Average Civil War Soldier?

[Henry4440]

Captain Samuel J. Richards of Company F 2nd Texas Cavalry, Confederate States Army, was a real soldier. He is documented to have worn leopard skin trousers with matching pistol holsters.
Never saw a guy like him.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Average.

[Zouave Officer]

Yeah I'd call that anything but normal, ha ha. 

[Black Powder]

Pre-Spandex.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

No.  Army rations.

[Zouave Officer]

Yeah you have to love the results of Officers having to supply their own uniforms. The only thing more entertaining than this would be to see a Pink Panther Brigade.

[Texas Lawdog]

You folks have got to understand that Texans are different.  I wouldn't mess with the good Capt., him carrying 2 pistols and a rifle.   A lot of those Texas Cavalry troops were former Texas Rangers, and they are and were a tough bunch. A man that wore leopard pants and holsters is pretty Self-assured, and as we say down here, Don't Mess with Texas!

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Good point!

[Zouave Officer]

Aye, but can any be as fierece as the Gallant Zouaves?  Pardon me for pride in my own impression of course.

[Cowtown Scout]

And the slogan is:

Don't Mess with TEXAS

Scout

[Texas Lawdog]

General Hood's Texas Cavalry could hold their own.

[Zouave Officer]

Not to be a nit-pic, ah hell that's exactly what I'm doing,   , but John B. Hood commanded the Texas Infantry Brigade, not Cavalry. I think pre-war he was in the U.S. Cavalry, but not in the Confederate service if memory serves me right.

[Cowtown Scout]

Zouave Officer
You are correct about the unit being infantry.  Being from Fort Worth Texas, when I compete in a costume contest in one of my confederate staff officer uniforms I identify myself as being in Hood's Texas Brigade.  The write up below is from the Brigade Association's (now desendents) web site.  Just prior to the session he commanded a unit of Cavalry, but in the confederacy the unit was infantry.
Scout


The brigade was organized on October 22, 1861, in Richmond, Virginia. It was initially commanded by Brig. Gen. Louis T. Wigfall and composed of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Texas Infantry Regiments, the only Texas troops to fight in the Eastern Theater. Originally, the First Texas was commanded by Wigfall and Lt. Col. Hugh McLeod, the Fourth Texas by Col. John Bell Hood and Lt. Col. John Marshall, and the Fifth Texas by Col. James J. Archer and Lt. Jerome B. Robertson. On November 20, 1861, the Eighteenth Georgia Infantry Regiment, commanded by William T. Wofford, was attached. On June 1, 1862, eight infantry companies from Wade Hampton's South Carolina Legion, commanded by Lt. Colonel Martin W. Gary, were added, and in November 1862 the Third Arkansas Infantry, commanded by Col. Van H. Manning, joined the brigade. Both the Georgia and South Carolina units were transferred out in November 1862, but the Third Arkansas remained a part of the brigade until the end of the war.

Wigfall resigned command of the brigade on February 20, 1862, and on March 7 Hood was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command. Because of his daring leadership the brigade adopted the name of Hood's Texas Brigade, despite his brief service of only six months as commander. The brigade served throughout the war in James Longstreet's First Corps of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. It participated in at least twenty-four battles in 1862, including Eltham's Landing, Gaines' Mill, Second Manassas, and Sharpsburg (Antietam). In October the Third Arkansas Regiment replaced the Eighteenth Georgia and Hampton's Legion. On November 1, 1862, Brig. Gen. Jerome B. Robertson became brigade commander, and Hood was elevated to command of the division in which the Texas Brigade was attached.

Gettysburg and Beyond
In April 1863 the brigade saw service in North Carolina; in May it rejoined Lee's army; and on July 1, 2, and 3 took part in the Battle of Gettysburg. With Longstreet's Corps transferred to Georgia, the brigade fought on September 19 and 20 at Chickamauga, where Hood was wounded and forced to leave his division, ending his official connection with the brigade. In Tennessee the brigade joined in the sieges of Chattanooga and Knoxville. Gen. John Gregg became commander when the brigade returned to Virginia in February 1864. In the battle of the Wilderness, General Lee attempted to personally lead the Texans in one of the charges, but was turned back by the admiring Texans. After Gen. Gregg was killed in October the brigade was temporarily led by Col. Clinton M. Winkler and Col. F. S. Bass. At the surrender at Appomattox on April 10, 1865, Col. Robert M. Powell commanded the brigade, Capt. W. T. Hill commanded the Fifth Texas, Lt. Col. C. M. Winkler the Fourth, Col. F. S. Bass the First, and Lt. Col. R. S. Taylor the Third Arkansas.

It is estimated that at the beginning of the war the Texas regiments comprised about 3,500 men and that during the war recruits increased the number to almost 4,400. The brigade sustained a 61 percent casualty rate and, at its surrender, numbered only 600 officers and men. It was praised by generals Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, James Longstreet, and Robert E. Lee and by high officials of the Confederacy.

[Zouave Officer]

Well at least it's nice to know I'm not wrong all the time, ha ha.

I know I am loosly interested in the Texas Brigade as Colonel Frederick Bass is a cousin on my mothers side of the family, and General Robertson who commanded the Brigade is a cousin on my fathers side, it's just far enough back in the family though for me to just have given the subject a passing glance, but not an in depth study.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Whatever happened to Capt. Richardson?  That outfit he is shown wearing would surely have been a lead magnet!

All I could find online showed the following bare bones;
Company F, 2d Texas Cavalry was formed by volunteers from Harrison County.
Alternative names may have been
     1.  W.P Lane Rangers, named after a famous Ranger, Walter Page Lane, who became LCol of the 3d Texas Cav.
     2.  2d Texas Mounted Rifles. Initially assigned to patrol Texas frontiers.
Battle honours may have included;
     1.  Battle of Galveston
     2.  Sabine Pass
     3.  New Iberia
Another ref. says Co. F was in Arkansas in 1862, where it was "overwhealmed" by Union forces and captured.  It was exchanged for Union prisoners in April 1863.  It then joined Bragg's Army of Tennessee, and was engaged at Chickamauga, after which the unit was split up and dismounted.  In protest, many troopers walked back to Texas.  There the company was reformed and assigned to prison guard duty at Camp Ford. From July 1864 the co. was with Kirby-Smith in Louisiana & Arkansas until the end of the war.

Someone must have a better database than Mr. Google can provide me.

[Henry4440]

Looks like Capt.Richardson is not the only one who likes leopard(jaguar) trousers.
Here is a neat photo of Buck Taylor, a famous old Wild West showman wearing his fabulous leopard skin chaps.  Even neater, it is signed by him on the back, as "presented to Annie Oakley"!