Rifle Brigade parading in the Crimea, 1855

Watercolour, artist unknown, 1855.

By the spring of 1855 the British soldier barely resembled the troops who had gone to war a year previously. The men of the Rifle Brigade depicted here - although they retain their rifle green jackets - wear trousers various shades of khaki. Their Albert shakos or caps have long since been discarded and consequently, even on parade, they wear their soft Kilmarnock forage caps.