TURKISH UNIFORMS OF THE CRIMEAN WAR

1-207100

Another volume in the excellent Partizan Press line provides a color guide for the uniforms and insignia of the principle frontline troops of the Ottoman Imperial Army, and Navy, as well as it allies or contingents during the Crimean War. Included in this book, are the Egyptian and Tunisian Auxiliary Contingents, the Anglo-Turkish Contingent, or 'Turkish Contingent', the Ottoman Cossack Regiments, and the Ottoman Police Regiments. Only a few examples of uniforms or insignia are known to date from the Crimean War period.

A major source of information is the 1985 C.A. Norman study based on General Vanson notes and illustrations. There is also the Szathmari (1854), and Roger Fenton's Crimean War photographs (1855). The New York Public Library's Vinkhuijzen collection; and the Anne S. K. Brown Military collection also provide a significant amount of information on the appearance of Ottoman Crimean War uniforms. The study of Crimean War uniforms and insignia of the Ottomans is an ongoing task, and any study is faced with the problem that many uniform images were frequently recopied and altered over the decades. This small volume attempts to put these varied sources into their correct contextual order, based on current understandings of this history.