August 13 and Thai Blue

Bearskin caps and grenades

Today on August 13, 1650, Colonel George Monck formed a regiment that would later become the Coldstream Guards. I don’t know anything about the Coldstream Guards, but look at this picture of three soldiers from the unit in 1856.

I love these pictures. Unlike the highly stylistic and often abstract sculptures we’re left with for ancient history, there’s so much detail here! You can even ignore the uniforms, focus on the faces, and remind yourself that history - and all of it’s great events - was made by people just like you.

But what strikes me the most is that tall bearskin fur cap. Why does that exist? What was the purpose?

The bearskin cap has a long history, but is most well-known for its use in continental armies during the Napoleonic era. It’s primary purpose was to make the men who wore it appear taller on the battlefield.

This sounds ridiculous at first, but it makes sense for a few reasons. First, you have to understand that most battles were not won by massive hand-to-hand combat like you see in the movies. Most battles were won by a charge or flanking maneuver that caused the other side to break formation and run away.

Second, and in light of the first point, most armies had a unit specifically designed to break the enemy lines and cause a route. In Napoleonic armies, that purpose was often served by the grenadier units.

A grenadier was originally a specialized soldier, first established as a distinct role in the mid-to-late 17th century, for the throwing of grenades and sometimes assault operations. At that time grenadiers were chosen from the strongest and largest soldiers. By the 18th century, dedicated grenade throwing of this sort was no longer relevant, but grenadiers were still chosen for being the most physically powerful soldiers and would lead assaults in the field of battle. Source

When you see soldiers with bearskin caps, you’re usually seeing a grenadier unit. And now it kind of makes sense! The army had a unit of really tall, really strong people throwing grenades and trying to scare the other side into running away. The bearskin cap made them look even taller and scarier.

But it also served a functional purpose. Before grenadiers, most soldiers in the 17th century wore wide-brimmed hats like the soldiers below on the left.

But the wide brim made it harder for a grenadier to quickly sling his rifle over his shoulder and could interfere with the overhand grenade throwing motion. So in the early 18th century they started to look like this - tall skinny hats.

Which eventually developed into the giant bearskin caps we saw in the picture of 19th century soldiers at the beginning of this post. But it didn’t stop there. You can see even more theatrical bearskin-like hats in formal uniforms today.

The most well-known are the famously humorless British Queen’s Guard.

But my favorite is the fantastically colorful Thai King’s Guard.

Look at that Blue! So sharp. For any Thai military experts here, you may note that the hats in the above picture are actually modified pith helmets and not bearskin caps. And you’d be right. But it’s similar and looks amazing and I’m ok with it :)