







Zouave uniform

The uniform of the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry (Duryée's Zouaves), 1861, consisted of a distinctive jacket, vest, sash, baggy trousers, and fez. The Zouave uniform adopted on both sides by many volunteer units during the first year of the Civil War was based on that of the elite Zouave battalion of the French Army, whose dashing appearance matched its fighting abilities. In their turn, the French Zouaves modeled their uniform and drill after the native dress and fearless tactics of their former Algerian opponents, encountered in the course of the colonial war of the 1830s.

Division of the History of Technology, Armed Forces History

National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Behring Center

Transfer from the U.S. War Department