Uniforms of the Mexican Army
During the Revolution

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

Figures 21-23: Infantry

By C.A. Norman

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Figure 21: Infantryman in Service/Full Dress, from a photo of an Honour Guard in Mexico City, 1914. Blue-black cap with "garance" red band and top piping, black peak and chinstrap, brass branch badge on the front of the band with the national cockade above. Blue-black tunic with "garance" red collar, cuff flaps, and piping edging the blue-black cuffs and shoulder straps, brass buttons. Note that no device at all is worn on the collar, which seems to have been the norm during this period, Blue-black trousers with red stripe. Black boots, belts and pouches [the latter not clearly visible, and of unknown type].

The blue-black service uniform seems to have been issued only infrequently to the lower ranks and then only to the garrisons of major cities. Most of the men in this source photo wear very badly fitting uniforms, with the tunic skirts hanging well down onto the thighs and baggy trousers rolled at the bottom; this might well indicate that a store of these uniforms were kept in the local magazine and had been issued out only for this single ceremonial occasion, with little regard paid to obtaining a proper fit? The belts and box-type cartridge pouches appear to be of an obsolete model [though details of the latter are unclear] , and might well be the scourings of the local magazine. More commonly the brown campaign belt would be worn with this uniform.

Figure 22a: Infantry First Sergeant, Campaign/Garrison Uniform, 1914 [a composite of a Hefter drawing and a photograph]. Khaki cap, tunic and trousers, the cap has a brown peak and chinstrap, bronzed branch of service badge on the front of the band with national cockade above [constituting the "regulation" fittings for the lower ranks]. The tunic has khaki composition or paste buttons and differs from the officer's model in having a turn-down collar and attached khaki shoulder straps. Three "garance" red rank stripes circle the lower sleeves and the same stripes [in smaller form] run up the centre of the shoulder straps, which also are edged all around with a narrow red piping.

The trousers are tucked into olive canvas leggings or gaiters [very similar to the old U.S. Army model]. Brown shoes, belts and rifle strap on the left hip. The darkish grey issue blanket with a wide black stripe near each end is strapped in a horse-shoe roll to the brown canvas and leather pack.

This is a rather idealised figure, as he might appear at a garrison formation, in practice, the leggings and rank stripes and piping on the shoulder straps seem to have been rarely worn [personally, I have some doubts as to whether the shoulder strap trim depicted applies to this period at all, being more typical of the 1919 uniform, though Hefter has stated that it was regulation with the "1914" uniform]. Being Government issue, the other rank's campaign uniform tended to be more "regulation" than the officers, with few variations in cut, though there was some variation in the wearing of insignia and unauthorised combinations were frequently worn in the field.

All leatherwork for the other ranks was to be of brown leather, though black boots or shoes were sometimes worn with the blue-black service uniform. There is some question as to the "regulation" model of belts and cartridge pouches with the "1914 uniform". The regulations [according to Hefter] specified a brown leather belt with buckle, supported by two shoulder braces crossing on the back and normally carrying 2 leather cartridge pouches with 40 rounds, but adaptable to as many as 12 pouches with 120 rounds. Unfortunately, this rig was not illustrated in the plates appended to the regulation, nor is it really identifiable in any extant photograph [in fact, there is some question as to whether it was really adopted at all?].

A brown leather waistbelt matching the description was widely worn, sometimes with shoulder braces of various types, but they are seldom depicted supporting any sort of cartridge pouch [more commonly they are worn in conjunction with one or more bandoliers of ammunition] . The rig worn by this figure might conceivably be the item described in the regulations, though the narrow leather strap over his left shoulder suggests he might be wearing the old-style cartridge carrier described in earlier part of this article [possibly the belts described in the regulations were actually adopted, but the cartridge pouches were not] .

Figure 22b: In earlier part of this article I attempted to give a rather cursory description of the interior layout of the cartridge carrier mentioned above, based on an unclear photograph. On rummaging through source material for this segment I happened across Company of Military Historians plate No.178 by Joseph Hefter, which includes a very clear drawing of the interior of this item [appended here]. It is basically much as described in the earlier part , with 6 internal loops or "pockets", 3 sewn to the inner face of the carrier and an additional 3 sewn to the flap below which folded up inside the carrier when not in use, Hefter describes it as carrying 30 rounds, so presumably each loop held only a single 5-round clip. This carrier continued in use to some extent after 1913, now in brown leather, but was not popular, most men preferring bandoliers for their ammunition.

Figure 23: Infantryman, Campaign Dress, c.1915. Rather battered khaki sun helmet with brown leather band and chinstrap, khaki tunic, buttons and loose trousers, brown shoes and bandolier. Dark grey blanket roll with black stripes, the olive-khaki "bread bag" is just barely visible on his left hip.

This figure would be more typical of normal campaign wear than the last figure, his pack has been stored in the unit train or discarded [assuming he was ever issued one at all] and replaced by a blanket roll; all superfluous equipment has been discarded [even the waistbelt] , his trousers are worn loose over shoes rather than tucked into leggings and no insignia is worn [he does have loops on the lower sleeves to hold N.C.O.s. insignia, but no insignia is worn, possibly removed for security reasons?] .

The Federalist Army 1911-1913

The Constitutional Army 1913-1917

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