Red coat or Redcoat is a historical term used to refer to soldiers of the British Army because
of the red uniforms formerly worn by the majority of regiments. From the mid-17th century to
the 19th century, the uniform of most British soldiers,, included a madder red coat or coatee.
From 1873 onwards, the more vivid shade of scarlet was adopted for all ranks, having
previously been worn only by officers, sergeants and all ranks of some cavalry regiments.
History
The red coat has evolved from being the British infantryman's ordinary uniform to a garment
retained only for ceremonial purposes. Its official adoption dates from February 1645,
when the Parliament of England passed the New Model Army ordinance. The new English
Army was formed of 22,000 men, divided into 12 foot regiments of 600 men each, one dragoon
regiment of 1000 men, and the artillery, consisting of 900 guns. The infantry regiments wore coats
of Venetian red with white facings. A contemporary comment on the New Model Army dated 7 May
1645 stated "the men are Redcoats all, the whole army only are distinguished by the several
facings of their coats".
There had been isolated instances of red military clothing pre-dating its general adoption by
the New Model Army. The uniforms of the Yeoman of the Guard and the Yeomen Warders have traditionally
been in Tudor red and gold. The Gentlemen Pensioners of James I had worn red with yellow
feathers". At Edgehill, the first battle of the Civil War, the King's people had worn
red coats, as had at least two Parliamentary regiments". However none of these examples
constituted the national uniform that the red coat was later to become.
The English red coat made its first appearance on a European continental battlefield at the
Battle of the Dunes in 1658. A Protectorship army had been landed at Calais the previous
year and "every man had a new red coat and a new pair of shoes". The English name from
the battle comes from the major engagement carried out by the "red-coats". To the amazement
of continental observers they stormed sand-dunes 150 feet high fighting experienced Spanish
soldiers from their summits with musket fire and push of pike.
The adoption and continuing use of red by most British/English soldiers after the Restoration
was the result of circumstances rather than policy, including the relative cheapness of
red dyes. Red was by no means universal at first, with grey and blue coats also being
worn. There is no known basis for the myth that red coats were favoured because they
did not show blood stains. Blood does in fact show on red clothing as a black stain.
Prior to 1707 colonels of regiments made their own arrangements for the manufacture of uniforms
under their command. This ended when a royal warrant of 16 January 1707 established a Board
of General Officers to regulate the clothing of the army. Uniforms supplied were to conform
to the "sealed pattern" agreed by the board. From an early stage red coats were lined with
contrasting colours and turned out to provide distinctive regimental facings. Examples were
blue for the 8th Regiment of Foot, green for the 5th Regiment of Foot, yellow for the 44th
Regiment of Foot and buff for the 3rd Regiment of Foot. 1747 saw the first of a series of
clothing regulations and royal warrants that set out the various facing colours and distinctions
to be borne by each regiment. An attempt at standardisation was made following the Childers
Reforms of 1881, with English and Welsh regiments having white, Scottish yellow, Irish green
and Royal regiments dark blue. However some regiments were subsequently able to obtain
the reintroduction of historic facing colours that had been uniquely theirs.
British soldiers fought in scarlet tunics for the last time at the Battle of Gennis
in the Sudan on 30 December 1885. They formed part of an expeditionary force sent from Britain
to participate in the Nile Campaign of 1884-85, wearing the "home service uniform" of the
period including scarlet tunics, although some regiments sent from India were in khaki
drill. A small detachment of infantry which reached Khartoum by steamer on 28 January
1885 were ordered to fight in their red coats in order to let the Mahdist rebels know that
the real British forces had arrived.
Even after the adoption of khaki service dress in 1902, most British infantry and some cavalry
regiments continued to wear scarlet tunics on parade and for off-duty "walking out dress",
until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
Scarlet tunics ceased to be general issue upon British mobilisation in August 1914.
The Brigade of Guards resumed wearing their scarlet full dress in 1920 but for the remainder
of the army red coats were only authorised for wear by regimental bands and officers
in mess dress or on certain limited social or ceremonial occasions. The reason for not
generally reintroducing the distinctive full dress was primarily financial, as the scarlet
cloth requires expensive cochineal dye. As late as 1980, consideration was given to
the reintroduction of scarlet as a replacement for the dark blue "No. 1 dress" and khaki
"No. 2 dress" of the modern British Army, using cheaper and fadeless chemical dyes instead
of cochineal. Surveys of serving soldiers' opinion showed little support for the idea
and it was shelved. Modern use in Commonwealth armies
In the modern British army, scarlet is still worn by the Foot Guards, the Life Guards,
and by some regimental bands or drummers for ceremonial purposes. Officers and NCOs of
those regiments which previously wore red retain scarlet as the colour of their "mess"
or formal evening jackets. Some regiments turn out small detachments, such as colour
guards, in scarlet full dress at their own expense. e.g. the Yorkshire Regiment before
amalgamation. The Royal Gibraltar Regiment has a scarlet tunic in its winter dress.
Scarlet is also retained for some full dress, military band or mess uniforms in the modern
armies of a number of the countries that made up the British Empire. These include the Australian,
Jamaican, New Zealand, Fijian, Canadian, Kenyan, Ghanaian, Indian, Singaporean, Sri Lankan
and Pakistani armies. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also wear a Red Serge jacket, based
on a British military pattern tunic. Red coat as a symbol
The epithet "redcoats" is familiar throughout much of the former British Empire, even though
this colour was by no means exclusive to the British Army. The entire Danish Army wore
red coats up to 1848 and particular units in the German, French, Austro-Hungarian, Russian,
Bulgarian and Romanian armies retained red uniforms until 1914 or later. Amongst other
diverse examples, Spanish hussars, Japanese Navy and United States Marine Corps bandsmen,
and Serbian generals had red tunics as part of their gala or court dress during this period.
In 1827 U.S. Artillery company musicians were wearing red coats as a reversal of their branch
facing colour. However the extensive use of this colour by British, Indian and other Imperial
soldiers over a period of nearly three hundred years made red uniform a veritable icon of
the British Empire. The significance of military red as a national symbol was endorsed by King
William IV when light dragoons and lancers had scarlet jackets substituted for their
previous dark blue, hussars adopted red pelisses and even the Royal Navy were obliged to adopt
red facings instead of white. Most of these changes were reversed under Queen Victoria.
A red coat and black tricorne remains part of the ceremonial and out-of-hospital dress
for in-pensioners at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. American Revolution
In the United States, "Redcoat" is associated in cultural memory with the British soldiers
who fought against the colonists during the American Revolutionary War: the Library of
Congress possesses several examples of the uniforms the British Army used during this
time Most soldiers that fought the colonists wore the red coat though the Hessian mercenaries
and some locally recruited loyalist units had blue or green clothing.
Accounts of the time usually refer to British soldiers as "Regulars" or "the King's men",
however, there is evidence of the term "red coats" being used informally, as a colloquial
expression. During the Siege of Boston, on 4 January 1776, Gen. George Washington uses
the term "red coats" in a letter to Joseph Reed. In an earlier letter dated 13 October
1775, Washington used a variation of the expression, stating, "whenever the Redcoat gentry pleases
to step out of their Intrenchments." Major General John Stark of the Continental Army
was purported to have said during the Battle of Bennington, "There are your enemies, the
Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!"
Other pejorative nicknames for British soldiers included "bloody backs" and "lobsters" The
earliest reference to the association with the lobster appears in 1740, just before the
French and Indian War. Rationale for red
From the modern perspective, the retention of a highly conspicuous colour such as red
for active service appears inexplicable and foolhardy, regardless of how striking it may
have looked on the parade ground. However, in the days of the musket and black powder,
battle field visibility was quickly obscured by clouds of smoke. Bright colours provided
a means of distinguishing friend from foe without significantly adding risk. Furthermore,
the vegetable dyes used until the 19th century would fade over time to a pink or ruddy-brown,
so on a long campaign in a hot climate the colour was less conspicuous than the modern
scarlet shade would be. As battles of the time were also commonly fought in large, conspicuous
lines and columns on the battlefield with volley fire, the individual soldier was not
a target by himself, making the obviousness of his presence immaterial.
As noted above, no historical basis can be found for the suggestion that the colour red
was favoured because of the supposedly demoralising effect of blood stains on a uniform of a lighter
colour. In his book British Military Uniforms, the military historian W.Y. Carman traces
in considerable detail the slow evolution of red as the English soldier's colour, from
the Tudors to the Stuarts. The reasons that emerge are a mixture of financial, cultural,
and simple chance. Before the Tudors red as uniforms or rather,
cloth livrees was used and provided for the household personnel -included guard troops-
by most European Royal Houses and Italian or Church principalities, as a matter of official
rich distinction and gala of palatine royal office in traditions dating back to the Roman
Empire itself, and continued all through the Middle Ages by the hierarchy of colors distinguishing
the Roman Church. During the English Civil War red dyes were
imported in large quantities for use by units and individuals of both sides, though this
was the beginning of the trend for long overcoats. The ready availability of red pigmeant made
it popular for military clothing and the dying process required for red involved only one
stage. Other colours involved the mixing of dyes in two stages and accordingly involved
greater expense; blue, for example, could be obtained with woad, but more popularly
it became the much more expensive indigo. In financial terms the only cheaper alternative
was the grey-white of undyed wool — an option favoured by the French, Austrian, Spanish
and other Continental armies. The formation of the first English standing army saw red
clothing as the standard dress. As Carman comments "The red coat was now firmly established
as the sign of an Englishman". On traditional battlefields with large engagements,
visibility was not considered a military disadvantage until the general adoption of rifles in the
1850s, followed by smokeless powder after 1880. The value of drab clothing was quickly
recognised by the British Army, who introduced khaki drill for Indian and colonial warfare
from the mid-19th century on. As part of a series of reforms following the Second Boer
War, a darker khaki serge was adopted in 1902 for service dress in Britain itself. From
then on, the red coat continued as a dress item only, retained for reasons both of national
sentiment and its value in recruiting. The British military authorities were more practical
in their considerations than their French counterparts, who incurred heavy casualties
by retaining highly visible blue coats and red trousers for active service until several
months into World War I. Material used
Whether scarlet or red, the uniform coat has historically been made of wool with a lining
of a loosely woven wool known as bay to give shape to the garment. The modern scarlet wool
is supplied by "Abimelech Hainsworth" and is much lighter than the traditional material,
which was intended for hard wear on active service.
The cloth for private soldiers used up until the late 18th century was plain weave broadcloth
weighing 16 oz per square yard, made from coarser blends of English wool. The weights
often quoted in contemporary documents are given per running yard, though; so for a cloth
of 54" width a yard weighed 24 oz. This sometimes leads to the erroneous statement that the
cloth weighed 24 oz per square yard. Broadcloth is so called not because it is
finished wide, 54" not being particularly so, but because it was woven nearly half as
wide again and shrunk down to finish 54". This shrinking, or milling, process made the
cloth very dense, bringing all the threads very tightly together, and gave a felted blind
finish to the cloth. These factors meant that it was harder wearing, more weatherproof and
could take a raw edge; the hems of the garment could be simply cut and left without hemming
as the threads were so heavily shrunk together as to prevent fraying.
Officers' coats were made from superfine broadcloth; manufactured from much finer imported Spanish
wool, spun finer and with more warps and wefts per inch. The result was a slightly lighter
cloth than that used for privates, still essentially a broadcloth and maintaining the characteristics
of that cloth, but slightly lighter and with a much finer quality finish.
Colours; The dye used for privates' coats of the infantry, guard and line, was madder.
A vegetable dye, it was recognised as economical, simple and reliable and remained the first
choice for lower quality reds from the ancient world until chemical dyes became cheaper in
the latter 19th century. Infantry NCOs, some cavalry regiments and
many volunteer corps used various mock scarlets; a brighter red but derived from cheaper materials
than the cochineal used for officers coats. Various dye goods were used for these middle
quality reds, but lac, pigment extracted from the vegetable resin shellac, was the most
common basis. Officers' superfine broadcloth was dyed true
scarlet with cochineal, a dye derived from insects. Much more expensive, but a colour
world famous and the speciality of 18th-century English dyers.
Other military usage
Members of the United States Marine Band wear red uniforms for performances at the White
House and elsewhere. This is a rare survival of the common 18th-century practice of having
military bandsmen wear coats in reverse colours to the rest of a given unit.
Detachments from some units of the Canadian Forces wear ceremonial scarlet uniforms for
special occasions or parades. In addition the scarlet uniform is the ceremonial dress
for cadets at the Royal Military College of Canada.
The Brazilian Marine Corps also wear the red coat as a part of their ceremonial uniform.
The combined Danish-Norwegian army wore red uniforms from the 17th century until the occupation
of Norway by the Swedes in 1814. Most Danish Army infantry, cavalry and artillery regiments
continued to wear red coats until they were replaced by dark blue service tunics in 1848.
The modern Royal King's People of Denmark continues to wear the historic red on special
ceremonial occasions. The Irish Brigade of the French Army wore
red coats supposedly to show their origins and continued loyalty to the cause of Jacobitism.
Red coats were also worn by the Swiss mercenary regiments in the French Army from the mid-17th
to early 19th centuries. Venezuela
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Ejército Libertador, inherited from the British
Legion the red hussar cavalry uniforms used by the Company of Honor Guard of the Liberator
Simon Bolivar. In present-day Venezuela the red coat is part
of the parade uniforms of the Regimiento de Guardia de Honor; the Compañia de Honor "24
de Junio" and the new National Militia Bolivariana.
Gallery 17th century
18th century 19th century
20th–21st century Sources
Barnes, Major R. M.. History of the Regiments & Uniforms of the British Army. Seeley Service
& Co. Barthorp, Michael. British Infantry Uniforms
Since 1660. Blandford Press. ISBN 978-1-85079-009-9. Carman, W.Y.. British Military Uniforms. Hamlyn
Publishing Group. See also
Thin Red Line
References