Phonetic alphabets

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Wed, 8 Dec 2004 17:22:18 -0800,   Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> comments:

>  "Crossed-sabers LOGO???" LOGO????  There's a word they didn't use in the
> Civil War !

My mistake.  A "logo" is something that is printed.  Something on a uniform
is an
insignia".

>  One invariable screwup they make in one-horse Civil War movies (including "
> The Red Badge of Courage" with Audie Murphy) is to put the modern crossed-
> rifle infantry symbol on kepis. Real Civil War infantrymen wore a hunting-
> horn insigne on their headgear instead.

You are correct, except for the word "modern".  The crossed-rifles insignia
was adopted in 1875.

US Army insigniae of the Civil War:
   infantry - hunting horn (silver 1834-1851, then gold 1851-1875)
   cavalry - crossed sabers
   artillery - crossed cannon
   engineers - castle
   topographical engineers - shield
   ordnance - shell and flame

Another mistake of mine---Sheridan's cavalry also had a crossed sabers
insignia, so it does not appear that General Wilson invented it.

Also, thanks for the words to the Jim Bowie theme, but I would have preferred
you hadn't bothered.  The words are jejune.  The tune, however, is nice.  By
the way, I always like to sing an advertising jingle of that era to that tune:
 "A dram of Drambuie".

      - Jim Landau