Were the colors to distinguish forces on the battle field?
So, yes, the uniform colors were originally to know what side you are own, but many nations who were enemies carried the same uniform. Famous is the case where the highlanders fired upon Belgian light dragoons at quatre-bras (because their uniform was so much like the French chasseur-au-cheval) but many more cases are known. Another reason (and a reason many nations chose blue) was to simply be able to SEE the men around you.
Smoke covered up the battle after a while, and dark blue/black is one of the few colours you are still capable of spotting. It's for that reason most of the artillery-corpses had blue.
And for those extravagant ones...There's no real reason. People just went a little bit too far, I suppose.

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