Venezuela Army on Parade 1908

Thought this might be of interest to someone.
https://i.servimg.com/u/f88/13/98/25/75/castro10.jpg
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Check out the variety of headgear in one unit.
Regards.
Les

Les, Not only the head-dress but the uniforms are different,
At first glance it appears that they don’t belong to the same unit but some of them could be the regimental bandsmen, they all have instruments and having a different uniform for the band was and is quite normal.

Another idea, maybe two or more units disembarking when the photo was taken?

Regards
WF

HI WF,
I noticed the headgear first ,three different types - French Kepi, Tall hard shako in two tones and shorter hard shako.
The uniform on all the men with guns looks to be the same to me, 4 visible buttons, piping down the front, piping on th trousers legs and cloth ammo belts. The first man with a gun in the front row I took to be an NCO as he has cuff stripes and presumed that the two men behind him with similar shakos could also be NCO's ,the rest of the men being O/R's as they all appear to have thw same shako type.

The man with the sword I thought is their Junior officer and the man on the left being the more senior Officer.

I see what you mean about the band , I had only noticed the Drummer and trumper, but I think you are correct that the two guys behind them are also musicians. Also the man I thought was the senior Officer does appear to be carrying a flute.

So photo shows an Infantry unit with it's band members on parade.

What do you think, would NCO's have a differnt type of shako fromthe men?

Best Regards,
Les

What type of rifle do you think it is?

Hi Sean,
I'm not really up on rifles and it is quite difficult to see the complete rifle on anyone by the way they hold them.The clue for me would be the metal handled slightly curved bayonet which I would suggest is the French 'Chassepot' model of about the 1880's.

Just a guess, I'm sure another menber will be able to identify the rifle type more accurately.

Best Regards,
Les.

Hi Les
It’s hard to say about the shako being different for NCO’s, was known in other armies to have a higher quality head gear for NCO’s and officers so you may be onto something.
Would be nice if we could tell if the collars or shoulder strap piping differed also, maybe the difference between the headgear could be explained by them wearing out the old stock before issuing new?
Thing is, it could even be different battalions within the same regiment having their own distinctive shako, I know it’s not likely though!
Guy with the stick I would say was the band master/leader going by the cuffs of the other members of the band on his right and the dark piping of the uniform.
The guy on the immediate left of the ‘bandmaster’ I believe to be an NCO because of the two broad stripes on his cuff.
The difference between uniforms that I noticed was that some have epaulettes while others have shoulder straps, although as you said the jackets are of the same design.

To be honest I just don’t know!!!
Regards
WF

Hi WF.
Well after reading your post I had another close look at the photo and I would say that the man in the front row with the two stripes on the cuff and the two guys immediately behind him are wearing fringed eppaulettes of the French type, these are guys with the two tone shakos, which may mean that they are Grenadiers or Voltiguers which would make them elite and therefore entitled to have differences in their uniforms.
I think that the guy second from the right also has the two tone shako and eppaulettes, but it is quite difficult to tell.

I'm with you on this one, I don't know either, I just posted the photo as there seemed to be an interest in all things South American.

Regards,
Les