Uniforms at the beginning of the Civil War, however, showed greater variety than would be true later in the conflict.

The two sides are often referred to by the color of their official uniforms, blue for the Union, gray for the Confederates. His children donated it to the collections of the Kansas Museum of History in 2009.Uniforms and clothing worn by Union and Confederate Soldiers During the Civil War View an image of the back of the uniform. The uniform shown here belonged to Joe Price, a sailor on the Vicksburg from 1918 to 1919. The Vicksburg also escorted American ships going to Russia as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Though this was the patrol’s only significant find, the ship continued to protect the west coast until October 1919 (almost a year after the war's end). The Vicksburg chased down the schooner and found five Germans, eight Mexicans, and an American spy, as well as arms, ammunition, and a German flag on board. The patrol was uneventful for most of the war however, on March 17, 1918, the Vicksburg received intelligence that a schooner carrying Germans was leaving Viejo Bay, Mexico. To prevent this, the USS Vicksburg patrolled the Pacific, looking for signs of German submarines. was fearful that Germany would use Mexican waters to stage an attack.

Though Mexico declined Germany’s offer, the U.S. With the potential of a direct threat from Germany, the U.S. British intelligence intercepted the message and alerted American officials. In return for their cooperation, the Germans would help Mexico regain the lost territory of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. In it, Zimmermann suggested a German-Mexican military alliance if it appeared the U.S. Arthur Zimmermann, the German Foreign Minister, sent a coded telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico. The most famous attack sunk the Lusitania in 1915, a disaster in which 128 Americans died. While this assignment may have seemed far from the action in Europe, it actually was in response to the possibility of an attack on the continental United States.īefore 1917, the United States remained neutral despite attacks on ships by German submarines that resulted in American deaths. Price was assigned to the USS Vicksburg, a ship ordered to patrol the U.S. Navy on July 26, 1918, 18 months after the United States declared war on Germany. Joe Price, a young man from Effingham, Kansas, enlisted in the U.S.

One Kansas sailor wore this uniform during a unique experience patrolling the west coast of the United States. American involvement in World War I is usually associated with soldiers on the battlefields of France.

American civil war navy uniforms