Quote:
Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk
Honestly, they can be seen coming a mile away.  |
You hit upon it right there. Visibility. Muskets were the most popular weapon on the 18th century battlefield, and due to their inaccuracy and reliability problems armies employed line formations in battle. Line formations allowed armies to overcome the inaccuracy and reliability problems of the musket. However, by using line formations large clouds of smoke were produced from the concentration of so many muskets, not to mention all the artillery on the battlefield. With so much smoke, leaders needed to quickly identify friend from foe as quickly as possible, and the best way to do that was to use distrinct elaborate uniforms. Of course, when the rifle came along all that began to change.
Another reason was cost and effectiveness. At the time, red dye was very cheap and readily available. In order to dye a coat with red dye the process is easier than other colors since other colors require more than one stage in the dying process. Red dye only requires one stage for dying coats and this makes the process less expensive.