I don't recall what you are specifically talking about in the movie, but I can make the following points:
1) To the best of my knowledge, no "foreign" units fought in the land battles of the Civil War. Every unit, north and south, was American. The south did use foreign crews on some of their commerce raiders.
2) Especially at the beginning of the war, there was no uniformity when it came to uniforms. Union troops wore grey, southern troops wore blue, and there were a variety of other colors and variations in between on both sides. What you are describing does sound a bit like zouaves, which is a uniform style that originated in France but was also popular in the armies of both sides during the Civil War. Although the exact uniform varied from unit to unit, zouaves were always colorful and usually wore bright red pants and blue coats with red trim.
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