Uniforms of the Mexican Army
During the Revolution

The Federalist Army 1911-13 and
The Constitutional Army 1913-17

Figures 17 - 20: Officers

By C.A. Norman

Large version of illustration: (slow download: 71K)

Figure 17: Cavalry Captain, Campaign Dress, 1914. Khaki cap, tunic and breeches; black cap peak and chinstrap, belts, holster and boots, bronzed or painted metal buttons. Cap devices consist of the national red-white-green cockade on the front of the cap band with bronzed branch of service badge above [some officers in the photo wear them in the reverse order, with the badge on the cap band and cockade above] . Three silver rank laces on a light blue backing are sewn around the lower sleeve [ though older models on a red backing might also be worn].

The regulation specified that officers rank was to be worn on the transverse "straps" on the shoulder of the campaign tunic. Despite this, many officers wore lace rank stripes on the lower sleeve, either alone, or in combination with the "straps". The cap devices worn here were probably, to judge from photos, more commonly worn with officer's campaign dress than the regulation pattern with rank insignia. One officer in the source photo has a cap band of a very light shade, considerably lighter than the top of his cap, possibly indicating the light blue of his branch of service colour [officers occasionally seem to have done so, though it seems to have been rare].

Figure 18: Officer in Campaign Uniform, as Worn for Daily or Garrison Service, c.1914. Cap, tunic and breeches of khaki of a very light shade [there seems to have been wide variations in the shade of khaki used]; gilded buttons, gold on black shoulder "straps", black cap peak and chinstrap, brown leather gaiters and shoes. Note the 6 buttons on the rear of the tunic skirts, placed so as to imitate pocket flaps. This appears to have been a not uncommon variation on officer's campaign tunics, which normally had no buttons at all on the back.

Figure 19: Infantry Officer, Campaign Dress, c.1915. Khaki covered sun helmet with a narrow brown leather band around the base of the crown, brown chinstrap, an infantry branch badge [shown in detail to the left] is painted on the front [in dark green according to Hefter]. Khaki tunic and loose trousers, bronzed metal buttons, gold on black shoulder "straps", brown shoes. Joseph Hefter described the regulation sun helmet as being "of the British Colonial type" and depicted a rather high-crowned model.

Photos would seem to indicate that it was actually closer to the contemporary French model, with a rather low crown, sitting well down on the head. According to regulations, the branch badge was to be painted [apparently in dark green] on the front of the sun helmet, with the unit number above. In practice, photographs only rarely show these devices applied and then usually without the unit number.

[I've got to butt in here, after typing this section I went and had a good look through my Mexican books for photos of his sun helmet, which I found c.1913- 15 these had raised metal branch insignia on their front and I did not see any painted, an Artillery unit boarding a train was the most clear but there were a good few of other units too. T.D.H.]

This officer's tunic is of a radically non-regulation pattern, with patch pockets with centre pleats and attached khaki shoulder straps, the transverse rank "straps" being applied across the base of the attached cloth shoulder straps. Theoretically, it would appear that the officer's campaign uniform was to include khaki breeches with brown leather gaiters and shoes, in practice, officers wore a wide variety of footgear; dismounted officers seem to have commonly worn long trousers on campaign [possibly as a camouflage measure, to better blend in with their men?].

Figure 20: Infantry Sub-Lieutenant, Tropical Campaign Dress, c. 1915. Khaki cap with brown leather peak and chinstrap, the only device being worn is the national cockade. White cotton tropical campaign uniform with khaki composition buttons on the tunic, black belts, brown leather shoes. The gold on black rank shoulder "straps" are worn in combination with a gold stripe backed "garance" red on the lower sleeves. The sleeve rank stripes were often worn [as here] loose, held on only by a thread loop on the outer side of the sleeve; in particular, this seems to have been almost invariably the case with the white tropical uniforms [possibly so they could be removed when the uniform was washed?].

This individual derives from the same photograph as fig. 3 ghfh. indicating the wide variety of uniforms often worn within the same unit on campaign. In hot weather troops seem to have commonly worn an assortment of khaki and white tropical uniforms in the field, sometimes with elements of the two uniforms mixed together [which was strictly against regulations], with a mixture of service caps and sun helmets. Officers belts and equipment were privately purchased, and show a wide variety of contemporary models and styles.

The Federalist Army 1911-1913

The Constitutional Army 1913-1917

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