Army and Navy Uniforms and Insignia / How to Know Rank, Corps and Service in the Military and Naval Forces of the United States and Foreign Countries

by Dion Williams

In Russia there is a great variety in full dress uniforms, and the effect of the long coat and turban of the Cossack on one hand and the bright plumes and short jackets of the Central European cavalry on the other is traceable. For field service uniforms dull shades of gray-green have become almost universal, and the cold of the long winters has naturally resulted in the use of long and heavy overcoats. The Russian soldiers all wear top boots instead of the low topped laced shoes common for foot troops in the armies of France, England and America. In this respect the Germans follow the same custom as the Russians.

The uniforms of the United States Army and Marine Corps have resulted from an adoption of the styles of the older nations with such modifications as were from time to time dictated by local conditions or national sentiment. Before the Revolution of 1776 the colonial troops naturally followed the example of the British expeditionary troops serving in the Thirteen Colonies, with modifications to suit the climate and the nature of the country occupied. During the War of the Revolution the effect of the alliance with France was seen in the adoption of certain features of the French uniform, and the service of the Prussian generals Von Steuben and De Kalb also resulted in the adoption of certain features of the Prussian armies of that date.

After the establishment of the United States Government the wars with the Indians caused changes in the uniform of some of the troops by the adoption of some of the articles of the frontiersman’s dress, such as deer-skin jackets, coonskin caps and powder horns.

The original idea of the founders of the country was to have every able-bodied man receive some training as a soldier, and from this came the militia of early days and the volunteers that fought the War of 1812. The militia of the different States and territories were uniformed largely by each State or territory designating its own style of military dress copied from the different armies abroad and with trimmings and colors to distinguish the different arms of the service.

The establishment of a small regular army after the War of 1812 brought with it a government regulation uniform for regular troops, which was in turn followed to some extent by the state troops or militia, but there were still many different styles of uniform in use through the Mexican War and up to the breaking out of the Civil War in 1860. Different units of the forces came to be known by the colors of their uniforms, such as the “Richmond Blues,” the “Red Zouaves,” the “Blue Zouaves,” the “Grays,” and many crack regiments of the militia, or as it came to be known later, the National Guard of the different States, had their own distinctive color and cut of uniform dress.

The great Civil War called such large bodies of men to the colors of the two contending sides that the question of economy demanded that the service uniforms for each side be made of one standard color and style, the armies of the North wearing blue and those of the South wearing gray. In each army, however, the different corps were distinguished by a distinctive color for the trimmings or “facings,” a custom which still prevails for the dress uniforms of our troops.

After the war with Spain in 1898 steps were taken to bring the uniforms of the several State National Guards into general conformity with that of the Regular Army, and, with the granting of national financial aid to these state troops and the issue to them of government regulation clothing and equipment, all of the armed forces of the country, regular, state and volunteer, gradually came to wear the same uniform, the different kinds of troops being distinguished by the design of the buttons or by letters worn on the collars.

In one feature the United States troops of to-day, both in the Army and the Marine Corps, still retain a relic of the “stock” of former times; this is the close fitting, standing collar of the coats for both full dress and service uniforms. The original idea of the stock was to make the soldier hold his head up and stand stiffly erect, and it dates from the time when Frederick the Great introduced mathematical precision into every motion of drill and maneuver.

In the early days when the marines wore a leather stock the sailor in his wide collared shirt dubbed the marine a “leatherneck,” a term still applied to him in the slang phrase of the service.

Military necessity has often dictated the color of the clothing worn by troops in the field. An early example of this was the adoption in 1755 of a dark green uniform by the British Royal American Regiment while fighting against the French and Indians in the forest covered country in the northwest of the original American colonies. The North American Indian was an adept at “bush-whacking” and concealment in the forest, and to meet him on anything like an equal footing it was necessary for the British and colonial troops to wear a color suited to the prevailing background. In later years this regiment’s name was changed to “King’s Royal Rifles” and as an heirloom of its first service the rifle regiments of the British Army still wear green coats for their full dress uniform.