Talk:Red coat (military uniform)

"a more practical tunic was introduced in 1855"
"Following the discomfort experienced by troops in the Crimean War, a more practical tunic was introduced in 1855"

This passage is erronous and based on a misconception that the earliest double-breasted tunic adopted in the British army was adopted as a result of the Crimean war. It was in fact authorised as a replacement for the coatee in 1854 but too late to be rolled out for troops forming the 'Black Sea expedition' who then ended up in the Crimea in autumn 1854. Units started receiving replacements clothed in the tunic, as well as individual officers who had to supply their own in 1855. In addition, regiments in the Crimea were re-supplied with the new pattern uniform in 1855-56.

It is also an error to describe this tunic as in a French double-breasted style. The French tunic was single breasted. The greatcoat that the French wore in the field happened to be double-breasted. British Officers and NCOs, as well as the Foot Guards, as well as Rifle regiments, already wore double-breasted coatees.

JF42 (talk) 19:38, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

scarlet tunics
"British soldiers fought in scarlet tunics for the last time at the Battle of Gennis in the Sudan on 30 December 1885. They formed part of an expeditionary force sent from Britain to participate in the Nile Campaign of 1884-85, wearing the "home service uniform" of the period including scarlet tunics."

In Egypt in 1882, British forces were sent out to fight in scarlet 'frocks,' the working dress of the day, rather than the more ornate and heavier Full Dress tunics. It was intended that they take the field in specially commissioned grey field service dress but this did not arrive in time. For service in Sudan and on the Nile in 1884-85, the troops were provided with the grey clothing (referred to as 'hideous khakee'), and subsequently a sand coloured khaki which became the norm. At Ginnis, troops in red were were wearing the scarlet frocks

JF42 (talk) 19:55, 7 November 2020 (UTC)


 * That is a correct distinction. The practice of issuing both scarlet tunics and scarlet frocks continued until 1902 when khaki (hideous or otherwise) replaced the red frocks. The scarlet full dress tunics continued to be general issue for home service until the outbreak of war in August 1914. British troops in India continued to be issued with a plainer and lighter scarlet frock without lining during this period for climatic reasons. However given the confusion likely to arise from references to "red frocks" (some sort of kilt?) perhaps we should stick with the generic term "tunics" in the article. Buistr (talk) 21:24, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

Napoleonic wars
I feel like an article about British redcoats should include information regarding the Napoleonic Wars, a time where the redcoat was very prominent. Anyone agree? 2A00:23C7:828F:FF01:97D:AC7C:6D39:2367 (talk) 21:22, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Lobsters
Perhaps the Bostonians thought it meant uniforms the colour of a boiled lobster. However, it originally described the heavily armoured cuirassiers of the Civil War, not the colour. Humphrey Tribble (talk) 07:36, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

synecdoche
can someone confirm that the soldiers were only commonly called redcoats in the United States? The use of this term in this way in other countries can’t be excluded. However, in the UK red coat often means employees of Butlins holiday camps or toastmasters. Humphrey Tribble (talk) 18:13, 3 June 2023 (UTC)


 * Red coat can mean many things. In saying that, this article was created to specifically discuss the term redcoat in its context as a military uniform. The actual red coat article (without the parathesis modifier) serves as a disambiguation page so people can look up the relevant article on the specific usage they were looking for.
 * With regards to the United States, it is not the "only commonly" used term (the article actually doesn't really make that assertion), as terms like lobsterbacks also existed. That said, I'd think its mentioning that the term serves as the titular focus for one of the Revolutionaries more popular warsongs of the time (The Dying Redcoat). Leventio (talk) 19:33, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately my question was misleading, . Yes, there were other terms for British soldiers, probably including some which were unprintable. (I believe “lobsters” originated years earlier in the north of England. )
 * My uncertainty is whether redcoat was used as much in any other countries as it was in the US. In other words, was it common in the US but uncommon elsewhere? (No doubt it was spread to some degree by migrants.) Humphrey Tribble (talk) 00:07, 4 June 2023 (UTC)