How can you see what rank a British redcoat is?
Upvote:4
Insignia of rank may have varied from regiment to regiment.
According to 47TH FOOT IN NORTH AMERICA, 1772-1781
Non Commissioned Officers
Corporals
The uniform distinction for a corporal was a shoulder knot of white cord on the right shoulder, a vestige of the extra slow match carried in earlier days. By the 1780s, regiments shifted to a single white silk epaulette. Other than the knot/epaulette, corporals wore the same uniforms as privates.
Sergeants
Sergeants wore coats of slightly better cloth than privates, scarlet not dull madder red. Sergeants’ wore hats trimmed with silver lace and their coats trimmed with plain white lace instead of the regimental pattern. They also wore a red wool sash with a stripe of the regiment’s facing color woven in the middle. Regiments with red facings wore a white stripe. For duty on more formal occasions a sergeants carried a halberd and short sword, but for most duty in America, sergeants carried a musket with bayonet.
Officers
Officers wore coats of fine scarlet faced with their regiments' color. Officers had their coats and hats trimmed in either gold or silver metallic lace depending on their regiment’s designated metal. On duty, officers carried a sword and wore a matching metal gorget around their neck. Officers tied the gorget, a vestige of medieval armor, with a silk ribbon of the facing color. Company-level officers, up to captain, wore a metallic lace epaulette on their right shoulder. Officers above captain, as well as grenadier and light company officers, wore two. Many officers in America wore plain unlaced coats and hats on duty, often carrying a light musket, or fusil.
According to Uniforms of the 68th Light Infantry
When the 68th was converted to a Light Corps in 1808, a number of changes took place in its uniform.
...
One badge of rank work by officers on duty was a survivor from medieval times. The 'gorget' was originally a crescent-shaped piece of armour worn to protect the throat, but by Napoleonic times it had reduced in size to become purely ornamental. It still survives today as the red gorget patches on the uniform of a Staff-Officer.
Officers of the Light Infantry had a unique system of rank-marking. Because they had to be identifiable from both sides, whilst skirmishing in open-order, all markings had to be worn on both shoulders in the form of a pair of 'wings', the length and thickness of the bullion-edging distinguishing subalterns from captains. Field officers (Majors and above) wore a pair of epaulettes superimposed upon the wings; the rank of Major being indicated by a star on each shoulder; a Colonel by a crown. In the case of the 68th, the bullion was in silver, for all officers. Officers wore a variety of footwear; in the Light Infantry many adopted Light Cavalry style hussar boots. Light Infantry Officers carried a Light-Cavalry sabre in place of the usual straight Line-Infantry sword. This was fastened to a shoulder-belt, as was a whistle on a chain attached to a lion's-head boss. The whistle, also carried by Sergeants, (and still worn in the modern Light Infantry as the "Inkerman Chain"), was used to relay orders over short distances in the field. The modern system of sleeve chevrons for NCO's had been adopted early in the Napoleonic Wars. These stripes were worn on a piece of material of the facing colour on both sleeves.
Other references
More post
- 📝 Is there a commonly-accepted book or a site that explains the history-of-everything?
- 📝 Matchsticks were invented in 1805 . How did humans get fire in everyday lives before then?
- 📝 During Iranian Hostage Crisis, were shredded documents reassembled by children?
- 📝 Why was the Halifax death penalty reserved for thefts of at least 13½ pence?
- 📝 Why was the Cold War carried out over the whole world instead of between Siberia and Alaska?
- 📝 Alexander the Great and Religion
- 📝 Did the Chinese Develop Steam Engines Prior to the 17th Century?
- 📝 Why didn't the USA move to the left after WWII?
- 📝 Polite forms of address in Ancient Rome
- 📝 How did old international loans work?
- 📝 Was there an occasion when nazis turned their backs on a national anthem?
- 📝 An Austrian Emperor who thought taking his own sweet time about rewarding his underlings was the best way to inspire respect?
- 📝 Gathering of water before modern cleansing methods
- 📝 Did Italian irredentists ever lay claim to the Swiss Canton of Tessin?
- 📝 What was the role of a 'Tidy Man' and what might their duties have been?
- 📝 Who governed London during the Great Plague?
- 📝 Was there any country/form of goverment that sustained itself with diverse population?
- 📝 Why do colonels enjoy some generals' privileges?
- 📝 How to explain the apparent discrepancy in the use of papyrus vs. clay tablets between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?
- 📝 When was the festival of the See of Peter in the 6th Century?
- 📝 Were labor shortages ever a problem for the railroads in the Old West?
- 📝 What was the opinion of Hitler regarding p**nography?
- 📝 What does the phrase "Vietnam, the mixture of up and down" mean?
- 📝 Did the German ship SS Hansa (former Albert Ballin) continue her journey to the West after 30 January 1945?
- 📝 Are the Egyptians h*m*geneous?
- 📝 Oldest appearance of "brand names" in history?
- 📝 How frequently did the KMT use telegrams to communicate; from where (roughly) and to whom?
- 📝 What major historical event opened the door to the passage of a homesteading bill?
- 📝 Which United States cities started getting electricity in the 1920s?
- 📝 What was the income tax rate in the UK during WWI and WWII?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How can you see what rank a British redcoat is?
- 📝 How would you accurately use older British currencies when writing a story?
- 📝 Who first said "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."?
- 📝 Can you identify this British Army uniform, worn in India circa 1920?
- 📝 What can these photos say about my father's service for the British in WWII?
- 📝 Can you identify this seemingly British uniform in a presumably French portrait?
- 📝 Can you help me identify the rank and patch on this Royal Italian Army uniform?
- 📝 How can I find out what the printed numbers mean on the back of an older photo?
- 📝 What can you tell about a society from its architecture?
- 📝 Can you explain how officers were able to refuse orders historically in France? Elsewhere?
- 📝 How can we be sure what the first day of the month was 2000 years ago and how can we determine which years were leap years?
- 📝 How, just how you can burn down a stone structure?
- 📝 What is the source of quote attributed to W.E.B. Du Bois: "When you have mastered numbers..."
- 📝 What were the reasons that the British colonies in North America rebelled but not others?
- 📝 How likely is it that any non-Celtic language was spoken in the British Isles when the Romans invaded?
- 📝 How heavily were the British taxing their American colonies?
- 📝 On what basis do some historians accuse the British government of genocide during the great Irish famine?
- 📝 What date does a 1738 British author intend by "soon after the revolution"?
- 📝 Can anyone identify the military branch and rank of the man in the front row? This is from Germany @1932
- 📝 How did the British Navy pass orders to its fleet before radio?
- 📝 What was the strategy to protect the British Museum during the World Wars?
- 📝 What made the English the dominant power of the British Isles?
- 📝 What was lost when the British burned the White House in 1814?
- 📝 How confusing was British currency compared to decimal currency circa 1850?
- 📝 Can you help identify these medals?
- 📝 How did knights who required glasses to see survive on the battlefield?
- 📝 What is the name of the theory that says an early discovery can stop technological development?
- 📝 How did the Soviets decide what to annex in WW2?
- 📝 What historical reasons did the Nazis give for hating the Jews? How did they identify non-practicing Jews?
- 📝 Roughly, what percentage of arrows can be reused after a battle?