Military uniforms functioned primarily as a mechanism for controlling desertion.

Evidence

With the new order, finally, efficient means were now available to control desertion, breaking the major technical barrier to the management of large human groups. Soldiers were confined when not at war to the camp or barracks, where they were guarded, drilled, and ‘kept closely to the pitch of discipline’. They were also to be set apart from the civilian community, by their confinement and by the wearing of a uniform dress. … Hence it results, that in a large camp of the new troops, every man will be forced to remain fixed in his company, and steady in the performance of his duty.’ — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 141

Categorization

• CANDY: The reason for uniform dress was not identity or esprit de corps but making deserters identifiable — a crisp, counterintuitive fact.