 These original stripes were buff white to match changes to the uniform jacket, but when the jacket was changed back to dark blue with red trim in 1839, the stripes remained, but altered to a similar blue edged in red.A U.S.Naval Institute history of USMC uniforms records that orders issued in January 1840 provided that officers and non commissioned officers were to wear a scarlet stripe down the outside seam of their blue trousers.