Uniforms Which color of uniforms were better camouflage, gray or blue?

Masked batteries were common in river attacks.
Good point - I should have clarified that I was referring to land battles. First Bull Run involved some wild reports of masked batteries, for example. There were positions where a battery could take advantage of a crest and still have what it needed but not that often.
 
Good point - I should have clarified that I was referring to land battles. First Bull Run involved some wild reports of masked batteries, for example. There were positions where a battery could take advantage of a crest and still have what it needed but not that often.
A fully deployed battery of light artillery had a foot print about the size of a football field. Not that easy to hide.
 
Indeed it was eteched onto my brain and on my sausage bag.

2472---- You can tell by the first four digits what year I joined.
Mine...2453..couldn’t leave camp or return without reciting my number to the regimental police, I hated those guys especially when I was put on Restricted privileges for some misdemeanour, normally something stupid like dirty putties or boots not bulled enough. I mean, what kind of sadist becomes a regimental policeman. Being on RP’s meant being on dress parade, that hurt when everyone else was down at the NAAFI. In one night myself and others had to repeatedly change from barrack dress to number twos and then into full combats with webbing and weapon in good order. It sucked but I never forgot my number.
 
One color to avoid was white; these examples mostly from Gettysburg:

-Some soldier gave me a white straw hat, but as we charged through the Wheatfield against Little Round Top, it was too conspicuous, and I sailed it far up in the air. (Two Boys in the Civil War and After, W. R. Houghton, 2nd Georgia and M. B. Houghton, 15th Alabama, Montgomery, AL: The Paragon Press, 1912)

-I fired that day [July 3] many times at an officer in a white shirt serving the cannon [on Little Round Top]. (Two Boys in the Civil War and After, W. R. Houghton, 2nd Georgia and M. B. Houghton, 15th Alabama, Montgomery, AL: The Paragon Press, 1912)

-My dear friend, L. B. Bonnard, went into the fight [July 1] wearing a three-story white silk hat, and he was shot to death on the picket line; he did not get into the general engagement. (A Private in Gray, by Thomas Benton Reed, Company A, 9th Louisiana)

-A white horse was deemed too conspicuous to take into battle. (The University Memorial, Biographical Sketches, alumni of University of Virginia, p. 567)

-Col. William Burns mounted on his conspicuous old white horse … escaped the bullets miraculously on July 2. (Frank Moran, 73rd New York)

-Colonel Sherrill led a charge of the brigade mounted on a white horse, against the entreaties of all his officers. He was shot through the body and lived three hours, dying in hospital, with none of his men around him. (Captain Brough, Geneva Gazette, July 10, 1863, Newspaper Clippings, New York Military Museum)
 
A fully deployed battery of light artillery had a foot print about the size of a football field. Not that easy to hide.
When I've done presentations, I've actually used the spread from one goal line to the opponent's 20 yard line, and pretty much one sideline to the other. And that's using the "prescribed" distances in the Field Artillery Instructions. In practice it could be even larger. Good luck concealing that.
 
When I've done presentations, I've actually used the spread from one goal line to the opponent's 20 yard line, and pretty much one sideline to the other. And that's using the "prescribed" distances in the Field Artillery Instructions. In practice it could be even larger. Good luck concealing that.
Not to mention the giant cloud of smoke after the first discharge.
 
I have seen World War One studies that show light blue, and gray were about equal in their camouflage abilities with brown, khaki, and blue having about the same camouflage abilities.

I am not being smart, but is your view based on opinion or military studies?
The reason that many European militaries opted for versions of gray--"feldgrau" is actually rather green and the old Austro-Hungarian "pike gray" was rather blue--while Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, once-upon-a-time Denmark, Portugal, once-upon-a-time Romania all had gray uniforms of one or another shade of gray because the human eye is actually less capable of "seeing" certain grays... So gray occurs in nature, and of course, it resembles fog or even black powder cannon smoke... So clearly it is a better color if "camouflage" was sought.

In the American Civil War, and for the entire 19th century for the most part, the idea was to distinguish one's soldiers from those of the enemy, and to impart a military "pride" or "esprit de corps" where possible. So the "muscular bonding" of close order drill and the idea of being part of the "weapon system" of linear tactics and firing volleys, or by files or ranks or whatever was part and parcel of the selection of color for the uniform. As a corollary, the enemy's uniform became a source of derision and scorn: Hence "blue coats" or "blue bellies" versus "butternuts" or "gray backs" as pejoratives. Gray was cheaper to make. The gray uniform in U.S. practice famously arose due to shortages of blue dye to make the national uniform: blue coat with red collars, cuffs and/or facings. In the American Southeast, fighting against the British and their Native American/ Indian allies in the Creek Civil War, or "Red Stick War" a tail-coat or a shortened tail "coatee" was less practical than a roundabout jacket or simple work jacket. And gray was authorized for fatigue duty, and passed into military use. Over time, blue then became more generally the color of the regular army, while gray often became the "go to" militia color... With many salient exceptions to the "rule" of course!

The British developed khaki in the Raj in India, based on a subcontinent word for "dusty." After going to war against Boer farmers with the scarlet jacket or redcoat of Cromwell's New Model Army, it was then decided to go khaki. The khaki uniform, in turn, influenced a brown fatigue or barn coat tradition in the frontier post-Civil War army, and so khaki was selected for the uniform just ahead of the War with Spain. There were nowhere near enough modern uniforms for the expeditionary force to Cuba and later Puerto Rico and the Philippines of course, so the volunteers often wore blue. When the USMC landed at Guantanamo in 1898, led by officers with some Civil War experiences in several instances, they had a khaki campaign uniform, but there were nowhere near enough campaign hats. Many had to make due to the dark blue round hat suitable for parade ground use stateside or aboard ship... And in the heat, as you might expect, cases of heat exhaustion and sun stroke were many.

In the 19th century, many nations that had bright uniforms, or used the color blue also had a drab or gray overcoat? Mexico comes to mind, with bright blue Napoleonic uniforms but a gray blanket coat. That nations' cazadores or jaeger troops wore gray uniforms. In fact, rifle armed skirmisher troops were perhaps the forerunners of modern preoccupations with "blending in" since their clothing was often derived from that of traditional hunting ensembles, from the North American "rifleman's shirt" or frock to the German and scandinavian jaeger/hunter, or even the tweedy and green British shotgunner. Also the Russian army, green uniforms, had a gray greatcoat that the soldier was expected to use as a blanket while sleeping in the rough...
 
Thank you. I am trying to remember where I seen this subject discussed from a detailed study. If I am remembering right it was from the World War One era with Austrian green gray, French horizon blue, German field gray, and British dark khaki being about the same. Blue, light gray, light khaki, and blue were not as good of color for camouflage. This of course was dependent area, smoke, mist, and other factors.
The French had envisioned putting dyes in the national colors--red, white, blue--all together and dying their uniforms with that. The result was apparently a purplish brown. The story goes that the modern red aniline dyes emanated from Germany, so that wouldn't do... leaving just blue and white... Voila! "Horizon bleu."

I tend to think of the Italian uniform of the early 20th century being mighty green, but it was described as "gray green."
 
Colonel Hiram Berdan of Berdan's Sharpshooters wrote on July 20th, 1861 that blue uniforms would have been "...too conspicuous in the field. The green-ness would better correspond in the leafy season with the colors of the foliage...." That September, a New York newspaper described the departure of two companies of the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters (companies A and B), commenting that "the uniform colors are to accord with the colors of nature, as much as possible, and intended to be worn in the summer. In winter the uniform would consist entirely of a gray pattern."

This deliberate attempt at camouflage was successful in implementation but impractical in the field at times during the war. Green caps, frock coats, and trousers were continually issued to the USSS, but also with dark blue flannel sack coats and sky blue trousers when green clothing was not available (in the case of the frocks, there was a surplus but the sharpshooters were typically ordered to draw blouses in the spring/summer months, storing their green coats in Washington).

The gray "winter" uniforms were indeed issued. Some early companies received gray wool or "drab" twill linen pants. In the winter of 1861, both regiments received gray wool felt seamless overcoats and matching "Whipple" caps. Like other Federal regiments early in the war, Berdan's Sharpshooters learned that gray was not the best color to wear in the field. They turned in any remaining gray overcoats and caps on April 5th, 1862, never to wear them again.
 
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