The Confederate Army 1861–65 (6)

Maryland zouaves

Several companies of pro-Confederate zouaves were recruited in Maryland during 1861 due to the influence of Richard Thomas, a native of St Mary’s County on the southern border with Virginia. Born in 1833, he was the son of Richard Thomas, Sr, former president of the Maryland Senate and brother of Governor James Thomas of Maryland. Richard Thomas was educated at the Charlotte Hall Academy, a military boarding school, and briefly at the US Military Academy, from which he resigned in 1851. He spent some time working on government surveys of California and other western territories, and as a soldier of fortune fighting river pirates in China. He was also among a number of Americans who journeyed to Italy to fight alongside Garibaldi in the struggle for Italian independence against the Hapsburg empire. It was during the latter campaign that he adopted the military rank and name of “Colonel Richard Thomas Zarvona,” by which title he was known thereafter.

An ardent secessionist, Thomas joined with others, including George W. Alexander and William C. Walters, to form two infantry companies in St Mary’s and Calvert counties, Maryland, to be drilled as “Zouaves for the Confederate service,” and to be known as the Maryland Zouaves. On June 28, 1861, Zarvona became a national hero of the Confederacy when, dressed as a “French lady,” he captured a Chesapeake Bay steamer, the St Nicholas, and went on to take three Federal merchant vessels. The Confederate authorities at Fredericksburg honored the action of the “Potomac Zouaves,” and Governor Letcher of Virginia commissioned Zarvona a colonel in the state forces.

Zarvona was described in the Richmond press on July 6, 1861, as presenting “a picturesque appearance, attired in his blue Zouave costume, white gaiters, red cap with gold tassel and light elegant sword.” In a later account published in the Confederate Veteran magazine in 1914, ex-Governor John Letcher of Virginia stated that Zarvona wore “the zouave dress and cap corresponding with it. His hair was cut very close.” A red fez with a dark blue tassel, attributed to Zarvona, survives today in the collection of the Maryland Historical Society. Presumably the Maryland Zouaves donned a uniform based on what their commanding officer wore.

By early July 1861 plans were underway to organize the Maryland Zouaves, 1st Regt, with William Walters in command of the “first company,” and Thomas Blackistone commanding the “second company.” Meanwhile, Zarvona became involved in further naval escapades on the Chesapeake Bay; captured, and imprisoned for two years in a Federal prison, he was finally freed in April 1863 on the understanding that he would live abroad until the war was over. After a prolonged stay in Paris, France, he returned to Maryland where he died in 1875.

The Maryland Zouaves, 1st Regt, failed to materialize and the Zouave company led by Walters was designated Co H, 47th Virginia Infantry, while Blackistone’s company were detailed as guards at the Castle Thunder Prison in Richmond. After service on the Peninsula, Walter’s company was transferred to the 2nd Arkansas Bn, and was mustered out of service on June 10, 1862. On January 8 of that year, Walters’ company received a box of 57 overcoats of unknown pattern; this is one of the largest numbers of overcoats requisitioned at one time by a Confederate infantry company.

Later in 1862 Louis Keepers was elected to command the Guerrilla Zouaves. Organized in Richmond and composed mainly of Marylanders, this unit was assigned to the 1st Louisiana Infantry (Nelligan’s) as the second Company C. It is doubtful that this company wore a zouave-style uniform.