08/25/2026
3rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry Overshirts
The 3rd Missouri Infantry Regiment "Lyon's Fahnenwacht" was a three-month Union volunteer regiment organized in St. Louis in April 1861, composed almost entirely of ethnic Germans led by Colonel Franz Sigel. They would take an active role in the Camp Jackson affair, Battle of Carthage and the Battle of Wilson's creek. Like many other early war regiments in the union army, the uniforms had not been standardized leading to many fighting their first battles clad in grey uniforms. Below are some first-hand accounts provided by Kip Lindberg that helped guide our impression
“On the 28th of April we were mustered in for 90 days’ service… We had no uniforms, consequently went in our citizen clothes… We did not even have accoutrements and were in citizen’s dress. All we had was Harpers Ferry muskets, with bayonets fixed to the guns, for the good reason we had no scabbards to put them in. I went out to Camp Jackson in shirt sleeves, with 40 rounds of ammunition in my pants pocket, and the caps for my gun in my vest pocket... After the Camp Jackson affair, we received uniforms consisting of a gray hat, gray shirt, and gray pants, all trimmed up in red” - August Reimers- postwar reminiscences
“After the Camp Jackson affair, we received uniforms consisting of a gray hat, gray shirt, and gray pants, all trimmed up in red”
“On June 13 we were ordered to prepare to march, our field equipment being wretched beyond description. We had been provided with a very indifferent uniform consisting of a gray flannel blouse, grey jeans pantaloons with a red welt, and a grey wool hat, all very cheap and of an exceedingly poor quality. The rotten white belts, which I mentioned in my previous article, had been supplemented with a cartridge box without tin cases, and we found, after a week’s march, all the powder loose in our box, nothing fixed to the paper of our cartridge but the ball. We possessed neither blankets nor overcoats, but each man was provided with a flimsy haversack and a tin canteen without cover.” Otto Lademann- 1887
“We were armed with the old 69-calibre rifle muskets, each ball weighing an ounce of lead… Our uniforms consisted of a grey flannel blouse, grey jeans trousers, and grey woolen hat.” Otto Lademann- 1907, on their appearance at the Battle of Carthage
Research and accounts provided by Kip Lindberg
