Army insignia of rank for enlisted soldiers above the grade of private was generally the chevron-a "V"-shaped piece of cloth or braid, typically worn on the sleeve. In 1808 also the infantry NCOs switched back to their former white epaulets as did the newly raised light dragoons (whose remaining men and officers were folded into the Corps of Artillery, in 1815)., SNCOs wore two worsted epaulettes with crescent, sergeants had two plain worsted epaulettes, while corporals wore one epaulette on the right shoulder. In reality, the artillery NCOs ignored the order of 1799 and maintained their yellow epaulets, as did a company of bombardiers, sappers, and miners recruited during the War of 1812. Shortly after, in the year 1800, the color of the epaulets was changed to yellow, for chief musicians in to blue. Chief musicians were identified by two white epaulets. In 1799, red worsted epaulets were prescribed for all NCOs in all branches: SNCOs on both shoulders, sergeants on the right shoulder, corporals on the left. The sergeant major insignia included a brass half-crescent placed on the skirt of the epaulet. At that time the federal mounted force of two troops of dragoons existed only on paper and never got beyond the planning stage (see above). In the same year, the epaulets' color of cavalry NCOs officially changed from blue to white. Both units amalgamated in 1792 with the Legion of the United States, including artillery and dragoons (the first federal mounted force since the discharge of the Continental Light Dragoons in 1783), that then transformed into the US Army in 1796.įrom 1787, SNCOs wore silk epaulets, sergeants two worsted and corporals one worsted. In 1791, the Second Regiment of Infantry was raised and organized as the First Regiment. In October 1786 by approval of Congress, this force should expand to a Legionary Corps of additional infantry, rifle troops, artillery, and dragoons. In August 1784, the 700 men strong First American Regiment (including two companies of artillery) was organized as kind of an army substitute. For a few weeks, only 55 artillerymen at West Point and 25 men at Fort Pitt were to remain. In practice it seems the prescribed blue epaulettes for cavalry NCO never came in wide use while the wearing of white epaulettes prevailed.īy 1783/84, the Continental Army was discharged. The color was white (infantry), yellow (artillery), or blue (cavalry). In 1779, sergeants were authorized two silk epaulets, corporals one worsted to wear on the right shoulder. From May 1778, the newly created ranks of SNCOs (i.e., sergeants major, quartermaster sergeants, drum majors, and fife majors) wore a red epaulette on each shoulder. See also: Continental Army § Rank insigniaįrom the creation of the United States Army to 1821, non-commissioned officer (NCO) and staff non-commissioned officer (SNCO) rank was distinguished by the wearing of usually worsted epaulets.įrom 1775 to 1779, sergeants and corporals wore one epaulet on the right shoulder, corporals of green color, sergeants of red color. Around the turn of the 20th century, point-up wear of chevrons returned and has remained so. The use of chevrons came into being in 1821, with the orientation changing over time from point-down to point-up and back again, to the point-down orientation seen in the American Civil War. Army enlisted rank was indicated by colored epaulets. A first sergeant can revert to master sergeant upon leaving assignment. ³ First sergeant is considered a temporary and lateral rank and is senior to master sergeant.
This is a holdover from when there were additional specialist ranks at pay grades E-5 to E-7.
² SP4 is sometimes encountered as an abbreviation for specialist instead of SPC. ¹ PVT is also used as an abbreviation for both private ranks when pay grade need not be distinguished.