Civil War Uniform Colors

When we think of Civil War uniforms we think of Union blue and Confederate gray, but when you take the time to look into history you'll see that along with the basic blue and gray Civil War uniform colors, branch colors were used to create a distinction among the ranks.

American Civil War Union Infantry Colors

The first distinction drawn by color among Civil War uniforms is the blue of the North and the gray of the southern Confederate troops. However, this wasn't so clear cut at the start of the war. That's because when the war began, the soldier's uniforms were provided by the states or towns from which they came. Some soldiers even wore uniforms reflecting their native country. No one expected the war to last very long, and soldiers showed up to serve in a variety of styles and colors for both sides. Over the course of the war, blue became the "official" color for the North and gray for the South.

Union Civil War uniform colors included branch of service distinctions that were put into place long before the war started. In 1851, uniform regulations were drawn up and branch colors became regulation. Before these regulations were initiated, the army basically had two colors to designate different branches of service: white/silver for infantry and yellow/gold for all other branches.

The 1851 uniform regulations initiated the use of more colors, and years later the Civil War brought the need for more colors as new branches of service came into existence. Colors were used to designate a branch and, also at times, were used to show that the soldier served in a specific capacity. These colors could be seen on the uniform shoulder straps, sashes and trouser welts of officers, and for the enlisted men of the Union army these colors were found on:

• Welt on collar
• Hat cord
• Chevron
• NCO pant stripe

• Infantry – shoulder straps were sky blue and trouser welts dark blue
• Artillery – shoulder straps and trouser welts were scarlet
• Cavalry – shoulder straps and trouser welts were yellow
• Medical – shoulder straps were dark blue and trouser welts gold
• Ordinance – shoulder straps were dark blue and they wore no trouser welts

• Infantry – welt on the collar and cording on the hat were sky blue and pant stripes were dark blue
• Artillery – welt on the collar, hat cording and stripe on pants all scarlet
• Cavalry – welt on the collar, hat cording and stripe on pants all yellow
• Engineers – welt on the collar, hat cording and stripe on pants all crimson
• Hospital steward – welt on collar was crimson, hat cording was buff or green and stripe on pants was crimson

Confederate officers wore insignias on their collars to designate rank. The background color of the collar indicated the branch of service in which they served:

• Light blue – Infantry
• Yellow – Cavalry
• Red – Artillery
• Black -- Medical or militia
• Buff -- Staff and all generals

Along with uniform colors, other distinctions are evident among Civil War uniforms. For example:

In the Union Infantry, the officers and enlisted men wore dark blue frock coats that hung to the middle of their thighs. The difference was that high-ranking officers wore double breasted coats while the lower ranked soldiers wore a single breasted coat.

Officers who wore the double breasted frock coats included:

• Majors
• Lieutenant colonels
• Colonels
• Generals

The types of buttons used on Union uniforms also helped to designate rank.

As mentioned earlier, the early war Confederate uniforms included a wide variety of designs. Some of the Confederate units even wore dark blue and were mistaken for the enemy on the battlefield. By 1863, the South started to put a common uniform design into service. These uniforms were quite similar to the Union uniforms and included the frock coat that hung to the middle of the thigh and used buttons to designate rank.

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