18th Century Artillery and Wagon Colours

Continental Artillery at Williamsburg Virginia

Continental Artillery drilling at Williamsburg, Virginia. American artillery of the Revolutionary War, 1775 to 1783, initially used outdated artillery pieces with iron barrels and some captured British guns with lighter bronze barrels. The wooden parts of gun carriages were painted red, green, yellow, or blue, or only varnished to protect the wood. The colour of artillery carriages apparently depended on the availability of suitable paints and stains. In later years, France supplied artillery pieces which were already painted French artillery green, a medium olive green mixed from ochre and black.

Artillery and Wagon Colour Table
Country	Year	Wood	Metal
Austria		Ochre	Black
Bavaria		Bluegrey	Black
	1760	Red	Black
	Covered ammunition wagons of the Bavarian army were painted red.
Denmark	1708	red	yellow
Denmark	Danish bronze guns and mortars were painted red with yellow metal fittings, and black wheel rims.
Franconia		Red?	Black?
Franconia	Covered ammunition wagons of the Franconian Circle were painted red.
France		Light gray	Dark gray
		Red	Black
		Blue with fleurs de lis	Black
	Until the introduction of the olive green artillery colour, French guns and wagons were painted in a variety of colours.
Great Britain		Medium blue	Black
Hesse-Darmstadt		Medium blue	Black
Hanover		Red	Black
Prussia		Medium blue	Black
Russia		Apple green	Black or unpainted
Saxony		Black	Yellow
Saxony		Dark green	Black
Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg	ca. 1800	green and white striped gun carriage, unpainted wooden wheels	black
Württemberg		Yellow	Black
Würzburg		red	black

Iron gun barrels were usually painted black to protect them from rust. Bronce gun barrel only needed to be cleaned and polished. Civilian farm wagons and covered wagons were often left unpainted, stained brown, or just varnished to protect the wood.

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