Uniforms
Paraguayan infantry
Red shirt, bare feet and fixed bayonet.
- Distinctive garment
- Red shirt, “kamisa pytã”
- Headgear
- Leather shako or leather kepi ‡
- Footwear
- None: the troops fought barefoot
- Weapon
- Flintlock musket with bayonet; sometimes a machete
- Battalion (1864)
- Six companies of 100 to 110 men
The infantry was the core of Solano López's army. George Thompson, who served in its ranks, recalled that in 1864 the troops were issued new uniforms and looked “very picturesque in their scarlet shirts”. At Tuyutí, those battalions charged the allied camp with the bayonet.
By 1867 and 1868 the uniform had worn out: faded shirts or shirts of local homespun, chiripá and, often, a bare head.
‡ Disputed.Shako or kepi: the leather shako would have been the regulation headgear, and the kepi the everyday cap. The color of the collar and cuffs, blue according to one source, is not settled. ◊ The tricolor band on the shako is a reconstruction.
Sources: George Thompson, The War in Paraguay (1869), p. 32; Anahí Soto Vera, Los soldados (El Lector / ABC Color, 2013); Daniel E. Soubie, “El ejército paraguayo”.
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