African Americans & Civil War Cockades

Did African Americans wear cockades during the Civil War? There is a lot of evidence that white people did, but what about black folks?

Though the evidence is more scarce, there are a number of fascinating stories involving both free and slave black Americans wearing cockades during the Civil War.

Dead Out For Secession

Many slaves were very aware of the political scene in 1860. They had opinions and they were willing to publicly declare those opinions. An interesting December account in a Tennessee newspaper observes the state of affairs in Mississippi:

A gentleman of this city, now travelling in Mississippi, says the Nashville Gazette, writes back to a friend as follows:

The further down I get, the more secession I see. Not content with wearing the blue cockade themselves, the people put them up on wagons, carriages, riding horses, etc. At one place where I stopped, all the negroes had them on. You may safely put Mississippi down as dead out for secession.

Love and Contempt

Cockades were seen on slaves further north as well. Three days after South Carolina seceded, a Nashville newspaper carried the following story.

Tennessee Darkies and the Blue Cockade. - The Bolivar (Tenn.) Southerner of the 14th instant says: "The negroes of A.S. Coleman, Esq., of this place, created quite a sensation in that town yesterday, by appearing on the streets with blue cockades on their hats. It learns from Mr. Coleman that they requested the privilege of wearing them, as they said, to show their contempt for the abolitionists, and their love for their native South."

Cockades vs Flags

The Secessionist flag flying over Yale

Sometimes the black folks wore blue cockades to show love for the South. But sometimes they were put up to it by others as a joke. There are multiple accounts of the following interesting incident. It involved an African American in Connecticut who was prompted to taunt secessionists at Yale with his cockade. The Southern students retaliated and the whole college was thrown into an uproar. This newspaper carried a short version of what happened:

Secession at Yale.—The Yale College boys raised a Palmetto flag on the alumni tower of that institution, on Sunday, and barricaded all approaches to the top of the building. This was done in retaliation of the supposed insult offered by persons who employed negroes to wear the secession cockade before the Southern students.

The tower was eventually accessed when a door was broken open, and the offending flag was taken down.

The Tricolor on Colored Troops

Black folks wearing secession cockades was considered newsworthy and reported. Accounts of them wearing Union cockades are less frequent, but a Washington D.C. newspaper carried this story in 1863:

FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE NEGRO SOLDIERS. – Company I of the colored regiment of  this District made their appearance on our streets this forenoon. They numbered some forty or fifty, and wore a red, white and blue badge. Some of them, however, in addition to the badge, wore also a cockade composed of the same colors. They seemed to bear their honors well, notwithstanding the derisive remarks they met with as they marched along – coming in several instances from those of their own color. Their drillmaster – as we presume – a colored man, seemed to appreciate the dignity of his position to the fullest.

These stories and many others are included in my two books on cockades in the North and South during the war. For some fun and informative reading on where and why people wore cockades in the 1860s, check them out!

Cockade Answers - In Their Own Words!

QUESTIONS:
What cockade did my ancestor wear? 
Is a cockade right for my impression? 
How do I know what my state's secession cockade looked like? 
And where do I find authentic answers, not just someone's opinion? 

Folks, I have the solution for you!! Read on...

ANSWERS! 

Backstory: On January 24, 2011 I opened an online shop to sell secession cockades. We and our friends were preparing for the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Firing on Fort Sumter and the cockades were a special touch of authenticity to our outfits. Here is a picture of that first cockade we listed, and we included our first bit of documentation - a quote from the Charleston Mercury about South Carolinians wearing blue cockades.

Ever since then, I've been hooked on cockade history. And I've continued to research original newspapers, diaries and memoirs to find out more about these tokens of patriotism. Cockades abounded in the 1860s but up till now, few historians have gathered the original documentation of them into one accessible resource.

Today is a special day for me because I finally get to offer YOU a compilation of my years of research!

Today, I'm announcing that the first in my series of e-books on American Civil War cockades is now available in my shop! 

"In Their Own Words: Cockades
and Badges in theSouthern States 1860-1865"

In Their Own Words
The stories and quotes about cockades in this digital book are all in the original words of people in the 1860s. Except for editing obvious typos, I have left the words and the spelling the same as when they were first written.

This is not a filtered history of cockades. I'm not playing the role of an egghead author "interpreting" what people really meant when they wore their patriotic rosettes. :) Instead, you get the unvarnished, original viewpoints of those who were there.

The stories are exciting and an excellent window into the turbulent times of 1860-1865. Sometimes folks found it easy to join the crowd in wearing a cockade. In other cases, people wrestled with the decision of which side - and cockade - to favor.

Still wondering if this book is interesting enough to bother reading it? Here are a few tidbits to whet your appetite!

Elizabeth Hardin

Which Side Is Right? 
Lizzie Hardin of Kentucky struggled at first with which side to favor. A cockade was the outward symbol of her final decision.

"Thus, at first, it was hard at first to decide which side had the most of justice and reason. Why, I asked, can we not wait for an overt act upon the part of Lincoln? What are we suffering that we have not suffered for twenty years? I do not know that I could enumerate all the arguments which first convinced me that South Carolina was right. I think it was more a mere statement of facts than arguments….At the end of two or three weeks I donned the blue cockade."

Richard Thompson Archer

The Oldest Secessionist 
"The capital of Mississippi is at present all alive with excitement, and densely crowded with people, who have been drawn to it by the deeply absorbing nature of the occasion of the assemblage of the Legislature in extraordinary session. . . 

"The people here, young and old, wear the blue cockade, the principal, if not the only, exceptions to the rule being those who are too well known for their ultra Southernism to need such symbols of their faith. Among the blue cockades I observe not a few quite elderly persons. Prominent among them is the veteran Col. Archer, of Claiborne, who declares that since the death of Senator Tazewell, of Virginia, he has become the oldest disunionist in the United States." 

Thomas F. Wood

Don't Let Dad Know About the Cockade 
And then there was the young man that had to hide his pro-Confederate sympathies - and cockade - from his Unionist father.

"I was a secessionist. It seemed to me that the North would not let slavery alone until we had a war, and the sooner begun the better. My father was a firm Unionist, and spoke his mind so freely that I only talked secession among my friends away from home. Mr. Erambert was a secessionist and his store was headquarters for the news. He was a Lt. in the Lt. Infantry and prided himself on his knowledge of tactics and studied books on that subject very attentively. The young men wore secession rosettes made of small pine “burs.”" 

Cockade in Effigy? 
The newspapers and diaries tell us that cockades were worn by men, women, children - black and white - rich and poor. And even the horses were adorned with cockades! Here's an account of yet another "person" that wore a cockade in Louisiana.

"There were general demonstrations of joy throughout the city of New Orleans on the reception of the news of the secession of South Carolina. One hundred guns were fired. The Pelican flag was unfurled and impromptu speeches made by leading citizens. The bust of Calhoun was displayed, decorated with a cockade."

Want to know more? Wondering what types of cockades the people in your state wore? Trying to decide which cockade your ancestor would have favored? 

Your questions can be answered by checking out my book! I've organized the quotes by state to make it easy to find information. All of the quotes are footnoted with their source. When you purchase the e-book, you can immediately download a PDF that you can save on your computer or smartphone.

You may be asking, Where is the book on Northern cockades? Sit tight folks, it's coming soon! I have it in the works, along with a book on Western cockades as well. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, both books will be available later this year.

Complete Guide to Union Cockades

By the time of the Civil War, Union cockades were nearly always red, white and blue. If you want all the back story on why, I wrote a blog post about it here. There were many designs including simple round rosettes, rosettes with tails, rosettes with tassels, or bows.

As you can see, center emblems could be military buttons, spangled stars, tassels, pictures of famous people...or nothing at all!

The materials used were usually silk ribbon sewn onto a buckram backing, but some were created from cotton or wool as well.

Union cockades were worn by men, women and children. They were often pinned to the breast or lapel, but could also be worn on hats and bonnets. For a more in-depth look at how men wore cockades, see here. For a detailed look at how women wore cockades, see here. For more info on children wearing cockades, click here.

If you'd like to purchase a Union cockade for yourself, check out the ready-to-ship ones in my shop or contact me for a custom order! My email is creativecockades@gmail.com.

 

 You might also enjoy these posts:

The Complete Guide to Confederate Cockades
The Complete Guide to Mourning Cockades

Star Spangled Glory

In previous posts I've talked about the colors of cockades. This post is about the centers of cockades - specifically, my favorite kind of center: Spangles.

This is a gorgeous original Alabama cockade with spangles.

 

You probably know them as sequins. But the sequins from the 19th century are very different from the modern plastic sparklies we're used to. Victorian era spangles are made of real, shiny metal. Here's a look at a few of my favorite cockades with spangles on them.

An original red and white Secession Cockade

 An original Irish Brigade badge (courtesy of the Virginia Historical Society) 

Can you imagine the sparkle when the sun hit these lovely beauties? Political pins just ain't what they used to be!

I wanted to recreate these gorgeous rosettes for my customers, and that led me on a journey of exploration into the subject of SPANGLES. 

How They Are Made

I was lucky enough to discover this article in the London "Daily Telegraph" from 1865. It explains how spangles are created:

 

"They are made from plated copper-wire, which comes from Germany. It is drawn out to the requisite size, and is then twisted, by English workmen, round a steel mandrel, till it has the same close spiral form as an old-fashioned spring, before the days of vulcanized india-rubber. From the long twist of metal thus shaped rings are chopped by a machine; and every ring closes by the elasticity of the metal. These rings, placed on a smooth steel anvil, are struck one by one with a smooth steel hammer, and being flattened at a blow, are spangles. Their polish is the combined effect of plating and of the smart, dexterous manner in which they are struck."

Here is the full article, which was explaining the process by which more than six pounds (!!) of spangles would be sewn to a Harlequin's dress. 

 

When you look closely at an original spangle, you can see that this process makes them slightly non-circular in shape. This is an original spangle that I photographed.

History Of Spangles
Spangles have been around for thousands of years, some historians believing they were around as early as 2500 BC. They are also called paillettes, or diamantes. The term "sequin" came from a rendition into French of the Italian word zecchino, which was a gold coin that was issued in the late medieval Republic of Venice. It looked like this:

An interesting history of these coins states in part, "In the cultures where these sequins circulated, the custom of stitching sequins and similar coins to women’s clothing, particularly headdresses, face veils, and over the bosom and hips, originally became a way to display (and store) family’s wealth. It was this ancient custom that led to the use of sequined fabric and trims in modern fashion, thus expanding the definition of sequin beyond coins to include this type of decoration."

Throughout history, we find spangles hand-sewn onto many items. Here is an acrobat's costume (with a pretty red cockade!):

http://blog.museumoflondon.org.uk/tag/walthamstow/

Some glitter on a man's coat.

And spangles on a lovely fan in my mother's collection.

I even recently saw spangles on a Civil War regimental flag. Wow, can you imagine the sparkle as it waved in the sun? Talk about star-spangled glory!

 

Aaaaand, of course, they were used on cockades, or I wouldn't be writing this blog entry about them! This is a gorgeous cockade in my collection that would have been worn by a pallbearer at a funeral. 

Note that the spangles are sewn into a circle, rather than a star. This circle is actually 3D, being sewn on top of a little puff of cotton to make it stand out from the cockade ribbon. That was a common method of attaching spangles in the 1800s.

Another item to note on this cockade is the odd little "springs" sewn on top of the spangles. Nowadays, we call this "french wire." It was often used either in a straight strip or a little kinky loop to secure spangles and add a little more sparkle.You can see the loop version on the flag picture.

When you look at the many vintage cockades with spangles, it's hard to tell how stunning they originally were. The metal is often rusted or tarnished, giving them a dingy look. But when I recreated this lovely Union cockade in my collection, I was able to see just how gorgeous the original spangled cockades were! Isn't this pretty? Our ancestors surely knew how to put on the glitz!