Browsing: Diary of Charles Francis Adams, Volume 1

3. The uniform of ordinary cadets was an amalgam of required college dress and West Point attire. Students were required to wear a dark gray Oxford mixed, single-breasted coat, with claw-hammer tails. Over this the cadets put white crossbelts and a waist belt. An officer wore the same coat, trimmed with gilt buttons and gold epaulettes, white trousers, black shako with fountain plumes, a scarlet sash, white sword belt, and a straight sword (Batchelder, Bits of Harvard History , p. 68).