Zouaves take two....

[sbl]

..sorry, must have been my presentation.......I'll try again. A set of camp life details from an 1859 painting of French Zouaves in Italy.

Zouaves: Zuavi a Brescia nel 1859 - Battaglia di Solferino - Bataille de Solférino

http://picasaweb.google.com/brescial...leDeSolferino#

I thought they wore shirts under the vests.

[Spinster]

Could be he's washing his shirt in the soup pot........


The French have been known to do worse....

[brown30741]

Oh, Ms Lawson.
If he is washing his shirt, that might explain why he isn't wearing it. Despite the attempts of many Boy Scouts I've known, it is easie to wash one's clothes when not wearing them.

Reminds me of a Living History advocated by Darryl Black back in the early 90s. Men should sit around all day in period drawers picking lice from their other clothing and boiling them over the fire in big pots. Might not sound as riveting to you as shooting at a bunch of guys in a field, but image the reactions of visitors and how much they might learn...

[sbl]

Might be that the artist painted the subject because it was unusual/funny.

[Pete K]

Could it just be a hot summer day in Italy?

[sbl]

There's that.

[plankmaker]

Apparently, wearing the baggy red trousers dig attract the chicks, but did nothing to enhance your life expectancy.

Mark Campbell
Piney Flats, TN

Richmond Dispatch.
Thursday morning...Oct. 2, 1862.

The fatal color.
--In this age of Minie rifles telescopic sights and sharpshooters, it will not do for our soldiers to wear red. Of all the colors, that is the very best to "draw a bead" on. An aim which might be uncertain at a green, blue, grey or neutral tint, becomes fearfully exact when it is brought to bear on a damming red target. The fate of those two duo, daring regiments, the New York Fifth (or Duryea Zouaves) and the Brooklyn Fourteenth, of which red is the distinctive color, proves this. Each of these regiments is reported to have lost far more than its proportion of men in every active engagement. About three-fourths of the among them are said to be in the red trowsered legs. After the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, the Brooklyn Fourteenth mustered fifty men. If the Duryea Zouaves could show a larger number, that is they have been more recently recruited. The brave men of these two regiments would probably vote unanimously to retain the fatal uniform in which they have won their reputation. But their safety and that of all other regiments of the red order, demands that red trousers, red coats red shirts and red caps should not be allowed on the field of battle.--N. Y. Journal of Commerce.

[sbl]

Beg pardon..."



Scusi?