"British Battalions – How many flags?" Topic

Shane

Just picked up on this. Your campaign sounds superb. Although I'm happy with the rules I use yours sound very interesting. Do you have any plans to publish one day?

best
Timmo

Mike.
I assume, one colour per wing. At buenos airies this appears to be the case. The 45th wings seemed to fly one each, the regimental colour being flown over the buildings they secured (which unlike the many other British units they were still in posetion of at the battles close)

hi Timmo,

I will one day, but life in general keeps slowing me down, I have many interests and on top of that I have a wife and kids so that pretty much grinds things to a halt. I would love to quit work and push things along but that will not happen in a hurry so its pretty much, steady as she goes atm.

Thanks for your interest.

Shane

Shane,

Unfortunately, I no longer have much in the way of Napoleonic books and this is the only other reference I could find to British battalions operating as wings:-

link

I can tell you that it was common practice during the AWI, as was the practice of manoeuvering and firing by grand divisions. This was because of the more "cluttered" nature of many AWI battlefields, particularly due to the preponderance of the dry stone walls and/or rail fences that were unique to North America at that time. In part, this had come from the F&I War actions in the forests of the western and northern region of the Colonies. Whilst it is the received wisdom that many of the "skills" of the AWI were lost after 1783, I would contest that, and at regimental level at least, certain practices would have continued as long as there were officers still present who had operated with them.

Edwulf,

The normal practice when part of a battalion was detached, was to retain the colours with the largest portion, or for them to remain with the CO (whichever part he was with). However, when a unit was part of a storming party, the regimental colour was often taken along to "plant" on the objective as a signal to those controllikng the attack that it had been captured. This may have been what happened in Buenos Aires.

Supercilius,

Thank you indeed for the link, this goes a long way vindicating to some extent my own opinions on this. I do allow part btlns to act independently at times by company(s) which is essentially what is happening here.

Thank you,
Shane

Found a bit of evidence for my own question – Siborne Waterloo Letter 151 Capt. Mounsteven.

The Captain was only an Ensign at waterloo of the 28th Ft. After repulsing one of the French columns of D'Erlons corp he writes "In advancing in pursuit of them [the French] the wings of the regiment separated, and I, carrying the King's Colour went on with the right wing".

ahh, nice, this gives a good indication that one flag went left and one flag went right.

Not Napoleonic, but Sgt Roger Lamb recalls in his memoirs carrying the King's Colour of the 23rd Foot at Camden, in 1780, in his "usual position, in the centre of the right wing" (quote is from memory, so may not be word perfect).