"Spanish Forces in the Americas" Topic

I'm thinking of pitting My 1812 Americans against the Spanish Empire during the Napoleonic era.
Does anyone know what color uniforms the Spanish wore over here and where most of their forces would have been?

Rudy Nelson, who is a supporting member on here, is very knowledgeable on the Spanish forces in the Americas for the SYW, AWI and Napoleonic periods.

Do you mean South America itself? There were three Vice-Royalties – New Spain, New Granada and Rio de la Plata – all three had small numbers of European troops (about 10% of their forces) with larger numbers of locally raised troops – the numbers were not all that large

If you want a book that might be helpful, try Liberators by John Fletcher

Well, I'm not an expert, but I'd suggest trying to find a copy of Jose Maria Bueno's "Tropas virreynales (1): Nueva Espana, Yucatan y Luisiana".

There's also a good bit of material to be gleaned from this thread, which actually covers more territory than the title suggests:

link

For Florida and the Gulf, yep, Rudy will have a lot of information.

Allen

artifacts.org/Luisiana.htm

This website gives information of the Spanish Infantry Regiment that garrisoned Pensacola in 1814 and participated in the Battle of Pensacola in Nov 1814.

Antonio Manzano Lahoz and Luis Gravalos Gonzalez, "Los Uniformes del Estado Militar de Espana del Ano 1815" has good coverage of Spanish regiments in the colonies. including the forces in the Floridas and Cuba. Troops from the latter served in the Floridas, as evidenced by the parent website of the link provided by Davoust. The 4th Tarragona light infantry and the Zaragoza infantry regiments were also shipped over from Spain after the peninsular war ended.

link

There are pictures of the Luisiana and Cuba infantry regiments on the two pages linked from this website.

In addition, here are the uniform details for two of the other units from Lahoz and Gonzalez identified as serving in the Floridas:

Havana (infantry): "Casaca, chupa y calzon blancos; cuello, vuelta y vivo encarnados; solapa amarilla y boton dorado"

Dragones de America: "Casaca y capa amarillas; cuello, vuelta, forro, chupa y calzon azules; boton blanco"

Unfortunately, I have not found a reference to the headgear worn by the Dragones in Lahoz and Gonzalez, but from some of their other prints it would seem that a bicorne, top hat or helmet would be the more probable choices.

FYI, I have had The Flag Dude generate flags for some of these units, and they are available on his website. The trick is to look on the 7YW page;

link

The Osprey book by Chartrand and Younghusband, "Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars (3) 1812-1815 will give you the uniform details for the Tarragona or Zaragoza regiments.

Best of luck with your project; I've been working on forces for the same idea. Don't forget to look at the Patriot War and the 1st Seminole War as sources for scenario ideas in addition to the War of 1812. It is an interesting experience to stand in front of the restaurants or bars in Pensacola's Seville Quarter and imagine Jackson's forces charging towards the center of town from the east in 1814, or to visit Fort Barrancas and realize how Jackson's 2nd attack in 1818 led the Americans to build the new redoubt on the high ground that dominated the fort, after it was surrendered to them.

Rick

Here is the full listing of the Cuban and Florida forces from Lahoz and Gonzalez:

" 4. Isla de Cuba

4.1 Tropas Veteranas:
Regimento de Infanteria de la Havana (1710)
Casaca, chupa y calzon blancos; cuello, vuelta, y vivo encarnados; solapa amarilla y boton dorado.

Regimento de Infanteria de Cuba (1780)
Casaca, chupa y calzon blancos; cuello y vivo verdes; vuelta y solapa moradoas; boton dorado.

Batallon de Infanteria del 2o Regimento Americano (1811)
Casaca azul; cuello, vuelta, solapa y forro encarnados; vivo ojales, chaleco, pantalon y boton blancos.

Fusileros de Montana (?)
Los Officiales, casaca azul turqui; collarin, vuelta y forro encarnados; solapa, chupa y calzon anteados; vivos opuestos; sombrero con galon de plata y otro estecho en el collarin; boton blanco.

La Tropa, gambeto azul con collarin y vuelta encarnados; solapa, chaleco y calzon anteados; boton blanco, botin negro y un galon estrecho de plata en el canto del collarin.

Compania de Cazadores (?)
Casaca y pantalon blancos; cuello y vivo azul turqui; vuellta y solapa encarnadas; boton dorado y flor de lis en el cuelto; gorro con redecilla encarnada.

Escuadron de Dragones de America (?)
Casaca y capa amarillas; cuello, vuelta, forro, chupa y calzon azules; boton blanco.

4.2 Milicias de Infanteria
Regimento de la Havana
Batallon de Voluntarios Blancos de Cuba y Bayamo
Batallon de Puerto Principe
Batallon de las Quatro Villas
Batallon de Pardos Libres de Cuba y Bayamo
Batallon de Morenos Libres de la Havana

5. Provincia de las Dos Floridas

5.1 Tropas Veteranas
Regimento de Infanteria de la Luisiana (1765)
Casaca y boton blancos, vuelta, forro, chupa y calzon azules."

No uniform details for the Cuban militia or other troops that might have been in garrison in East or West Florida at this time.

(With apologies that I have not figured out how to post with punctuation marks on TMP.)

Rick

Hope it helps you.

link

Amicalement
Armand

The 'Honor and Fidelity' book covers the history of the Louisiana Regmiment in America. It has a hisotry of various time periods as well as rosters and mustering out records.

The Saint Augustine Fort gift shop has some good booklets and some good postcards based on era drawings. In these the Spanish garrison troops in Florida are still wearing the 1808 bicorne.

Officers are noted for wearing bicornes during jackson's attack on Pensacola. But I find no mention that the Spanish garrison troops in Florida had been issued shakos by the 1812 operation.

The Nafziger Collection of orders of battle have the deployment of Spanish forces in the Americas in 1799:

PDF link

Rick