Editing Slouch hat (section)

{{short description|Wide-brimmed soft felt or cloth hat most commonly worn as part of a military uniform}}
[[File:Frederick Bell VC.jpg|thumb|[[Frederick Bell]] VC, [[West Australian Mounted Infantry]], Boer War]]
[[File:Frank Dadd - Company of the Victorian Mounted Rifles on manoeuvres in Victoria in 1889.jpg|thumb|300px|'A' Company of the Victorian Mounted Rifles on manoeuvres in Victoria in 1889]]

A '''slouch hat''' is a wide-brimmed [[felt]] or cloth [[hat]] most commonly worn as part of a [[military uniform]], often, although not always, with a chinstrap. It has been worn by military personnel from many different nations including [[Australia]], [[Ireland]], the [[United Kingdom]], [[Canada]], [[Nepal]], [[India]], [[New Zealand]], [[Southern Rhodesia]], [[France]], the [[United States]], the [[Confederate States]], [[Germany]] and many others. Australia and New Zealand have had various models of slouch hat as standard issue headwear since the late Victorian period.

Today it is worn by military personnel from a number of countries, although it is primarily associated with Australia, where it is considered to be a national symbol. The distinctive Australian slouch hat, sometimes called an "Australian bush hat" or "digger hat", has one side of the brim turned up or pinned to the side of the hat with a [[Rising Sun (badge)|Rising Sun Badge]] in order to allow a rifle to be slung over the shoulder. The [[New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade|New Zealand Mounted Rifles]] wore a similar headdress but with the New Zealand military badge attached to the front of the cloth band (puggaree) wound around the base of the hat's crown.

In the United States it was also called the Kossuth hat, after [[Lajos Kossuth]]. During the [[American Civil War]] (1861–65) the headgear was common among both Confederate and Union troops in the [[Western Theater of the American Civil War|Western Theater]], although not always with its brim turned up at the side. During the [[Spanish–American War]], as commander of the [[Rough Riders]], Colonel [[Theodore Roosevelt]] became known for wearing a slouch hat.