Union Infantryman | Confederate Infantryman | Kids" Page INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the Infantrymen below to see a bigger picture of them. You can then print out the larger picture and color it in! Union Infantryman Union Infantryman The Union Infantryman pictured here looks like a typical foot soldier of the Civil War. Note all the things he had to carry with him to survive. The life of the common soldier of the Civil War was strenuous and could be marked with poor diet, inadequate medical care, rigorous campaigning, and rugged combat duty. The average Union soldier was between 19 and 28 years of age and had to carry up to 50 pounds of equipment on his back. Troops sometimes marched 25 miles a day. Do you think you could walk this much in a day, in a wool uniform in the summertime? Dark blue was the color of the uniforms for Union soldiers, and soldiers in the South wore gray or brown clothing termed "butternut brown" for the plant which provided dye for the cloth. The haversack, a canvas bag carried over the shoulder, was an essential part of the soldier’s outfit. It held personal items such as food, soap, diaries, letters and other military supplies. When you visit Fort Ward you can see real haversack objects that have survived, like shaving cups, currency, playing cards and checkers. The bugle on the front of the soldier’s forage cap is called the insignia, which refers to the emblem or symbol for a particular branch of the military. The insignia for the infantry was the bugle, a musical instrument which was used to call troops for wake up, meals and lights out. The small cap and cartridge boxes that soldiers carried contained tools for firing bullets from the rifles. The bayonet was a long, knife-like tool which was fixed to the muzzle (mouth) end of a rifle and could be used by troops against the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. It was carried in a scabbard, a sheath for the blade of a weapon. Confederate Infantryman Confederate Infantryman Note how the uniform of the southern soldier differs from the Federal infantryman’s clothing. The Confederate soldier wears a soft, slouch felt hat and leather shoes with wooden soles called brogans. The uniforms and equipment of southern troops were less standardized than in the North. Soldiers in the South also had a harder life in general than their northern counterparts. Supplies such as clothing, food and medicine were limited because of the naval blockade of southern ports by northern vessels, especially towards the end of the war.