The city of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., located 80 miles north of New York City, provided a number of recruits to the several Zouave regiments which were formed in 1861. While these young men were undoubtedly impressed by the gaudy uniform; the editor of one Poughkeepsie newspaper proved to be an implacable critic who repeatedly disparaged the Zouave uniform in his editorial columns.

Isaac Platt had been a journalist all his adult life. At the age of 21 he was chosen by a committee of influential citizens to serve as editor of a Poughkeepsie paper. Platt was known for his strong views on both local and national issues. By the time of the Civil War his Poughkeepsie Eagle had become a powerful voice for the Republican Party in the Hudson Valley. The motto of  the Eagle, “Neutral In Nothing”, typified Platt’s editorial philosophy.

Despite a lack of military experience Platt was appointed Provost Marshall for Dutchess and Columbia counties. He served in that role until his removal in 1864 for alleged irregularities in administering the draft. Despite this setback Platt continued to play an active role in both political and military matters.

In May of 1861, Isaac Platt visited the camp of the 5^th New York (Duryee’s Zouaves) at Ft. Schuyler. There Platt found several of his fellow Poughkeepsians “arrayed in the wild, picturesque, Saracenic costume of the Zouaves”². He assured his readers that the men of Poughkeepsie were “in fine, vigorous, hopeful condition, almost spoiling for a fight”. Despite a favorable impression of the regiment, Platt remained unimpressed by the uniforms.

On 10 June 1861 Duryee’s Zouaves participated in the Battle of Big Bethel, Va. The Zouaves were hailed as heroes by the northern press, despite the fact that the engagement was a Union disaster. Platt was quick to place blame for the defeat squarely on the Zouave uniform. Five days after the battle Platt declared:

“The very bright and very ugly uniform of the Zouaves, much as it has been praised, will not in our opinion prove as good as the dress of the other troops when it is brought to the only practical test - that of actual service. Being made of frail material it will not be found as serviceable, and being of the most fanciful pattern and the most gaudy colors it will so attract attention that those who wear it can be distinguished from all other troops as far as they can be seen and will be shot down by the Southern marksmen much more readily than those who wear the less showy, but much more handsome common infantry uniform.”

Later that month plans were underway to raise a regiment in honor of the fallen Col. Elmer Ellsworth who had popularized the Zouave uniform prior to the war and had recruited the 11^th New York Fire Zouaves from among New York City firemen. The new regiment was to be called the Ellsworth People’s Regiment and it too would wear the Zouave uniform. While Platt supported the regiment in concept, he once again took pen in hand to attack the planned Zouave uniform, writing:

“An executive committee at Albany, to raise what they propose to call a People’s Regiment, in honor of the late Col. Ellsworth, have issued an address on the subject, in which all they say is right enough, except that they announce it is to adopt the Zouave uniform. Why ZOUAVE, we would like to ask? Is there any thing about it that is American, or that is short of a caricature on the military of civilized nations? We are satisfied there is not, and therefore hold that it is time to object decidedly to the introduction of any more of the oriental costumes of North Africa. We assert further, that nothing more inconvenient, outlandish, and unserviceable in the matter of dress, could be easily got up, with which to encumber a soldier who is expected to act with efficiency. And then let anyone look at the trash out of which the Zouave uniforms are made. It may wear a week in rough walking, but will more likely give out in three days.

We are not generally disposed to meddle in these matters, but think we ought to have a little national  pride with regards to uniforms, and have our troops rigged in American style, and with clothing that belongs to Americans, as such, and not fix our men out with inverted sauce pans on their heads, two bushel bags on their legs, coffee sacks around their waists, and slippers that will not wear three hours among blackberry vines on their feet, to make them look like Turks and Arabs.”

By July, Platt was ready to launch an all out attack on the Zouave uniform. On Independence Day he wrote:

“We notice that as the miserable shoddy and petersham uniforms of  the volunteers from the various states give out, regiments are being supplied with regular United States uniforms. This is all right, but it should have been done, in our view, if possible, in the first place. The dress of all our soldiers should be alike, or at least similar as to be known at a glance, as disastrous mistakes cannot but follow the collecting together of an army in which red, white, blue, gray, and green, are all mixed up in heterogeneous confusion.”

Platt’s predictions would ring eerily true in the wake of the Battle of Manassas later that  month. Just days before the battle Platt once again assailed the Zouave uniform:

“Complaints continue to be made almost constantly of the wretched clothing furnished to the soldiers in the service of the government. We are of the opinion that when the Zouave foolery has run it’s race, and the barbarian costumes used to demoralize, or vagabondize the soldiers to our disgrace, are cast aside, there will be a better state of things. The trash which any body can see is utterly worthless, but adhered to notwithstanding, ought not to wear a week, and its proper destination is the fire.”

The Union debacle at Manassas, and particularly the role of Ellsworth’s Fire Zouaves, left Platt with plenty of ammunition with which to attack the Zouaves. He launched his next salvo shortly after the battle on 29 July 1861:

“The New York papers, especially the Times, Tribune and World, have been in a hot dispute of late respecting the North African military lately introduced in this country, called ‘Zouaves’. These Zouaves have had a great many puffs from time to time , respecting their wonderous valor, but it is now shown by testimony abundantly sufficient, that being undisciplined, which is part of their tactics, they are entirely unreliable in an active or regular fight, and that in the battle of Bull’s Run they were good for little or nothing….With all their good qualities, we hope no more of them will be sent into action until rigorous and relentless discipline has made them soldiers. In their present condition they can neither win laurels for themselves nor confer honor on their country.

These comments respecting Fire Zouaves will apply to all others. In every respect they are a caricature upon everything that is truly military or truly American, and their presence tends to vagabondize the army. We trust that all such military will be soon and summarily banished. We have had too much of them already.”

Days later he renewed the assault by reminding his readers that “we from the first have condemned strongly the system of Zouave military, introduced so extensively on the breaking out of the present war.” Platt had found allies in the New York press and he quoted a correspondent of New York Times who wrote that “The Zouaves are to be sent home ostensibly to Fort Schuyler to recruit, but in reality they alone of all regiments are so thoroughly demoralized, as to render them useless.” Platt closed his latest remarks by stating “We hope the accounts of such facts as these will soon put an end to further Algerine imitations.”

But the poor performance of the Fire Zouaves did little to curb the adoption of Zouave uniforms by other volunteer regiments. As Zouave regiments continued to march off to war Platt renewed his criticisms of the Zouave uniform on 17 August 1861 with an editorial in which he complained:

“The Zouave game we see still goes on, and companies and regiments of that African military are forming. We hope the government will at once set its force and its orders against all such military for the future by refusing to receive them. The volunteers ought to be dealt with like regular troops, and required to adopt no uniforms but those strictly regulation.”

But without a doubt Platt’s most remarkable editorial came on 5 August 1861 after the rival Poughkeepsie  Telegraph took him to task for his relentless criticism of the Zouaves. Platt responded: “We have a decided abomination for the Zouave costume, and regard it as the worst that could be devised to put on troops in active service. If the object is to give them efficiency, it is compound of the meanest material that can be found, hardly capable of wearing a week, especially among bushes and vines. And then what an idea of true military costume, to clog a soldier with a two bushel bag on each leg; and to wilt him down in the least possible time in the hot sun put on his head a cap that affords him not the least possible protection, even so far as to shield his eyes from the fierce glare, or his ears from blistering.”

Platt finished his tirade by laying the blame for defeat at the Battle of Manassas squarely on the Zouave uniform:

“We are inclined to think the loss of the Battle of  Manasses was owing to this villainous costume. The Zouaves had marched several miles that morning, and were tired and heated when they reached the battle ground. When ordered into action they made a most gallant attack, rushed upon the enemies’ battery and drove them off, but when they had got through with their rapid movements they were out of wind, so that as the enemy returned to the attack they were too much exhausted to maintain their the fight, and thus forced to give way. All of which had they been properly dressed might not have happened, and every thing could have been saved.”