Billy Wilson Zouaves

“The (’Billy’) Wilson Zouaves, at Tammany Hall, taking the oath of fidelity to the flag, April 24th, 1861. Colonel Wilson was among the first to offer his services to the government on the breaking out of the war. He recruited a regiment of nearly twelve hundred men from the rowdy and criminal classes of New York City. The regiment was formally mustered in the old Tammany Hall, and there, on April 24th, with the men arranged around the room, with the officers in the centre, the colonel, with a sword in one hand and the American flag in the other, led the men into swearing to ‘support the flag and never to flinch from its path through blood or death.’ The Zouaves, a few days afterward, left for the South."— Frank Leslie, 1896

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