Campaign hat

A campaign hat is a broad-brimmed felt or straw hat, with a high crown, pinched symmetrically at the four corners (the "Montana crease").

The hat is most commonly worn as part of a uniform; it is worn by such agencies as the New Zealand Army, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, United States park rangers, and Scouts.

Although the campaign hat is occasionally referred to as a Stetson, this is from its common manufacture in the late 19th century by that company. It should not be confused with the quite different Stetson hat type with a different brim and crease, commonly known as the cowboy hat, and which is more commonly meant by the term "Stetson" today. The campaign hat also should not be confused with a slouch hat.

The origins of the hat can be traced to the 1840s when U.S. Army mounted troops posted to the far-west sometimes wore wide-brimmed civilian hats, which were more practical than the regulation shakos and forage caps then issued.The crease was influenced by the designs of the sombreros worn by the Mexican Vaqueros. The name started to be used after the 1872–1876 regulations which introduced a black felt hat — which could be drab after 1883 — for fatigue use derived from the types popularized during the American Civil War. Some were worn with campaign cords, mainly as a form of decoration.

At least as early as 1893, hats of this type were being re-creased into pointed tops, in order to keep off rain, by British South Africa Company (BSAC) scouts in Africa (see photo of Maurice Gifford at left). When designing the iconic uniform for Boy Scouts, Baden-Powell drew on the hat worn by Frederick Russell Burnham, the celebrated American scout, during his service as Chief of Scouts in the BSAC and the British Army in the 1890s. The 1,200 Canadian troops serving under Baden-Powell were the first to wear the campaign hat as a part of their official uniform, and this very likely influenced Baden-Powell's decision to order 10,000 of the hats for the British troops.

...
Wikipedia