Originally Posted by Rocketeer

The general consensus is that the ' uniformity' of the British Military was established during the closing years of Charles II

red was selected for two mundane reasons.. the near universal availability of the vegetable dye, Madder Red, and the cheap cost of same..and the fact that red was the ' soldier's ' colour even before the Civil War.

since the military was transiting from individual noble/baronial control through ' national army ' to a Government Military [ parliament/people controlled ] the need to economise became the standard [ i.e. underfund and cut costs to the army as much as possible and offload costs where you could ]

So in 1684:
The Life Guards all had red coats lined with blue
The Royal Regt of Horse blue coats lined with red
Regiments of horse all wore red coats
Dragoons red coats lined with blue [ though the Scots Dragoons had grey coats ]
Infantry - red coats
1685 Foot Guards red coats
in 1688 the Artillery wore red coats ;Artillery train in Ireland blue coats lined in orange

This gives an extract from Osprey's New Model Army. See page 10

Stuart Asquith

Here's a thing:

The French infantry wore blue with white crossbelts.
The Austrians wore white.
The Russians wore brown -- by the Crimean War, anyway ...
The Prussians ... what ... black?
The Bavarians a different blue from the French ... those guys at the Battle of Magenta who wore magenta ... the Swedes ... purple I seem to recall. Some of them, anyway.

As identification changed from field signs and sashes to coat colours (with the mass-purchase of coats for the army rather than by regiment), you had to pick a colour and stick with it. From the 16th Century the English default soldier's coat colour was red, so it's hardly surprising that for battlefield identification purposes the English (later the British) stuck with red.

It's a theory.

The real reason is because the red tunic would hide blood from a wound.
Similarly, the trousers of the French uniform were traditionally brown..


Seriously though -

On February 1645, the Parliament of England passed the New Model Army
ordinance. The new British Army was formed of 22,000 men, divided into
12 foot regiments of 1200 men each, 11 horse regiments of 600 men each,
one dragoon regiment of 1000 men, and the artillery with 50 guns. The
infantry regiments wore coats of Venetian red with white facings. The
original intention was to use blue uniforms, but red dye was cheaper.

The New Model was the first British "redcoat" army. The adoption and
continuing use of red by most English soldiers after the Restoration (1660)
appears to have been a historical accident, aided by the relative
cheapness of red dyes as noted above, and then continued for tradition
and for the the fact the bright colours helped distinguish friend from foe
on smoky battlefields. There is no basis for the historical 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.

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. 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 virtual icon of the British Empire. The significance of military
red as a national symbol was endorsed by King William IV (reigned 1830
-1837) 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 (1837-1901).

Madder (Rubia tinctoria, Rubiaceae) was the dye used and has been
used since ancient times. One form of this dye is sometimes called Turkey
red. The dye is found in the root of the plant. The compound in the plant is
ruberythric acid. Alizarin (a compound derived from madder) is usually
used with an aluminum mordant. This dye was introduced into Europe in
the late Middle Ages. The dye often ran in the rain, so the white pants of
the uniform were sometimes a pinkish flush.

http://www.najecki.com/repro/fabrics/RedB.html#british
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Model_Army

Originally Posted by Lucent

The real reason is because the red tunic would hide blood from a wound.
Similarly, the trousers of the French uniform were traditionally brown..

Total crap it's a bit difficult to hide a 20ft pike sticking out your chest or your arm hanging off because a 510 grams bullet has hit you. Hide the blood, you will have claret all over the place your ashen face may give you away.

It is only after the French revolution did they go to blue until then they where in white.

Noose

Ever heard of Prussian Blue and Russia used green. Bavaria had sky blue.

simple. out of all the colours red uniforms at a distance blended into one large smudge so it made it hard trying to count the number of soldiers on a battlefield i.e distinguishing one soldier from another. very hard for the enemy so a commander would either over or under estimate the strength of an enemy not something you want to get wrong when fighting the british. the blood rumours are false as a blood stains would show a much darker stain and officers uniforms were made of a finer cloth of a scarlet colour which was orignaly invisiged for the whole army but costs made it only possible to outift officers and other ranks had to make do with a cheaper dye.

Originally Posted by tommy_cooker

simple. out of all the colours red uniforms at a distance blended into one large smudge so it made it hard trying to count the number of soldiers on a battlefield i.e distinguishing one soldier from another. very hard for the enemy so a commander would either over or under estimate the strength of an enemy not something you want to get wrong when fighting the british. the blood rumours are false as a blood stains would show a much darker stain and officers uniforms were made of a finer cloth of a scarlet colour which was orignaly invisiged for the whole army but costs made it only possible to outift officers and other ranks had to make do with a cheaper dye.

See my post above.

This is another stupid reason that does not stand up to inspection.

Originally Posted by offog

Originally Posted by Lucent

The real reason is because the red tunic would hide blood from a wound.
Similarly, the trousers of the French uniform were traditionally brown..

Total crap it's a bit difficult to hide a 20ft pike sticking out your chest or your arm hanging off because a 510 grams bullet has hit you. Hide the blood, you will have claret all over the place your ashen face may give you away.

It is only after the French revolution did they go to blue until then they where in white.

Noose

Ever heard of Prussian Blue and Russia used green. Bavaria had sky blue.

offog, I think that Lucent was joking there.

Funny that about the Hessians, my mum did the genealogy bit and reckons our ancestors on one side were Hessian Mercs in North America!

The English Redcoat was supposed to look bright and forthright in battle. They were designed to be seen by the enemy and strike fear into his heart.
The red disguised the blood and the wounds the valiant soldier in red, sustained.

The Officers, wore brown trousers......

Originally Posted by Lucent

The
original intention was to use blue uniforms, but red dye was cheaper.

The New Model was the first British "redcoat" army.

Without meaning to quibble, I'm surprised to hear that blue was considered for the New Model, and I wonder where that is attested. Peter Edwards, who's one of only about four living people who've been through the financial records of the New Model Army, doesn't seem to notice. (Peter Edwards's book Dealing in Death is a powerhouse of a book on English Civil War munitions.)

Again, in the spirit of contributing to discussion rather than trying to quibble, even when the New Model was activated in the Spring of 1645, it wasn't the only Parliamentary army, and Parliamentary troops continued to wear green, blue, grey and white coats. (I think the only purple-coated regiment was royalist.)

I cannot accept that the initial intention was to put everyone in scarlet. It would have been impractical -- and red soldiers' coats predate officers' uniforms by quite a few years.

There's a wonderful story to explain the Austrian flag: in some huge battle the (white-coated) Austrians needed to rally, but the colours had gone down and were nowhere to be found. The Emperor stripped the belt off his blood-soaked white coat revealing a big white stripe underneath. He peeled his coat off and hung it on a pike (or something) and waved it as a colour to rally his people. Ever since then the Austrian flag has been the blood-red coat with the clean white stripe where the Emperor's belt had been. The legend has holes you could drive a fiacre through, but it's kind of cool in context.

Did the French blue coat come in with the Revolution or before?