Six years of hard campaigning in Spain and Portugal pushed British and French uniforms in opposite directions: one toward practical thrift, the other toward tatters.
Quick answer. The Peninsular War, 1808 to 1814, dressed British soldiers in brick red tunics and shakos and French soldiers in blue habits and bicornes, but relentless marching, poor rations and ruined supply lines meant that the historical reality on both sides was patched grey wool, Portuguese shoes, Spanish bread sacks worn as capes, and a chronic shortage of everything.
The British uniform, as issued
Wellington's infantry was issued the 1812 pattern short tailed red coatee, the belgic shako, grey wool overalls over short gaiters, and a knapsack carrying 60 pounds of kit. Private soldiers of a line regiment wore a short red jacket of coarse wool, with facings in regimental colour on the collar, cuffs and shoulder straps: yellow for the 44th East Essex, dark green for the 24th Warwickshire, buff for the 3rd Buffs.
Officers wore a longer tailed red coat with gold or silver lace, bullion epaulettes, a crimson silk sash and a sword. Riflemen of the 95th wore dark green with black facings and black buttons, a conscious contrast with the line. For a wider look at the officer kit, our British Napoleonic officer piece picks it apart in detail.
The French uniform, as regulation prescribed
The French line infantry wore the dark blue 1812 habit veste, a short tailed coat with white facings on lapel, cuff and turnback, red collar piping and brass buttons. White gaitered breeches, a shako and a greatcoat completed the kit. Light infantry wore the same cut in a slightly different colour palette, with pointed collar lapels and horn insignia.
The 1812 pattern was never universally issued in the Peninsula. Most French soldiers in Spain wore the older 1806 habit long and whatever they could requisition. For context on how the French system developed, our French Napoleonic infantry tailcoats piece sets the scene.
What they actually wore after six months in Spain
Spain destroyed uniforms. Soldiers marched 20 kilometres a day in temperatures ranging from minus five in Castile to plus 40 in Extremadura, over roads that were sheep tracks. Red dyes faded to pink or brown. Blue dyes faded to grey. Shoes disintegrated inside three weeks. By 1811, the standard British soldier in the Peninsula wore a repaired coatee patched with brown or grey, Portuguese sandals or captured French brogans, and a shako with no plate or plume because both had been sold for brandy.
The French had it worse. The British supply chain, run by sea through Lisbon, delivered new coats twice a year. The French chain, run by mule train over the Pyrenees and harassed by guerrillas, delivered essentially nothing. By the time Soult retreated from Spain in 1813, French regiments were marching in Spanish peasant clothes under French regulation shakos.
The Portuguese and Spanish regulars
Wellington's army included Portuguese caçadores (brown jackets with black facings) and line infantry (dark blue coatees, red facings), as well as Spanish regulars in a mixture of pre 1808 and British supplied uniforms. By 1813 some Spanish regiments were wearing complete British 1812 pattern coatees in red, which caused confusion on the field at Vitoria.
The British Caçador pattern, light brown with black trim, is one of the handsomest uniforms of the age and influenced later rifle green standards. For a longer view of the full landscape, see our Napoleonic uniforms complete guide.
Shoes, shakos and the small things
Shoes were the Peninsular soldier's constant obsession. Both armies issued low cut square toed brogans that lasted three weeks of heavy marching. Officers wore Hessian boots or short Wellington boots in private purchase. Shakos on both sides were tall cylindrical caps with a brass plate and a plume; the French had the pokalem shape, the British belgic (front raised peak) from 1812.
Facings told you everything. In the British line, you could identify any regiment at a glance by the facing colour on the collar and cuffs, by the pattern of lace loops on the chest, and by the officer's lace (gold or silver, regimentally fixed since 1768).
Who wore it better
The pictorial record of the Peninsular War comes from Hamilton Smith, Suhr, Dighton and others. Their drawings show British troops in scarlet and French in blue, as regulation prescribed. Memoirs tell a different story: both sides looked like ragged scarecrows most of the time. Wellington once reviewed a battalion of the 50th on the Portuguese frontier and found 300 men barefoot.
By Toulouse in 1814, the war's last pitched battle, both armies had resupplied enough to look respectable, but the collective wear showed. The uniforms that fought the Peninsula were an uneasy compromise between regulation and necessity, between parade ground and farm cart. If you want more on individual Peninsular regiments, our British Napoleonic uniforms piece has further detail.
Common questions
Did British soldiers really wear red in the Peninsula?
Yes, officially. The red faded fast in Iberian sun, so by month three many coats were pink, brown or patched grey.
What colour was the French line infantry?
Dark navy blue habit with white lapels, red collar piping and brass buttons. In practice it faded to light blue or grey.
How often were uniforms replaced?
British: twice a year by sea from Lisbon. French: whenever a convoy survived the guerrillas, which was rarely.
What was the Caçador?
The Portuguese light infantry regiment, dressed in brown with black facings and a stovepipe shako. One of the best looking Napoleonic uniforms.
Did Spanish regulars dress differently?
Yes, but by 1813 some Spanish regiments wore British supplied red coatees, which caused repeated friendly fire at Vitoria.