Uniforms of the American army.
The American provincial troops serving with British regulars in the colonial wars were generally without uniforms; but there were exceptions.
The New Jersey infantry, under
Colonel Schuyler, were clad in blue cloth, and obtained the name of “The Jersey Blues.”
Their coats were blue faced with red, gray stockings, and buckskin breeches.
The portrait of
Washington, painted by
Charles Wilson Peale in 1772, shows his dress as a Virginia colonel of infantry to be a blue coat faced with buff, and buff waistcoat and breeches.
This was his uniform during the Revolution, and in it he appeared at the session of the second Continental Congress (1775), indicating, as
Mr. Adams construed it, his readiness for the field in any station.
In this costume he appeared when, early in July, 1775, he took command of the army at
Cambridge.
There is a political significance in the blue-and-buff-colored uniform.
The coats of the soldiers of William of
Orange who invaded
Ireland in 1689 were blue faced with orange or buff, and this
Holland insignia became that of the
English Whigs, or champions of constitutional liberty.
The American Whigs naturally adopted these colors for a military uniform.
In the battle of
Bunker (
Breed's)
Hill there were no uniformed companies.
Washington prescribed a uniform for his officers on his arrival soon afterwards.
Their coats were blue faced with buff, and the generals each wore a ribbon across the breast—each grade of a separate color.
Field-officers wore different-colored cockades to distinguish their rank.
Brown being then the color most convenient to be procured,
Washington prescribed for the field-officers brown coats, the distinction between regiments to be marked by the facings.
He also recommended the general adoption by the rank and file of the hunting-shirt, with trousers buttoned at the ankle.
This was always the costume of the riflemen or sharp-shooters; and
Washington remarked that “it is a dress justly supposed to carry no small terror to the enemy, who think every such person a complete marksman.”
These hunting-shirts were
black,
white, or of neutral colors.
The uniform of
Washington's Life-guard, organized early in the war, was a blue coat faced with buff, red waistcoat, buckskin breeches, and black felt hat bound with white tape.
The different colonies had uniformed companies in the earlier period of the struggle.
The prevailing color of their coats was blue, with buff or white facings.
For a long time the artillery were not uniformed, but in 1777 their regulation costume was “a dark-
blue or
black coat reaching to the knee and full-trimmed, the lapels fastened back, with ten openworked buttonholes in yellow silk on the breast of each lapel, and ten large regimental yellow buttons at equal distances on each side, three large yellow regimental buttons on each cuff, and a like number on each pocket-flap; the skirts to hook back, showing the red lining; bottom of coat cut square; red lapels, cuff-linings, and standing capes; single-breasted white waistcoat with twelve small regimental buttons; white breeches, black halfgaiters, white stock, ruffled bosoms and wristlets, and black cocked hat bound with yellow; red plume and black cockade; gilt-handled small-sword, and gilt
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epaulets.”
For the navy officers, blue coats with red facings, red waistcoats, blue breeches, and yellow buttons; and for its marine officers, a green coat with white facings, white breeches edged with
green,
white waistcoat, white buttons, silver epaulets, and black gaiters.
The distress of the
American soldiers for want of clothing was at its height during their winter encampment at
Valley Forge.
Baron Steuben wrote: “The description of the dress is most easily given.
The men were literally naked—some of them in the fullest extent of the word.
The officers who had coats had them of every color and make.
I saw an officer at a grand parade at
Valley Forge mounting guard in a sort of dressing-gown made of an old blanket or woollen bed-cover.”
The uniform of the
Continental army was prescribed by a
general order issued in October, 1779, by the commander-inchief.
The coat was to be blue, and the facings for infantry varied—white, buff,
red, and
blue.
Those of the artillery and artificers were faced with scarlet, with scarlet linings, and of the light dragoons faced with white; white buttons and linings.
Until this time the uniforms of the
Continental army had been variegated.
In the summer of 1780
Washington prescribed the uniforms of the
general officers, and of the staff generally.
The coats and facings were the same as those already prescribed—blue, buff, and white.
The
major-generals to wear two epaulets, with two stars upon each, and a
black and
white feather in the hat; the brigadiers a single star and a white feather; the colonels, two epaulets; the captains, an epaulet on the right shoulder; the subalterns, an epaulet on the left shoulder; the
aides-de-camp, the uniform of their rank and corps; those of the
major-generals and brigadier-generals to have a green feather in the hat; those of the
commander-in-chief, a white feather.
Cockades were to be worn in the hat by all military men. In the field, such of the regiments as had hunting-shirts were required to wear them.
In the summer of 1782 the uniform of the infantry and cavalry were prescribed as follows: “Blue ground, with red facings and white linings, and buttoned,” the artillery and sappers and miners to retain their uniforms.
The cavalry had brass helmets, with white horse-hair.
It was found difficult to procure the prescribed color for clothing, and the order was only partially complied with.
White facings were generally used; the buff rarely, excepting by the
general officers.
At the close of the Revolution some of the colonels of infantry wore black, round hats, with
black and
red feathers.
During the period of the Confederation the troops retained substantially the uniform of the
Continental army.
In 1787 the shoulderstrap of dark blue edged with red first made its appearance.
In 1792 bear-skincovered knapsacks, instead of linen painted ones, were first issued to the troops.
In 1796 the infantry had dark-blue coats reaching to the knee and full-trimmed, scarlet lapels, cuffs, and standing capes, retaining white buttons, white trimmings, and white under-dress, black stocks, and cocked hats with white binding.
Black top-boots now replaced the shoe and black half-gaiter.
In 1794 the artillery wore helmets with red plumes.
The coats of the musicians were red, with pale-blue facings, blue waistcoats and breeches, and a silk epaulet for the
chief musician.
This was the uniform of the drummers in the royal regiments of the
British army at an early period, it being the royal livery.
The red coat was the uniform of the drummers in the
American army until 1857.
In 1799 the white plume was prescribed for the infantry.
The cavalry had green coats and white facings, white vests and breeches, top-boots, and leather helmet with black horse-hair.
In
Jefferson's administration the infantry wore round ( “stove-pipe” ) hats, with brim three inches wide, and with a strip of bear-skin across the crown.
Artillery officers had gold epaulets.
The infantry wore a white belt over the shoulder and across the breast, with an oval breastplate three by two and a half inches, ornamented with an eagle.
In 1810 high standing collars for the coats were prescribed, and in 1812 they were ordered to “reach the tip of the ear, and in front as high as the chin would permit in turning the head.”
At that time many changes were made in the uniform.
Officers of the
general staff wore cocked hats without feathers; single-breasted blue coats with ten gilt buttons; vest and
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breeches, or pantaloons, white or buff; high military boots and gilt spurs; and waist-belts of black leather, but no sashes.
The rank and file were put into blue coatees, or jackets.
The
medical officers, whose coats had been dark blue from 1787, were put into black coats in 1812.
In 1814 a portion of the army on the
Niagara frontier were compelled by circumstances to change from blue to gray.
In the army regulations in 1821 dark blue was declared to be the national color.
President Jackson, in 1832, tried to restore the “facings” which were worn in the Revolution, but was only partially successful.
When the
Civil War broke out in 1861 some of the volunteer troops were dressed in gray.
As the
Confederates adopted the same color for their regulars, and butternut brown for their militia, the United States troops were clad in blue, with black felt hats and feathers and gilt epaulets for officers.
After the close of the war the infantry coats had white edgings, stripes, and facings, and plumes of the Revolution; and the artillery the red plume, red facings, and yellow buttons of the same period.
General officers alone retained buff sashes and buff-colored bodybelts.
During the war between the
United States and
Spain (1898), and in the subsequent military operations consequent thereon the soldiers were provided with stiff-brim soft hats, leather leggings, and jackets and pantaloons made of khaki, a clay-colored linen cloth first used for military purposes by the
British army in
India.
