A French-style kepi worn by Confederate artillery officer Cuthbert H. Slocomb
Poulin Antiques & Auctions, Inc.
The Artifact
A French-style kepi worn by Confederate artillery officer Cuthbert H. Slocomb
Condition
The hat shows light to moderate wear—the red wool is soiled, the leather chinstrap and visor are a bit dry and show some cracks, and the black lining is detached in several areas. There are a few scattered moth holes in the crown.
Details
At the start of the Civil War, Cuthbert H. Slocomb, a member of a prominent and wealthy New Orleans family, was a senior partner in a large and successful hardware business (Slocomb, Baldwin & Co.) in his native city. In May 1861, Slocomb, 29, mustered into Confederate service as a second lieutenant in the Washington Artillery, with which he fought at First Bull Run in July 1861 and, after the unit’s Fifth Company was assigned to the Army of Tennessee, at Shiloh (where he was seriously wounded in the shoulder) in April 1862. Two months later, Slocomb, a new father (his wife, Abigail, had given birth to their first and only child, a daughter, in January), was promoted to captain of the Fifth Company. He commanded the Fifth at many of the western theater’s biggest battles, including Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and Resaca. In 1864, he was shot in his other shoulder by a Union sniper at Jonesboro during the Atlanta Campaign. In December, after recovering for several months at a South Carolina hospital, Slocomb rejoined the Fifth, with which he served in the defenses of Mobile and Spanish Fort, Alabama. After the war, he returned to the family business in New Orleans, where he died in 1873.
Quotable
In his official report on the Fifth Company’s role at the Battle of Chickamauga, Slocomb wrote: “I opened upon the advancing lines and drove them back in fine style…. I was soon subjected to a terrific fire from the enemy’s batteries in front, right, and left…. My loss being 4 privates killed and 16 wounded, 8 horses killed and 5 disabled, my ammunition nearly expended, my carriages greatly damaged, I obtained permission … to retire from the field to refit. In two hours I reported … ready for action…. Where every man in the company did his duty so nobly it is impossible to discriminate. I cannot refrain from expressing my admiration of the bravery of Leon Brocurd, a youth of 16, who volunteered his services as the battery was going into action, and nobly met his death in performance of a self-imposed duty.”
Value
$58,750 (realized at Fairfield, Maine, in June 2020). “This is a marvelous example of a Confederate Civil War artillery officer’s kepi made in the French style,” a representative of Poulin Antiques & Auctions, Inc. noted at the time. “It is visually impactful and exemplifies Confederate artillery officers’ kepis known to have been worn by the Washington Artillery.” 
