Uniforms

Argentine infantry

In the style of the French chasseurs.

Argentine infantry
Argentine infantry, 1865 and 1866: line, summer uniform and National Guard. Reconstruction.
Model
French chasseurs à pied
Headgear
Kepi, often with a white cover
Trousers
White, or bombachas
Weapon
Percussion musket, mostly rifled ‡

Argentina entered the war with a small line army, reinforced with National Guard battalions from Buenos Aires and the provinces. Mitre himself asked for bombachas, the baggy gaucho trousers, to be sent instead of regular trousers, because they were “the type of uniform of our infantry”. At Curupayty, Lieutenant Cándido López, of the San Nicolás battalion, lost his right hand; afterward he painted the war with his left.

‡ Disputed.The kepi color by battalion and the light blue-gray of the National Guard come from a single secondary source. Each battalion had its own uniform.

Sources: David A. Stewart, “Argentinian Uniforms and Army”, The Courier (1986); Roberto L. Elissalde, La Nación (2023); Museo Histórico Nacional, works by Cándido López.

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