"Spanish colonial troops in the caribbean pirate era" Topic

Does anyone know of some uniform references for Spanish troops in the Caribbean? Did they have marines as such or were they simply onboard troops?
I dont even have an idea of what colour the uniforms would be.

Piracy in the Caribbean encompasses quite a few centuries. What specific period?

CC

Good point! Early 1700's would be good.

This is too late then. It is for 1781:

picture

I'll keep looking.

CC

Cheers muchly! I doubt it would be too disimilar. Perhaps with tricorns.

In "Soldados de España" by Jose Maria Bueno he shows the Company of Free Blacks of Havana (1763)with red jackets, blue facings piped white, white lace strips across each buttonhole, black cap with a red cockade on the left side, white "Mamaluke" style pants and buff belts. He shows the White Militia Battalion of Havana (1763) in typical cut Spanish uniforms but with odd colors: yellow coats with black facings and button loops, yellow waistcoat with white button loops and piping, yellow pants, black tricorne with white band, white knee length socks and silver buttons.. The Black Militia of Puerto Rico (1785) has long blue coats with red facings, red waistcoats with white buttonhole lace, white pants, buff leather and a black cap with a red feather on the left side and brass frontplate. Finally, the Black Militia of Santo Domingo (1795) are shown with red coats with no collar and white cuffs, white waistcoats, white pants, buff leather and black brimmed hat with a white band and a red cockade with a white plume on the left side.

Unfortunately, the period you're looking for is a century before my area of interest so that's really all I have in my library. Hope it helps, though.

Wel, this isn't exactly what your looking for, but its not too far off either….

link

For early XVIIIth look for WSS looking figures. You can complement them with Foundry cimarrons to use them as Black auxiliaries.

Reenactors of the 1740 Spanish garrison of St Augustine:
link

The London Warroom makes Spanish militia for ~1740, and the online catalog pictures shows standard era looking coats, red with blue facings.
There is a nice variety in the figures, as one might expect for militia.

I painted up the Spanish colonial troops from St Augustine many years ago (Freikorps 15 French w/o turnbacks, actually) and they've served against both British invaders in 1740 and on board ships against pirates.

Blue coats, red small clothes and facings, droopy moustaches. What more could you want?

Outstanding feedback gentlemen!!!
Much appreciated!

Hi Redcap,

I guess this Californian website could be useful enough (although it deals with some later troops): link

Cheers,
Lluís
Catalonia, Spain

According to Sketchbook #56, vol. IV, Spanish Colonial Infantry 1739-1781, regarding the Companias de la Infantaria de Louisiana, "uniforms worn by the early 1769 -1771 arrivals had the same strong French look of those being worn by those troops that were serving in New Spain…a few changes are worth note: this uniform was also made of cotton. The basic set was a white greatcoat with blue cuffs and collar, white metal buttons. Breeches were blue as was the waistcoat…some may have still been wearing white breeches, white hose, white heavy cotton leggings…some may have had shorter half leggings. The 3/4" wide black ribbon bow ties seem to have been replaced by a white neck stock [sp]. Black leather buckle shoes and black leatherleg ties around the leggings. A narrower silver lace trim for officer's uniforms and narrow white tape for enlisted men's coats, hats, ect."

Hi

Starting with the Bourbon, the spanish increasingly look french.

Sigh, except for the troops I really want, the presidials, the soldat d'cuero. (in 25…yes I still use "25").

Grin.

Rocky

Yeah the Spanish went over to French uniforms during the WSS. So bellyboxes were worn until after the WAS. Now what they wore in the colonies is a good question. I can just picture some of the garrisons at the end of the supply line not really being in uniform and looking more like the local peasants.

Puerto Rico, 1797:

picture

La Habana, Cuba:

link

CC
PS. I won't be home for a few more weeks. However, at home, I have a map/poster of the National Park Services El Morro site (PR) that shows 3-4 of the troops in Spanish garrison in the 1700s.

It has taken a while, but here are some things I've found (a lot of it in Spanish):

picture
picture
picture

link
link
link
link
link

QUESTION:
So, since this topic was first brought up, are there any new 28mm figures that could be used for those troops (the "Regimiento Fijo de Puerto Rico", and the "Milicia Disciplinada de Puerto Rico")?

Thanks.

CC

This is interesting too, about the re-enactment group:
puertorico1797.com

Videos:
link
link

CC
TMP link

The "soldiers" that serve at the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine wear uniforms of blue coats and breeches with red cuffs, lapels, waist coat and stockings. I asked them if that is correct, as I always believed that the Spanish wore white, and they (four together) all agreed that they were what they wore at that time (about 1720), and showed me their ranks – yellow upside-down single chevron for a corporal and yellow lace on the cuffs for the sergeant (how they got promoted, who knows).

There are about 20 of them at the Castillo, and they put on weekend demonstrations of artillery firing (looks like a three-pounder, at best) and musket firing in ranks (5 muskets, plus sergeant), and all are dress in blue. Now the garrison here was drawn from the dregs of Spanish society, so they may not have been uniform to the rest of the Spanish army, but I think they were all designated as Artillery troops at that time. (There were no pirate attacks on this city after the fort was completed, so these uniforms may fall outside of the scope of this also – the last "real" pirate attack was by Robert Searles in 1668. That caused the Spanish to build the fort – they thought he was actually on a reconnaissance raid for the English to the North – they thought that because he did not burn St. Augustine down.)

try this link link

nice illustrations for the spanish navy and marines (starting in 1716) I've never seen the sky blue "casacon de mar " illustrated