I will print this letter which was originally sent to Tradition magazine way back in 1974 but was never published in its letters section, as the article to which it relates has previously been printed in El Dorado it is felt that the letter could still be of some assistence. T.D.H.

Dear Sir:

I have read with interest Mr. T.Hooker's article on uniforms of the Mexican Army, 1839-47 in Tradition, numbers 64 and 66. To supplement these articles I have some notes which may prove of interest to your readers.

The Mexican ground forces in 1845 consisted of the Regular Army [Ejercito Permanente], the Territorial Militia [Milicia Active], and the National Guard [Guardia Nacional] divided into infantry, cavalry, artillery and engineers.

The Regular Army and Territorial Militia infantry and cavalry units were under the direct control of the Chief of Staff of the Army while the Directors of the Corps of Artillery and of the Engineers controlled their respective Arms. The National Guard was largely under the control of the various Mexican States. Also under the control of the Chief of Staff were the Medical Corps, and the local General Staff detachments [Cuerpos del detall de las plazas] who performed administrative duties in the major Fortresses, seaports and garrison towns.

The Army General Staff [Plana Mayor General del Ejercito] consisted of all of the General. Officers, the General Staff Corps [Plana Mayor] under the Chief of Staff and of such Auxiliary Officers as were considered necessary.

There were two grades of General Officers, General of Division and Generals of Brigade. Both grades wore a dark blue coat with scarlet piping, lapels, cuffs, collars and turnbacks; and dark blue trousers. Gold embroidery in the collar, cuffs, lapels and down the outer seam of the trousers. A cocked hat with gold trim and red,, white and green plumes. The Generals of Division were distinguished by two rows of gold embroidery in the cuffs and sky blue sashes,_ while the Generals of Brigade had only one row of embroidery on the cuffs and wore green sashes.

Both the General Staff Corps and the local General Staff detachments wore blue uniforms until 1842. The General Staff Corps were a dark blue coat with light blue facings and the local General Staff detachments a light blue coat with dark blue facings. The uniform of the local General Staff detachments was changed to a red coat with black velvet facings, gold trim and buttons, dark blue trousers with gold piping and a cocked hat with gold binding in Julv 1842. The use of this uniform was extended to the General Staff Corps in August 1842. The General Staff Corps changed the facings on its red uniform to white in September 1844, while the local General Staff detachments continued to wear the black velvet facings on their red uniforms.

The Regular infantry in early 1845 consisted of 14 Regiments: The Grenadier Guards, the 1st - 3rd Light Infantry Regiments, the 1st - 4th and the 6th - 12th Infantry Regiments, two Garrison [Fijo] Battalions; that of California and Mexico, the Mexico Invalid Unit, the Puebla Invalid Battalion and the 7 Independent Garrison Companies.

The Territorial Militia Infantry consisted of 5 Regiments: the 1st and 2nd Mexico, 1st and 2nd Guanaluato, and Puebla, 14 Battalions; 1st and 2nd Celaya, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, Michoacan, Sur, San Luis Potosi, Queretaro, Oaxaca, Aguascalientes, Lagos, Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Sonora, with 13 Coast Guard Battalions. There were also 3 Yucatan Battalions, but these were in revolt.

The Regular Cavalry in early 1845 was composed of 10 Regiments: the 1st - 9th Regiments and the Mexico Light Cavalry Regiment, 4 Squadrons; the Guard Hussars, the Tulancingo Cuirassiers, the Puebla Light Cavalry and Yucatan, the Tabasco Company and 34 Presidial Companies.

The Territorial Militia Cavalry consisted of 5 Regiments; Queretaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, Oajaca and Morelia, 19 Squadrons; Cuernavaca, Chiapas, Tlaxcala, 1st and 2nd Durango, Txtlahuaca, Chalchicomula, the Mounted Rifles, New Mexico, Jalapa, Orizaba, Tula, Teloloapan, Chinahuapan, California, 1st and 2nd Sierra Gorda, Bravos and the Jalisco Lancers, 4 Coast Guard Squadrons, 6 Coast Guard Companies and 12 Presidial Companies.

The Corps of Artillery in addition to the Foot and Mounted Brigades and the 5 Garrison Foot Artillery Companies had its own General Staff composed of the Senior Officers of the Corps, its own Quartermaster Corps, a Company of Artillery Artificers and its own Judiciary which it shared with the Corps of Engineers.

The uniform of the Artillery Quartermaster Corps was a green coat with red facings until August 1540 when the uniform was changed to a dark blue single breasted coat with gilt buttons and embroidery with dark blue trousers. The Artillery Artificers wore a uniform of the same colours as that of the Foot Artillery. In place of the coat they wore a short roundabout [shell] jacket and in place of the shako a narrow brimmed hat. The uniform of the Judicial Officers was dark blue coat with gilt buttons and trimmed with lace (gold). Cocked hats without binding and dark blue trousers.

The Corps of Engineers according to the 1838 regulations consisted of a Director General, about 50 Field and Company grade Officers, the Sapper Battalion, the Military Academy, and a small detachment of Topographical Engineers attached to the General Staff.

The uniform of the Corps of Engineers which would also he that of the Sapper Battalion was a dark blue coat with black collar and lapels, crimson cuffs, piping and turnbacks with yellow buttons. Blue trousers with a crimson stripe down the outer seam. Shakos without cords, with a plume for Officers not serving with troops and a pompon for the Sapper Battalion. As undress, a grey frockcoat was worn.

The uniform of the Cadets of the Military Academy was changed in 1840 to a dark blue coat with sky blue collar and cuffs, yellow buttons, sky blue trousers and the Infantry shako. For undress the Cadets wore a roundabout [shell] jacket of the same colours as the coat and a blue forage cap with a red band and tassel.

The above uniform was changed again in 1843 to a dark blue coat with crimson collar, cuffs, turnbacks and piping, yellow buttons. All Cadets below the rank of Cadet Second Lieutenant had yellow lace border half an inch wide in the collar and cuffs. Light blue trousers and a black shako with a red band around the crown, a grenade as shako plate and a red plume. At Chapultepec in 1847 the Cadets fought in grey frockcoats and trousers, their then undress uniform and the blue forage caps mentioned above.

Mexican sources sometimes differ on dates introducing new uniforms and in the details of the uniform descriptions. I am listing some of them below in the hope that someone of your readers may be able to confirm or correct my findings.

The Light Infantry uniform was introduced by paragraph 8 of the decree of 31 August 1840. The uniform was as described and in addition had yellow ball buttons, plain yellow initials embroidered on the collar, an "L" on the right side arid a "P" on the left for "Ligero Permanente", blue shoulder straps piped in red, a red stripe on the grey trousers, grey greatcoat and grey roundabout [shell] jackets piped in red for fatigue duty and use in the field.

The Public Security Squadron of Mexico was renamed as the Hussars of Mexico on the 3 December 1841, by November 1842 this Territorial Militia Squadron was to be named Hussars of the Guard of the Supreme Powers. The new hussar uniform was introduced on 17 December 1841 and the Hussars wore a red shako until approximately 1843 when they received the black busbies.

The Territorial militia, Grenadiers of the Guard of the Supreme Powers Battalion was authorized on the 7 December 1841 and organized soon thereafter. The uniform was a dark blue coat with a sky blue collar having a black collar patch, black cuffs with double yellow grenadier loops and yellow lace on the chest, dark blue trousers and a fur cap.

The Mexican Garrison Battalion [listed by Mr. Joseph Hefter as the Regular Standing Battalion of Mexico] was organized as the Replacement Deposit Battalion of Mexico in March 1843. It was renamed the Mexico Garrison Battalion reorganized and given the described a distinctive uniform on 27 September 1843.

A number of organizational and uniform changes were directed by the decree of 30 March 1846 as follows:

The 3rd Infantry Regiment was redesignated the 4th Light Infantry Regiment. The uniform of the 4th Light Inf. was to be that described for the 3rd Infantry by the law of 10 July 1839 except that the collar and cuff-patches were emerald green and the pompon and shoulder straps or epaulettes were also green.

To replace the 3rd Infantry Regiment the Territorial Militia Coast Guard Battalion of San Blas was renamed the 3rd Infantry Regiment, the uniform was that prescribed for the 3rd infantry Regiment by the decree of 10 July 1839.

The 5th Infantry Regiment, which was disbanded in 1840 because it had revolted, was organized again from the effective strength of the 1st and 2nd Territorial Militia Battalions of Celaya. The uniform was that prescribed for the 5th Infantry Regiment by the decree of 10 July 1839.

The Territorial Militia Cavalry Regiment of Queretaro was renamed the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. The uniform was a yellow coat with crimson cuffs, lapels and turnbacks, green trousers with a white stripe, a red shako, and red housing with a white border.

I have not been able to find evidence for the general use of collar or cuff patches [Marruecas] in the Mexican Army uniforms for the period 1839-47 except for four cases; the Grenadier Guards of the Supreme Powers in December 1841, the 6th infantry in April 1842, the Garrison Companies [Companias Fixas] in September 1842, and the 4th Light Infantry in March 1846.

Some confusion seems to have arisen by the translation of the term barras as bars or cuff bars by my friend the late Joseph Hefter of Cuernavaca, Mexico. Instead of the translation of barras as turnbacks in the skirts of the coat. I had criticized the usage of barras as cuff patches in my review of Hefter' s book The Mexican Soldier. The ensuing correspondence Mr Hefter confirmed that "turnbacks" was the proper translation for the term barras and furnished me with the following explanation from the Diccionario Enciclopedio Hispano-Americano, [Madrid 1897]: "In the uniform coats barras are the cuffs or the lateral piping in the skirts."

The sources for my notes are the contemporary regulations and annual reports for the period and the historical narratives published by the Mexican General Staff Corps for 1842, 1843, 1845, and 1851.

--DETMAR H. FINKE

[This should I hope get a few of you running for a copy of Hefter's book from the Library, or if your lucky from your bookshelf just to see how must of this is new data, it lust makes me wonder how much more information this gent knows for I have copies of some of his articles on Mexican Military history dating from the 40's, I hope that if he's still alive he will get in touch with the society? ]