Facing colour engineers and support corps normally had a single branch colour, although exceptionally each regiment of Swedish artillery had its own facing colour until 1910. The United States regular army after the American Civil War adopted a universal dark and light blue uniform under which each regiment was distinguished only by numbers and other insignia, plus branch colors. The latter were yellow for Cavalry, red for Artillery and white (later light blue) for infantry. Combinations of colors such as scarlet piped with white for Engineers, orange piped with white for the Signal Corps and black piped with scarlet for Ordnance personnel
Unit Colour Patch was assigned a colour and the Brigade HQ colour patches were the Divisional shape in the Brigade colour. Each Battalion in each Brigade was then assigned a colour, and the patch was split horizontally with the Battalion colour across the top of the field and the Brigade across the bottom of the field. Light Horse, Artillery, Engineer and Medical units were also allocated colour patches. Light Horse patches were divided diagonally. In total over 300 individual patches were authorized during the war. Military Order 206/21 in 1921 authorised the use of Unit Colour Patches for the Citizen Military Forces (CMF),