What were uniforms for the American Civil War?

Answer 1

Primarily there were two colored Uniforms: Dark Blue and Gray. Where as the Union typically wore Dark blue and the Confederates wore gray.

However every now and there there would be many units in the Civil War who would dash up a rainbow of diverse colored uniforms.

The Confederates didn't have as many surpluses of uniforms as the Union did. In the 1st Battle of BullRun many Confederates actually wore the same kind of Dark Blue coats like their Union brethren. Thomas Jackson still had on his typical blue military suit on!

As time went on the Confederates used the standard color of gray. For the most part Confederates wanted a gray coat with light blue trousers. However as mentioned before they only had so many resources so the confederates ended up wearing whatever they could get. Many times, confederates actually wore the color Brown or Butternut Brown as it was called. The caps they wore eventually got replaced in many cases by wide brimmed hats for better protection against the sun. In one instance a brigade called the LA Tigers wore a French like uniform.

So if you were a Union soldier firing on a Confederate line circa 1863, you would most likely have saw a wide variety of gray coats, brown coats, home made coats, gray forage caps, farmers hats, and wide brimmed hats.

Like their Confederate counterparts the Union also wore a variety at times. For the most part the Union wore dark blue coats, light blue trousers, and black forage cap. Every now and then some Union brigades had on the French style Zouave uniform. This would consist of Red or Blue baggy pants, white shin wraps, and Red caps.

A famous hard fighting Union brigade called the Iron Brigade wore tall black top hats. Their hats might have had a feather in the side with one brim turned upwards.

An elite Union regiment of Sharpshooters wore the color green. As you would have guessed this gave these men excellent camouflage for that era.

Even cultural regiments fighting for the Union had their own type of flare. A Scottish American regiment wore Tartan colored pants.

Of course for both sides different branches and types of service had their own uniforms as well.

The U.S. Marines had Blue coats, white pants, and white straps across their chest.

The Artillery for both sides wore red bands across their caps and waist.