The infantry of our own army--the successors of those noble fellows that
walked across Spain--have no better covering for their backs than the
scanty and useless coatee; in this they parade, and in this they are
supposed to fight. Behind, two little timid-looking skirts descend any
thing but gracefully; they are too small to have any grace in them; and
a pair of sham cotton epaulettes, or large unmeaning wings, are
supposed, by a pleasing fiction of the military tailors, to adorn their
shoulders. Now, this garment, we contend, is neither ornamental nor
graceful: were it cut down into the common jacket, it would be better;
were the excrescences at the shoulders removed, it would be more seemly;
it has no warmth in it, and offers little or no protection against the
rain. No soldier, who has been reduced to his coatee in a campaign, but
must have sighed after his original smock-frock, or any other outer
covering that had at least some pretensions to being useful. Since,
however, the idea of defending the body of the foot-soldier by steel or
leather is given up, the two things requisite in a serviceable coat are
warmth and convenience. No coatee nor jacket can be warm enough for the
British service, exposed as the men are to all varieties of climate; and
infinitely more to cold and wet than to sunshine. In India, and in some
of the colonies, a lighter kind of clothing may be indeed necessary; but
for the common use of the army, a coat is wanted that shall be a
protection against wet and cold, and yet not inconvenient to the
wearer--making him comfortable, in fact, while it allows him free use of
all his limbs and muscles. For the heavy infantry, therefore, we would
propose such a coat as we have before recommended for all civilians;
nothing more nor less than a frock-coat, coming down half way along the
thighs, and close buttoned above to the chin. Every body knows that
this is the most comfortable thing he can put on for all kinds of wear;
and the evolutions of a good infantry soldier can be perfectly well gone
through by whoever wears it. The shoulders, if they require external
ornament, should have something that is really useful at the same time;
not merely tinsel or cotton lace; and, therefore, it should be the
adaptation of a thick woollen pad, ornamented with metal or coloured
lace, calculated to take off the pressure of the musket and of the
knapsack-straps from the bones of the neck and arm. Whoever has carried
a musket twelve or fourteen hours continuously, and has had his pack on
at the same time, well knows how comfortable and how really useful such
an addition to his dress would have been. The coat should be furnished
with two small pockets in front, just to hold a knife, some money, and
things of that kind; and they should be close to the circle of pressure
at the waist.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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