Blue Coat

Our beer, like our history, is well worth remembering™

Orders issued from Headquarters at Moore's House October 2, 1779, specified uniforms that were intended to make the various units easy to identify. Everyone was to have a blue coat and a tricorn hat. All but the artillery units and officers had white linings and white buttons.

• New England regiments (NH, Mass., RI, and Conn.) had white facings.
• North Atlantic regiments (NY and NJ) were to have buff facings.
• Middle Atlantic regiments (Penn., Del., Mary., and Virg.) were to have red facings.
• South Atlantic regiments (NC, SC, and Georg.) were to have lighter blue facings and button holes edged with narrow white lace or tape.

The Artillery regiments were generally drawn from several states and were more elegantly dressed. Their blue coats were to have scarlet facings and scarlet linings. Their hats were to be bound with yellow and both their coats and button holes edged with narrow white lace or tape. Musicians wore the colors of their regiment but with the coat and facing colors reversed, so that a Massachusetts drummer would have a white coat with blue facing.

Orders issued from Headquarters at Short Hills on June 18, 1780, provided distinguishing features on hats and shoulders to make the ranks of officers easy to identify. It also specified uniforms for several new types of units. All officers (warrant as well as commissioned) were to wear a cockade (a knot of ribbon on the hat) and a sword or “genteel" bayonet.

• Major Generals were to have blue coats with buff facings and linings, yellow buttons, white or buff underclothes, two epaulets, with two stars on each, and a black and white feather in his hat.
• Brigadier Generals were dressed as a major general but with only one star (not two) and a white feather (not black and white).
• Colonels, Lieuteant Colonels, and Majors were to wear the uniforms of their regiment with two epaulets.