, kept theirs. We also know that the men of le Gatinois were keen to return to their pre-1776 designation of “Auvergne”, and a promise made by Rochambeau to the grenadiers of the regiment to rectify this is partially why the regiment was renamed in 1782, to “le Royal-Auvergne”. If they missed the trappings of the old style that much, is it possible that they, like le Soissonnais, ignored the 1776 Reglemente?

At present, sadly, we have no evidence for le Gatinois wearing bonnets de peau at Yorktown. We have therefore have chosen to abide by the 1779 Reglemente for our chapeaux, which are wonderfully made by @M. Brenckle, Hatter. They feature the white cockade of the reglemente (and not the tricolour entente cockade which was issued to Rochambeau’s force), the red “hoppe ronde” to denote our grenadier status, and the hooks and eyes which are characteristic of the French cocked hats. But who knows – maybe one day we will be seen in bonnets de peau, with Gatinois purple plumes…

Photo kindly provided by Matthew Brenkle. For more about the construction of these, please see his post about the 1779 reglemente chapeau here: https://www.facebook.com/share/NQnb2UHBUhPuW8om/