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UNIFORMS
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UNIFORMS . The word " See also:uniform " (See also:Lat. unus, one, and forma, See also:form), meaning adjectively homogeneous, is specifically used as a substantive for the distinctive See also:naval and military See also:dress, which serves, in its various styles, to give homogeneity to the several services, regiments and ranks. Although in See also:ancient See also:history we occasionally meet with uniformed soldiers, such as the See also: The beginnings of uniform are therefore to be found in truly See also:national armies, in the Indelta of Gustavus, and the See also:English armies of the See also:Great See also:Rebellion. In the earlier years of the latter, though the richer colonels uniformed their men (as, for instance, the See also:marquess of See also:Newcastle's " Whitecoats " and the See also: The colonels there uniforming their men as they saw See also:fit, had by tacit consent, probably to obtain " wholesale " prices, agreed upon a service-able colour (See also:pearl grey), and when in 1707 See also:Prince See also:Eugene procured the issue of uniform regulations, few line regiments had to be reclothed. The preferences of the colonel were exhibited in the colour of the facings (Plate I., line 1, fig. 3). In France, as in See also:England and Austria, the cavalry, as yet rather led by the wealthy classes than officered by the professional, was not uniformed upon an army system until after the infantry. But in 1688 six-sevenths of the See also:French cavalry was uniformed in See also:light grey with red facings; and about See also:half the See also:dragoon regiments had red uniforms and See also:blue facings. See also:Louvois, in creating a standing army, had introduced an infantry uniform as a necessary consequence. The native French regiments had light grey coats, the Swiss red, the See also:German See also:black and the See also:Italian blue, with various facings. The French grey was probably decided upon, like the See also:Austrian grey, as being a See also:good " service " colour, which could be cheaply manufactured (Plate I., line I, fig. I). Both these greys, however, refined themselves in course of time into white. The hat and the long coat and breeches remained the uniform of line infantry almost everywhere up to the See also:advent of the shako and the coatee about 1790-182o. The See also:gradual See also:evolution of these two garments, from the comfortable civilian clothes of 1690 to the stiff, precise military garments of 1790, can be traced in a few words. The brim of the See also:felt hat was first looped up on one See also:side for convenience, then, for See also:appearance' See also:sake, on the other, and so became the three-cornered cocked hat, fringed with feathers, See also:lace or See also:braid, of See also:Marlborough's wars.' Then came the See also:fashion of looping up before and behind, which produced the hat called the " Khevenhiiller," or the See also:broadside-on cocked hat. Lastly, came the purely decorative, lace-looped " fore-and-aft " See also:pattern, as worn in many states to-day. But before this came into See also:vogue the cocked hat had practically disappeared from the ordinary ranks of all armies. It may be said that so long as the cocked hat survived in its See also:simple, See also:rank-and-See also:file form, uniforms retained much of their looseness. Though the long skirts that rendered great coats unnecessary were looped back, and the ample cuffs of Marlborough's time were becoming narrower until they were at last sewn down to the See also:sleeve, yet the military costume was in all essentials the See also:civil costume of the time—long coat, hat, sleeved waistcoat, breeches and gaiters. But other influences were at See also:work. The See also:principal was the introduction into armies of See also:Slavonic irregulars, which tended to restrict line infantry and cavalry to See also:parade See also:drill and to pitched battles in parade See also:order. This, and their See also:complete separation from the civil See also:population, stiffened their costume until it became " soldierly." See also:Frederick the Great, indeed, could not have See also:developed the infantry See also:fire See also:power that he needed if his soldiers had had tight sleeves, but in his old See also:age the evil of sacrificing comfort to smartness attained a height which, except in the 1820-1840 See also:period, was never surpassed. The figure of a Prussian See also:fusilier, Plate I. line 1, No. 7 (in which by See also:mistake a slung sword is shown) shows this See also:process beginning. The stock has made its appearance, soon to stiffen into a See also:cloth See also:collar, under which, as if it were not already tight enough, another stock in due course came to be worn. The flapped cuffs, shown in the See also:British figure No. 5, have become See also:plain See also:round cuffs, above which are See also:embroidery stripes and buttons which at one time laced the flaps of the See also:cuff together and now survive as the " guard-stripe." This may be called the first instance of the dummy adornments, which are so marked in modern full-dress uniforms. Similarly the former cloth turnback on the front of the coat has even in 1756 been cut off, the buttons and embroidered loops that retained it being kept as decorations.
Many of these specially military adornments were borrowed from the national costumes of the irregulars themselves. Their See also:head-See also:gear in particular drove out the cocked hat. The See also:grenadier cap, now a towering bearskin, was its first successful See also:rival, the shako the next. The grenadier cap was, in the first in-stance, a limp conical cap (identical with the See also:hussar cap), edged with See also:fur and having a tassel at the end. Soon the fur became more prominent in the front, and the tail disappeared. Then the cloth See also:mitre-cap (Plate I., line 1, fig. 6) appeared. This was originally a See also: As See also:early as 1755, as the Prussian figure shows, a conical leather cap with a large See also:brass plate in front had come into existence. This held its ground for some time, and the grenadier cap of to-day in See also:Russia and See also:Prussia is a See also:metal copy of the mitre field-service cap itself. A curious derivative of the See also:low fur cap with a See also:peak in front and a bag-tail behind worn by some 17th- and 18th-century grenadiers is the head-dress of the Russian See also:horse-grenadiers. ' In the cavalry an See also:iron-framed See also:skull-cap was often worn under the cocked hat. The peak has become the helmet, the fur a " sausage across the cap from ear to ear, and the back See also:part of the helmet is covered by the bag-tail. The Hungarian hussars introduced the jacket and the See also:busby. The latter was originally a conical cap with fur edge, but the fur became higher until there was nothing left of the cap but the ornamental " busby-bag " of to-day. It would appear also as if the hussars brought the shako to western See also:Europe. This is a conical, See also:bell-topped, or cylindrical head-dress of stiff material, commonly leather. Its prototype, the tall cylindrical cap of the 18th-century hussars, was tilted on one side and See also:wound round with a very narrow bag-tail, the last few inches of which, adorned with a tassel, hung down. But the shako itself succeeded, as nothing else succeeded, in being accepted by line infantry and cavalry, and after passing through numerous forms it remains in every army to-day, either as a low rigid cap (See also:Germany, England and Austria), a stiffened or limp kepi (France and See also:Italy), or the See also:flat-topped peaked cap which is the most See also:common military head-dress of modern Europe. All these adjuncts came in the first place from the national costume of imported auxiliaries. So also did the lancer cap, which, originally the See also:Polish czapka, was a cylindrical cap, the upper part of which could be pushed up or down after the fashion of a See also:bellows or See also:accordion, with a square See also:top. The original form is seen in Plate I., line 2, fig. 4, and the stiffened development'of it in Plate I., line 3, fig. 1. The British lancer cap (Plate II., line 1, No. 2) has still a full See also:middle portion, but in Austria and Germany this has dwindled to a very narrow See also:neck (Plate IL, line 3, No. 6; Plate IV., line 1, No. 7). The line infantry and cavalry coat, full-skirted in the first instance, retained its original length until about 178o, but from that time onwards (probably in most cases in the interests of the colonel's See also:pocket) it becomes, little by little, shorter and scantier (Plate I., line 2, Nos. 2, 3, and 5), until at last it is a " coatee," not as long as the present-day tunic (Plate I., line 2, Nos. 6 and 8), or a See also:swallow-tailed coat (Plate I., line 3, See also:figs. 1-3). This, of course, did away with the See also:protection afforded by the full skirt, and necessitated the introduction of the great coat, which even to-day in some cases is worn, without the tunic, over the " vest " that represents the sleeved See also:waist-coat (Plate II., line 2, No. 3), formerly worn under the long skirted coat. The white breeches and gaiters, retained to the last, gradually gave way to See also:trousers and See also:ankle boots in 1800-1820. Meanwhile another form of head-dress, which was purely military and owed nothing to See also:Poland or See also:Hungary, came into vogue. This was the helmet, which had disappeared from the infantry about 1650-1670, and the cavalry See also:thirty years after-wards. It took two forms, both of which possessed some of the characteristics of ancient See also:Greek and See also:Roman helmets. These were a small helmet with sausage-shaped See also:ornament from front to back, worn chiefly by British light dragoons and See also:artillery (Plate I., line 2, fig. 7), and the towering crested helmet worn by the French, British and Austrians. The French See also:cuirassiers and dragoons (Plate I., line 2, No. 3) had, and still have, long horse-See also:hair tails dependent from the See also:crest. The Austrian infantry helmet, worn with the white coat, similar to, but smaller than, that shown in Plate II., line 2, No. 5, had no ornament, but the British heavy cavalry helmet (Plate I., line 2, No. 8) resembled that of the French. To-day, besides the French, the Austrian dragoons and Italian heavy cavalry have this form of helmet (Plate II., line 3, No. I, and Plate IV., line 2, No. 8). It has been said above that the coatee and the shako are the principal novelties in See also:European military costumes of See also:Napoleon's time. To these should be added the replacement of the gaitered breeches by trousers, and the See also:adoption of hussar and lancer uniforms of ever-growing sumptuousness, in which the comfort that had originally belonged to these national irregular costumes was entirely sacrificed. After See also:Waterloo, indeed, all traces of the old-fashioned coat disappeared, and, except for the doubtful gain of tight-fitting " overalls," the soldier was more showy and worse off in comfort and convenience than ever before or since. One or two examples may be quoted. In See also:George IV.'s time the coatees of the lifeguards were so tight that the men were unable to perform their sword exercise, and their crested helmet, surmounted by a " sausage " ornament, was so high that the sword could not be raised for a downward See also:blow. The See also:total height of the lancer cap with its plume (Plate I., line 3, No. I) was about an See also:arm's length, and prints exist showing British lancers in a cap of which the square top is very nearly as broad as the wearer's shoulders. The hussar furred See also:pelisse, originally worn over a jacket (Plate I., line 1, fig. 4), and so worn by the Austrians to-day, had become a magnificently embroidered and laced garment, always slung and never worn, and the old plain under-jacket had been loaded with buttons and lace, and differed from the pelisse only in the absence of fur. It was the Restoration era, too, that delighted to decorate uniforms with sewn-down imitations of the skirt pockets, turn-back cuffs, &c., of the old coat. This was, in See also:short, the See also:epoch of pure dandyism, and although some of its wilder extravagances were abolished between 1830 and 1850, enough still remained when the British army took the field in the See also:Crimea to bring about a sudden and violent reaction, in which the slovenliest dress was accounted the best. The dress regulations of 1855 introduced the low " See also:Albert " shako and the tunic, abolished the See also:epaulette—an ornament which had grown in the 18th century out of a See also:shoulder See also:cord that kept the belts in place and was decorated at the See also:outer end with a few loose strands or tassels of embroidery—and made other changes which, without bringing back uniform to its original roominess and comfort, destroyed not only the dandyism of George IV.'s time, but also the chastened finery of the Early Victorian uniforms (Plate I., line 3, No. 7). The tunic, accompanied by a spiked helmet of See also:burgonet shape, had been introduced in Prussia and Russia about 1835. Russia was too poor to allow extravagance in dress, and Russians, clothed as they generally were in their great coats, had little incentive to aim at futile splendour. Both countries, however, and France and Austria likewise, passed through a period of tight, if unadorned, uniforms, before See also:Algeria, Italy, and similar experiences brought about the See also:abandonment of the swallow-tailed coatee. The French adopted the tunic in 1853, the Austrians in 1856, and in both countries the shako became smaller and lighter. From about 1880, when the spiked helmet replaced the low shako in England, no See also:radical changes were madein full dress uniforms, except that the Russian army, abandoning the German pattern uniforms formerly in vogue, adopted a national uniform which is simple, roomy, and exceedingly plain, even in full dress. In 1906-1909, however, this See also:attempt to combine handsomeness and comfort was given up, full dresses being made more decorative, and light green-grey service dresses being introduced. Lastly, since the See also:South See also:African War and the development of infantry fire, the attempt to wear full dress uniform on active service has been practically given up. Great See also:Britain first of all adopted the Indian khaki, and then a drab mixture for " service dress " and returned, after 150 years, to the civilian See also:style of field dress, adopting the " See also:Norfolk jacket " or See also:shooting coat with See also:spinal pleat and roomy pockets. Germany, Italy, the See also:United States and other countries have followed suit, though each has chosen its own shade, and the shades vary from light grey blue in Italy to deep See also:olive drab in the United States. The details of the present-day uniforms in the principal states are given below. It might be stated, as a See also:summary of modern uniforms, that Great Britain has most completely divorced service and full dress, and that in consequence her full dress is handsomer and her service dress plainer than those of any other See also:country. Whether, for European war at any See also:rate, the obliteration of regimental distinctions has not been carried too far, is open to question. The method adopted for the Italian infantry would seem to give enough means of See also:identification, without in-creasing visibility, and as this method was used by the British in the South African War, it will probably be revived in future wars. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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