The color red was the uniform color adopted by the first permanent regiment of the British Army, the Yeoman of the Guard, the Beefeaters, during the reign of Henry VIII. In 1645 this color was adopted when the first standing army was raised. Red was not used to hide the bloodstains. Rather, each army adopted certain colors as its national colors. French soldiers tended to wear blue; The Russians wore green; The British wore red.
With the infantry wearing bright red, with white transverse belts and bright bronze, weren’t they easier targets? However, in the 1860s, battle tactics were very different from those applied today. Before 1866, British long arms were muzzleloaders. Loading these weapons required a soldier:
1) Stand up straight to load a powder charge and fire towards the muzzle.
2) Get too close to the enemy to hit him, due to the inaccuracy of the musket.
3) stand together to shoot volleys.
It was the number of shells that mattered, not the camouflage.
By 1867, however, the war and times were changing. With the arrival of breech-loading rifles to the British Army in 1866, the
the quality of small arms changed considerably. Faster rates of fire,
From a much more precise weapon, which could be loaded in the prone position, little by little the tactical doctrine of the Army began to change. The change in tactics was not as rapid as it could have been because during the latter half of the 19th century, the British Army did not fight a similarly equipped modern army. In essence, the tactics used were those that made sense with the old style of firearms; tactics had yet to evolve to take advantage of newer weapons.
It was surprising that the lessons of the new weapons recently
demonstrated in the American Civil War (1861-1865) they were not absorbed by the British. Although most European nations had observers on both sides, the lessons that should have been learned were discarded, as this war was seen as an isolated case determined by a geography unlike any other in Europe. Furthermore, it was considered an “unseemly fight between undisciplined armies.”
It wasn’t until the late 1800s that a khaki uniform was issued, and the British Army finally realized that drab colored uniforms provided better camouflage in response to more accurate and faster firearms using smokeless powder. Once again, tactics continued to lag behind and it took the carnage of World War I to convince authorities that it was necessary to seek cover and remain concealed rather than standing in battle formations.
Women uniform
The women of the garrison wore a less authoritative uniform that conformed to the class structure and social order of the time. The wives of the men in the ranks wore a simple cotton dress with an apron and a hairpiece called a “net.” His shoes were made of smooth leather common to the time. It was in sharp contrast to the more ornate dress worn by an officer’s wife, in keeping with her position as an upper-class citizen.
Similarly, civilians employed by the 1867 Army had their own type of clothing to wear that designated their role within the Army. The school teacher wore a knee-length black frock coat, while the teacher wore a cut skirt, blouse, and jacket in a style known as a ‘zouave’ jacket, similar to the uniforms worn by the ‘zouave’ units serving in the American Union. Civil war.
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