"Lanceros de Castilla (Castile Lancers) c.1812" Topic

I was wondering if any of you good folks have any information regarding the uniform of the above Spanish cavalry unit.
I've looked in the Ospreys and tried to find information on the 'net but without success.
Nafziger lists this unit in his OOB for Salamanca so I'm keen to have this unit represented when I get to completing the OOB.

From what I've read this was one of Julian Sanchez' two cavalry regiments. The uniform is in the Osprey books under that name. The Castille Hussars were his other regiment, per Oman. Muir has them as the 1st & 2nd Castille Lancers.

Rick

Bueno has a plate in his "Uniformes españoles de la guerra de la Independencia" that shows this unit as uniformed in grey jackets with five horizontal stripes -a la hussar-, cuffs and collars in red piped in yellow, grey trousers for the troops and straw yellow for the officers. Headgear was local wide brimmed hats in black, with a small red rosette in the left side -similar in outlook to those that were weared by the Mexican provinciales, to give you the idea- or captured French shakos, with the front plates removed and replaced by Spanish ones. The officer is shown with cavalry boots and red shash. The horse mantle is shown in medium blue, trimmed in yellow.

Hope this helps.

Thanks guys. I failed to make the connection with Sanchez.

I managed to find a site of interest for those who may wish to represent this unit.

link

Though, according to the second Osprey the wide-brimmed hat uniform was c.1808-09 and a captured Polish Lancer uniform 1810-11 and a cocked hat, yellow coat uniform thereafter.

La Fleche

I have found some information that you can find interesting. It's quoted in Emilio Becerra de Becerra "Hazañas de unos lanceros" (Salamanca, 1999. p. 102), who took the information from a short regimental history, written by Julián Sánchez in 1815, and preserved in the Instituto de Historia y Cultura Militar, Colección General de Documentos, box 4-2-8-1.

After this narrative, in late 1811 the Lanceros were officially attached to Wellington's army. Until that date, the document states that they hadn't any uniforms worth the name, but an 'heterogeneous collection of clothing, from traditional Salamanca's clothing to uniforms taken from the enemy'. However, from then on, the uniforms were provided by the British, who, after Sanchez, gave them: "A English-style uniform in red, with cuffs and cords in golden yellow; hussar styled pellisses and helmets [probably, Tarleton style] with black oislkins and red cloth [I couldn't find the English equivalent of the word 'manga' in Spanish; it describes a piece of cloth], and English horses".

As this document refers to events from late 1811-early 1812, I believe that the Lancers probably used those uniforms at the Salamanca's campaign.

I also believe that the description provided by Julian Sanchez himself is more accurate than the one given in the Osprey.

Best regards.

basileus66

Wow! Thank you so much for taking the trouble to provide this information. Fantastic stuff!

It is rather fortuitous because the lack of information at the time I ordered some figures meant I chose British iLight Dragoon figures (with Tarletons) to represent some generic Spanish cavalry in place of the Lanceros. Being in 6mm scale I shouldn't have too much trouble making them look the part.
The only remaining question would be were they still armed with lances at Salamanca?

La Fleche

I can't be sure, but I guess they did. After all, they were used to fight with lances, and I doubt there were much time or interest in training them to use a new kind of weapon. But mind that this is just an educated guess. I've not evidence to support it, yet.

Best regards