RARE EARLY‑WAR VELVET KEPI, ATTRIBUTED TO THE 18TH GEORGIA INFANTRY

American South (probably Virginia), early 1861. Dark blue silk velvet over pasteboard and horn staves, with three rows of gold braid at the base of the crown; leather visor finished in lamp‑black; quilted pink silk crown lining. The circular top disc (approx. 5½ in. diam.) bears a four‑loop braid device; the nap of the velvet at center preserves the ghosted letters “18 G A,” with remnants of the original sewing threads still present. Crown approx. 5 in. high; internal circumference approx. 22½ in. No evidence of a chin strap or sweatband, as constructed.

Velvet, gold braid, and quilted‑silk linings are hallmarks of early volunteer and officer purchase caps at the opening of the war. The impressed “18 G A” on the crown, together with the Richmond paper lining dated February 1861, definitively supports attribution to the 18th Georgia Infantry, a regiment engaged with the Army of Northern Virginia and active around Fredericksburg.

The 18th Georgia Infantry was organized in spring 1861 from companies raised largely in central and northern Georgia and entered Confederate service in Cobb’s Brigade, later Wofford’s Brigade, of McLaws’s Division, Army of Northern Virginia. It fought through the Peninsula and Seven Days campaigns, at Second Manassas and in Maryland, and helped hold the stone wall at Fredericksburg, where brigade commander Thomas R. R. Cobb was mortally wounded. In 1863 the regiment took part in Chancellorsville and the famous counterattack of Wofford’s Georgians in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg, then marched west with Longstreet for the Knoxville Campaign. Returning to Virginia, it endured the brutal grind of the Overland Campaign, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the long siege of Petersburg, before laying down arms with the remnants of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in April 1865.

Constructed in the manner of a Federal Civil War kepi, the hat retains its original three‑row metallic braid around the lower crown, a broad leather visor (about 10 in. across; 1¾ in. at front), and a fully quilted pink‑silk lining. The top and bottom edges of the crown and the perimeter of the top disc are reinforced with staves. The perimeter of the top disc once carried a narrow braid edging (now largely lost). Materials and stitching are consistent with mid‑19th‑century manufacture; the hat reads as a privately purchased officer’s dress kepi of the early war period.

Reportedly found at Fredericksburg, Virginia (per conservation file). Accompanied by a comprehensive five‑page technical analysis and treatment report by Textile Preservation Associates, Inc., Sharpsburg, Maryland (director Fonda G. Thomsen, 19 October 1992), with scale drawings and fiber/thread identifications. The report notes: (i) the impressed letters “18 G A” on the top disc with thread remnants; (ii) three rows of gold braid around the base; (iii) absence of both chin strap and sweatband; and (iv) fragments of period paper used as an internal stiffener, including a Richmond Theatre playbill dated Thursday, 21 February 1861, supporting an early‑1861 date of manufacture. A storage/display recommendation and record of minor stabilization (re‑stitching of the lining where later thread was present and preparing a support form) are included.

Condition: As preserved and stabilized. Velvet worn overall with loss of nap to the top disc; rolled edge to the top now abraded, exposing the stave beneath; scattered splits from creasing and age; braid at the base partially detached in places; brim re‑attached historically with a later thread; lining faded and soiled at the edges with small holes; crown misshapen from long storage. The hat remains structurally coherent and visually compelling, with the important “18 G A” impression legible.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Militaria, Uniforms, Accoutrements, Ephemera]