The kepi ( ) is a cap with a flat circular top and a peak, or visor. In English, the term is a loanword from , itself a re-spelled version of the , a diminutive form of , meaning . In Europe, the kepi is most commonly associated with French military and police uniforms, though versions of it were widely worn by other armies during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In North America, it is usually associated with the American Civil War, as it was worn by soldiers on both sides of the conflict.
French Army
The kepi was formerly the most common headgear in the French Army. Its predecessor originally appeared during the 1830s, in the course of the initial stages of the occupation of Algeria, as a series of various lightweight cane-framed cloth undress caps called casquette d'Afrique. These were intended as alternatives to the heavier, cloth-covered leather French Army shako. As a light and comfortable headdress, it was adopted by the metropolitan (French mainland) infantry regiments for service and daily wear, with the less practical shako being relegated to parade use. In 1852, a new soft cloth cap was introduced for campaign and off-duty. Called bonnet de police à visière, this was the first proper model of the kepi. The visor was generally squarish in shape and oversized and was referred to as bec de canard (duck bill). This kepi had no chinstrap (jugulaire). Subsequent designs reduced the size of the cap and introduced chinstraps and buttons. The kepi became well known outside France during the Crimean War and was subsequently adopted in various forms by a number of other armies (including the U.S. and Russian) during the 1860s and 1870s.
In 1870, when troops were mobilized for the Franco-Prussian War, large numbers of French soldiers either refused to wear the issued shakos or threw them away. Emperor Napoléon III abolished the infantry shako for active service and replaced it with the kepi on 30 July 1870.Wawro, Geoffrey (2005). The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870–1871. Cambridge University Press, p. 77.
In 1876, a new model appeared with a rounded visor, as the squared visor drooped when wet and curled when drying. The model used in World War I was the 1886 pattern, which was a fuller shape incorporating air vents. Described as an "ideal headdress—which was cheap, distinctive and easy to produce", the M1886 kepi's only significant drawback was that the sunken crown collected rain.
By 1900, the kepi had become the standard headdress of most French army units and (along with the red trousers of the period 1829–1914) a symbol of the French soldier. It appeared in full dress (with inner stiffening and ornamental plume or ball ornament) and service versions. Officers' ranks were shown by gold or silver braiding circling the centre and as a trefoil on the crown. The different branches were distinguished by the colours of the cap—see the table. Cavalry normally wore shakos or plumed helmets, reserving red kepis with light or dark blue bands for wear in barracks. General officers wore (and continue to wear for ceremonial purposes) kepis with gold oak leaves embroidered around the band.
In 1914, most French soldiers wore their kepis to war. The highly visible colours were hidden by a medium blue-grey cover, following the example of the Foreign Legion and other North African units who had long worn their kepis with white (or later khaki) covers in the field. With the adoption of "horizon blue" (light blue-grey) uniforms and steel Adrian helmets in 1915 to replace the conspicuous peacetime uniforms worn during the early months of the war, the kepi was generally replaced by folding forage caps. Officers, however, still wore kepis behind the lines.
Following the war, the kepi was gradually reintroduced in the peacetime French Army, but was never adopted for wear in the Navy or Air Force. The Foreign Legion resumed wearing it in 1926; initially in red and blue, and then in 1939, with white covers on all occasions. The bulk of the French army readopted the kepi in the various traditional branch colours for off-duty wear during the 1930s. It had now become a straight-sided and higher headdress than the traditional soft cap. This made it unsuitable for wartime wear, and after 1940, it was seldom worn, except by officers. An exception was the Foreign Legion, who, previously just one of the many units that wore the kepi, now adopted it in its white version as a symbol.
Modern French usage Army The decision in 1991 to end conscription in France, and to rely on voluntary enlistment, has led to the readoption of various traditional items for dress wear. This has included the reappearance in the army of the kepi which is now worn by all ranks in the majority of units, on appropriate occasions. Within the army, particularly notable are the kepis of the French Foreign Legion, whose members are sometimes called képis blancs (white kepis), because of the unit's regulation white headgear. Former cavalry units wear light blue kepis with red tops plus silver braid (for officers) and insignia. Other colours include all dark blue with red piping (for artillery units), dark blue with red tops (line infantry) and crimson with red tops (medical). The "dark blue" of officers' kepis is very similar to black. CorpsColour of bandColour of crownBraid and insignia Infantry, Zouaves (now disbanded) and Chasseurs-Paratroopers dark blue red gold Tirailleurs light blue red gold Shock Parachuters, Shock Commandos, Supply and Quartermaster's Corps dark blue red silver Cuirassiers, Dragoons, Hussars, Tanks and Matériel light blue red silver Infantry Chasseurs dark blue dark blue silver French horn Spahis light blue red gold Artillery, Marines and Transmissions dark blue dark blue gold Engineers and Bands black black gold Légion étrangère white (privates, corporals and chief corporals)black (chief corporals with more than 15 years service, NCOs and officers) white red gold (infantry)silver (cavalry) Army Aviation blue blue gold Medical Corps (now all-services combined corps with naval style caps) crimson red gold Pharmaceutical Corps green red gold Veterinarian Corps purple red silver Dental Corps brown red gold Chasseurs forestiers (disbanded in 1924) dark green (vert finance) dark green silver French horn
Other French organizations The kepi was adopted in 1854 for wear as a working headdress by police agents and sergents de ville as an alternative to the heavy and less practical bicorne previously worn.
The French National Police discarded their dark blue kepis in 1984 as part of a general updating of uniforms, adopting a low peaked cap. The reason given was that the rigid kepi, while smart and distinctive, was inconvenient for ordinary use and too high to be comfortably worn in vehicles.
French customs officers (douaniers) and the Gendarmerie still wear kepis for ceremonial duty. Customs officers wear a baseball style cap for ordinary duties (since 1994 with many variations) while the Gendarmerie introduced a "soft kepi" in the early 2000s.
North American usage
In the United States, the kepi is most often associated with the American Civil War era, and continued into the Indian Wars. Union soldiers were generally issued kepis for fatigue use. A close copy of the contemporary French kepi, it had a sunken top and squared visor. It was often called a "McClellan cap", after the Union commander of the Army of the Potomac, G. B. McClellan. For field officers, the caps were often decorated in a French-influenced style, with a dark velvet band around the base and black silk braiding on the crown. The kepi was also popular with various state units and as privately purchased headgear; e.g., it was standard issue in 1861 for New York infantry regiments.
The kepi is not to be confused with the model 1858 forage cap, sometimes called a "bummer cap" or McDowell cap, which evolved directly from the shako used by the regular army earlier in the 1850s (see the design of the crown, chinstrap, brim, and buckle). Essentially, the forage cap, described by some troops as "shapeless as a feedbag", was a less-expensive and more comfortable version of the earlier shako with the stiffening removed. The forage cap became the most common form of cap worn by U.S. regulars and volunteers during the American Civil War, though it is most commonly associated with the eastern theater of the war, since western troops generally preferred broad-brimmed felt hats (see photos of Sherman's army parading through Washington D.C. at war's end). Some Union units wore coloured variants, as some illustrative examples show:
14th New York State Militia (from Brooklyn) – dark blue base, red sides, dark blue top, red circular insert 12th New York Infantry – red base, grey sides, red top, white piping and later – dark blue base, light blue top and sides, white piping 11th Indiana Infantry – all red cap United States Cavalry – Dark blue with a yellow base. U.S. Sharpshooters – dark green (also used forage caps)
While some Confederate troops wore the forage cap (Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson wore the plain dark blue round-visored forage cap from his days as an instructor at the Virginia Military Institute), Confederate uniform regulations specified a French-style kepi. These were to be trimmed as follows:
Confederate Regulars: 1st pattern Infantry – light blue base, grey sides and top Cavalry – yellow base, grey sides and top Artillery – red base, grey sides and top 2nd pattern Infantry – dark blue base, light blue sides and top Cavalry – dark blue base, yellow sides and top Artillery – dark blue base, red sides and top
The regulations were often ignored because of the scarcity of materials and the need for rapid production. The average Confederate kepi usually was a simple gray or butternut cap made of wool or jean wool. To save leather for shoes and accoutrements, by mid-war Confederate kepi brims often were made of tarred cloth; chinstraps were sometimes omitted. Many Confederate units wore unique versions of the kepi. These included:
Winchester Zouave Cadets (of South Carolina) – all red Kentucky Brigade cavalry – all yellow Alexandria Rifles (of Virginia) – dark green
After the war the U.S. Army issued a series of kepi undress caps, characterised by their increasing smartness and decreasing practicality. The last model was issued in 1896. When the United States introduced a revised blue dress uniform in 1902, the kepi was discontinued in favour of a conventional visor cap with wide top and a steep visor.
The US Army's and Air Force's current patrol cap, the standard covers in utility uniforms (the ACU and ABU, respectively), is a variation of the flat-topped, visored kepi. Its modern lineage can be traced to World War II, and during the Cold War period was "blocked" with heavy starching and ironing (referred to as a "Ridgeway cap"). It was replaced with a flat kepi-style cap with a metal rim reinforced crown and baseball cap-styled rounded visor during the Vietnam War. The present-day patrol cap was introduced in the 1980s with the transition to the M81 BDU uniforms, and was retained when the Army adopted the UCP digital-pattern camouflage uniforms in 2005; and with the Air Force's adoption of the ABU in 2007.
South America
During the Paraguayan War between Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay versus Paraguay — the Brazilian, Argentine, and Uruguayan troops and officers primarily wore kepis, though many Brazilian troops wore brimmed hats, and Uruguayan and Argentine light infantry wore shakos. The Paraguayans mostly wore leather shakos, but senior officers were given kepis. Leather kepis were however issued as a forage cap to Paraguayan troops, and because of poor supply standards, were often seen in combat.