Red Coat (also Redcoat) is the historical term given to the British non-commissioned men who served during the American Revolution, between 1775 and 1783.

This is a rare survival of the common 18th-century practice of having military bandsmen wear coats in reverse colours to the rest of a given unit (United States Marines wear blue/black tunics with red facings so United States Marine bandsmen wear red tunics with blue/black facings). These include the Australian, British, Canadian, Fijian, Ghanaian, Indian, Jamaican, Kenyan, New Zealand, Pakistani, Singaporean, and the Sri Lankan armies.[47].

The most notable centre for dying "British scarlet" cloth was Stroud in Gloucestershire, which also dyed cloth for many foreign armies. As part of a series of reforms following the Second Boer War, (which had been fought in this inconspicuous clothing of Indian origin) a darker khaki serge was adopted in 1902 for service dress in Britain itself. Start studying Ap US History. "[29], 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,[30] The earliest reference to the association with the lobster appears in 1740, just before the French and Indian War).

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Usage of the scarlet tunic originates with the Canadian Militia, a militia raised to support the British Army in British North America, as well as the Canadian government following Confederation in 1867. [67], All branches of the Paraguayan Army wore red jackets or blouses during the War of the Triple Alliance 1864-70. [48] However, some units in the Canadian Army are authorized regimental differences from the Army's universal full dress. The Canadian Army's universal full dress uniforms includes a scarlet tunic. Again, in the summer of 1595, the Lord Deputy William Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Thornhaugh writing to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley about the relief of Enniskillen, mentions that the Irish rebel Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone had "300 shot in red coats like English soldiers" – the inference being that English soldiers in Ireland were distinguished by their red uniforms.

Barnes, "A History of the Regiments & Uniforms of the British Army", Sphere Books Ltd London 1972, pages 295-302, Major R.M.

The scarlet tunic is presently used as part of the full dress uniforms for the Life Guards and several other cavalry units, the Foot Guards, the Royal Engineers, line infantry regiments, generals, and most army staff officers of the British Army. The entire Danish Army wore red coats up to 1848[59] and particular units in the German, French, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Bulgarian and Romanian armies retained red uniforms until 1914 or later. [22] Examples were blue for the 8th Regiment of Foot, green for the 5th Regiment of Foot, yellow for the 44th Regiment of Foot and buff for the 3rd Regiment of Foot. [16], The Red Coat has evolved from being the British infantryman's normally worn uniform to a garment retained only for ceremonial purposes. The noncommissioned officer's red coat issued under the warrant of 1768, was dyed with a mixture of madder-red and cochineal to produce a "lesser scarlet"; brighter than the red worn by other ranks but cheaper than the pure cochineal dyed garment purchased by officers as a personal order from military tailors.

Vermont: The Green Mountain State, volume 2.

What made you want to look up redcoat? The British Army soldiers between 1760 and 1860 wore red uniforms and fought in the Wolfe’s war, the defeat at Quebec, the Wellington’s Peninsular War, the Waterloo conflict, the Kabul retreat,