Well, here I go again. I am reading The Banjo Entertainers by Lowell Schreyer at the present and came across a minstrel banjoist, Tom Vaughn, who enlisted during the Civil War in the 165th Regiment of the New York Volunteers. They were called the "Second Duryee Zouaves". I recalled that A. D. Cammeyer had an arrangement for a piece composed by Stanley Hill entitled "Marche Zouave". Needless to say, dear reader, my interest was piqued. Herewith are the results of my empiric research:

The 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, also known as also known as "Duryée's Zouaves", was a volunteer infantry regiment of the Union Army, during the American Civil War, led by Colonel Abram Duryée. Modeled, like other Union and Confederate infantry regiments, on the French Zouaves of Crimean War fame, its tactics and uniforms were different than the standard infantry.

Even the uniforms of the 5th New York's were modeled closely on those of French Zouaves: a dark blue Zouave jacket with red trim, a dark blue Zouave vest with red trim, a red Zouave sash with sky blue trim, extremely baggy red pantaloons, a red fez with a yellow tassel, white gaiters and leather jambières ("leggings").

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It appears that, for the militaries of many countries, "Zouave" was used to indicate regiments who were supposed to be "special". Specialist tactics, flamboyant uniforms, etc. It very quickly became a fad name in the military...everything got "zouave" tacked to it. I have a "Zouave Rifle", which sports a special bayonet called a "yataghan" (which is just a name that sounded cool and has very little to do with the original Turkish sword of the same name).

Much like any other group who need to be marked as 'special' outside of the regular guys/gals, the Zouaves were flamboyant, got special uniforms and were often held in high esteem. Who wouldn't want to join the Zouaves...unless you could be a "Fire Zouave" or a "Death Zouave" or Batman or Superman.

Spot on, Marc.

Trapdoor2 said:

It appears that, for the militaries of many countries, "Zouave" was used to indicate regiments who were supposed to be "special". Specialist tactics, flamboyant uniforms, etc. It very quickly became a fad name in the military...everything got "zouave" tacked to it. I have a "Zouave Rifle", which sports a special bayonet called a "yataghan" (which is just a name that sounded cool and has very little to do with the original Turkish sword of the same name).

Much like any other group who need to be marked as 'special' outside of the regular guys/gals, the Zouaves were flamboyant, got special uniforms and were often held in high esteem. Who wouldn't want to join the Zouaves...unless you could be a "Fire Zouave" or a "Death Zouave" or Batman or Superman.

the " zouave du pont de l 'Alma " in Paris  is well knowed in the entire world and is used  as an indicator for the water  ' level   of  la Seine

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