April 15th & 16th, 1861: Rush Christopher Hawkins goes to Albany, New York, where he offers the services of the “New York Zouaves” to the Governor, which services are accepted, and at the same time the Governor grants authorization to Hawkins to raise a Regiment of Zouaves for service.
Recruiting for the New York Zouaves attracted a large body of athletic men to its ranks, which in 1861 numbered eight hundred gallant fellows who were desirous of emulating in the service of the Stars and Stripes the glory of their French prototypes. They were nearly of one height, and all under thirty years of age.
(from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated History of the Civil War…, edited by Louis Shepheard Moat, Published by Mrs. Frank Leslie, New York, 1895)