Once in the Texas Civil War Museum, this cap is truly outstanding! The crown has a red woolen broadcloth body surmounting a navy blue 1 1/2-inch band also of wool but made of courser goods. The cap is 3 inches high in front and rises to 4 1/2 inches toward the rear. The top "cookie" or circular inset has a 5-inch diameter. On about 15% of the red crown and top there is "filling in". A professional restoration this was done where there was loss due to insect action. The work is excellent and unnoticeable at first glance. The lower blue band shows consistent wear but has no holes and therefore needed no restoration. Using "flat fall" gold metallic tape or quatrefoil in pairs this rank of captain is made manifest on the base, the sides the rear, front and crown. This is all hand tacked which is to our thinking the only acceptable way it was done, at least in the Confederacy, during the Civil War.

Affixed to the cap is an unbound patent leather peak 7 inches across and 2 inches deep. Still intact and held in place by 2 Virginia state seal buttons is the working patent leather chinstrap and its original small brass buckle. The buttons bear 80% of their original gold (gilt) finish and are pre-war made by "Scovills & C. Extra". They appear to have never been off this cap. The interior is lined with a cotton material. The elaborate leaf designs are embroidered in, not printed. This lining terminates at the top sewn to a tar paper covered "water-proofed" cardboard disc. The 1 1/2 inch black painted and varnished canvas sweat band is hand sewn in place as originally assembled. The sweat band is perfect with minor surface loss due to honest use.  Between the bill/peak and the sweat band is a folded "lip" of blue felt covering that junction; a feature one hopes to see on well-made caps of this era. A captain in the artillery is a rank of importance and responsibility and although the wearer was unknown this is never-the-less a great example of a rarely seen artifact.  [pe] [ph:L]

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