Original Item: Only One Available. Genuine U.S. Civil War VI Corps veteran Grand Army of the Republic Chasseur Pattern Kepi. Union Chasseur Pattern Kepi features fabric of dark blue wool broadcloth. The crown stands approximately 3" high at the front, 5.5" at the rear seam and the top is 4 3/8" in diameter, stiffened with a pasteboard. The body of the cap meets a band of another material seamed only at the back and stiffened with leather. The cap's interior is line with a polished black cotton skull cap, still mostly attached. The leather sweatband is 1 3/4" wide.

The flat visor is original to the hat, and composed of black patent leather. It is edged with leather that is stitched in place. There are no buttons or chinstrap present. The insignia on top of this Kepi is rather simple in design, but these are the types of patches that started it all and what we know today. The insignia is simple, it's a small red ✚ cross on top of the kepi with a brass border and identifies this as being worn by an officer in the 1st Division of the IV Corps during the Civil War.

This is a very good example of a later 19th century Grand Army of the Republic kepi.

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), Marines and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Springfield, Illinois, and grew to include hundreds of "posts" (local community units) across the nation (predominantly in the North, but also a few in the South and West). It was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member, Albert Woolson (1850–1956) of Duluth, Minnesota.

Linking men through their experience of the war, the G.A.R. became among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, helping to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying the United States Congress to establish regular veterans' pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. Its peak membership, at 410,000, was in 1890, a high point of various Civil War commemorative and monument dedication ceremonies. It was succeeded by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), composed of male descendants of Union Army and Union Navy veterans.

The Confederate equivalent of the GAR were the United Confederate Veterans.