Sweet helmets and trapdoors
From the California Military Department Historical Collection:
Cabinet card of Company G (former Shields Guard) of the National Guard of California’s San Francisco based 1st Infantry Regiment, circa the mid-1880s to early 1890s. This was probably taken at the De La Vega training site in Santa Cruz.
The Sergeant in this image is wearing an M1885 dress uniform coat modified with an M1873 style collar. He is also wearing the M1881 dress helmet for dismounted soldiers. The rifles are Springfield trapdoors, which the state troops would continue to use through the Spanish-American War.
