zouave

noun

1. (historical)One of a body of soldiers in the French service, originally Kabyle, but now composed of Frenchmen who wear the Kabyle dress.
2. (broadly, historical)One of a body of soldiers who adopt the dress and drill of the Zouaves in French service, as was done by a number of volunteer regiments in the army of the United States in the Civil War (1861–65).
3. (historical)a French soldier in the Union army of the Unites States civil war, or a Union soldier in a French soldier's uniform.

   “The French soldiers, for whom this uniform was patterned and made, were, as a rule, much smaller in stature than the American soldier, and hence the imported zouave uniforms distributed, in many cases, were entirely too short for the many giants in stature in the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Regiment.”

   “During the Civil War in the United States, some of the Northern Volunteer regiments adpoted ^([sic]) the zouave uniforms and were known as zouaves.”

   “I also engaged a French zouave, named Bornet, belonging to the Third Regiment, whose term of service was just out.”