A great area for Civil War collecting is uniforms and headgear. As with other fields, you have to either know what you are doing or need to find a good source, since both areas are loaded with replica examples...
Quite often I see reproduction kepi's and forage caps being offered for sale as originals from the Civil War. Here's a quick way to tell if a cap is real or a copy: Sweatbands were stitched by hand inside all...