The famous Zouave military unit of the French Army started as a tribal enemy to the French occupation of modern-day Algeria in 1832 but within only a couple of years they were recruited. Its original commander designed the distinctive uniform based upon the tribal dress which, interestingly, did not much alter for another 150 or so years. The ethnic makeup of the unit soon became all French in nature, but the uniform remained quite standard. I am showing the earlier dress which included the green turban for the 2nd battalion. The 1st wore a red turban; while later years had the turban in the well-known white as this had less a Muslim connotation. The leggings are portrayed differently by various illustrators, but I went with black as this is a bit different than the usual brown leather look. I am using the Perry ACW plastic versions which are modelled after the famous American 5th New York Volunteers who, in turn, modelled their uniform very closely to the French version. Thus I only needed to modify the round American canteen into the black leather water carrier of the French (albeit of a slightly later era to be honest) and remove all the oval Union Army buckle badges. A common trait of the French of the era was to cover the ammunition pouch with a linen which I mimicked to give them that much more not-the-American-version look!
Here they are somewhere in North Africa with a French occupied village in the background.
