Red Coat (British Army) - American Revolution

American Revolution

In the United States, "Redcoat" is associated with British soldiers who fought against the colonists during the American Revolutionary War. During this period, roughly 1770-1784, standard dress for a British infantry soldier would have included white breeches, black leather shoes, black spatterdashes, oftentimes gaitored trousers replaced the breeches and gaitors a white wool waistcoat, black cocked hat, and a wool coat that reached the upper thigh, dyed with madder to an alizarin crimson (cochineal was more expensive and not as readily available yet as it had to be purchased from Spain, an enemy of Britain in this war.)

All British soldiers excepting the dragoons, some of the cavalry, and the Waldeck Units wore a variant of this basic design. 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 red Coat 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 (16 August 1777), "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" (in a reference to both the colour of their coats and the use of flogging as a means of punishment for military offences) and "lobsters" (most notably in Boston around the time of the Boston Massacre, owing to the fact that a boiled American lobster is always bright red).

The soldiers of this particular war often found the design of their uniform could be a liability not only because of it being a very visible sign of His Majesty's Army to colonists, but also because of functionality. The original design was intended to be successful in a European climate and on European battlefields, but for many reasons it was poorly suited to the natural conditions of the Thirteen Colonies, both in the north and south. By 19 November 1776, the British Army and Royal Navy had succeeded in capturing the entrance to the Hudson Valley, Manhattan, and Long Island. By the succeeding New Year's Day, however, temperatures had plummeted to -2°C and lower in daylight with New York Harbor having chunks of ice in it. Standard issue of the period for non-officers included greatcoats, gloves, and stockings warm enough to insulate the inside of the shoes men were expected to wear. Medical records of the era demonstrate many British soldiers suffered from pneumonia, frostbite, and hypothermia, especially those with orders to guard prison ships and patrol the fortified walls in New York during the winters of 1776-1784. As the war turned south the following year in 1777 the opposite problem prevailed. May–September temperatures would soar to 30°C with high humidity, well beyond what was typical for the UK in the late 18th century. This took the average British non-officer by surprise, as born out by hundreds of letters of complaint sent home. Soldiers sent to chase the Americans in the swamps of the Carolinas and Georgia suffered from malaria, cholera, and dysentery. Those sent to the mountain frontiers found their bright red uniforms were a perfect contrast against the green forest cover and made them easily seen and shot by hiding guerilla fighters, very different from a European battlefield. Until the end of the conflict, British soldiers fighting in the south were at very high risk for heatstroke and dehydration, several dying from it.