Accounts of the time usually refer to British soldiers as " Regulars " or " the King 's men " , however , there is evidence of the term " red coats " being used informally , as a colloquial expression . During the Siege of Boston , on 4 January 1776 , General George Washington uses the term " red coats " in a letter to Joseph Reed . In an earlier letter dated 13 October 1775 , Washington used a variation of the expression , stating , " whenever the Redcoat gentry pleases to step out of their Intrenchments . " Major General John Stark of the Continental Army was purported to have said during the Battle of Bennington ( 16 August 1777 ) , " There are your enemies , the Red Coats and the Tories . They are ours , or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow ! " Other pejorative nicknames for British soldiers included " bloody backs " ( in a reference to both the colour of their coats and the use of flogging as a means of punishment for military offences ) and " lobsters " ( most notably in Boston around the time of the Boston Massacre , The earliest reference to the association with the lobster appears in 1740 , just before the French and Indian War )
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
Red coat (military uniform)