"Brigade level combined "nationality" formations " Topic

How often were battalions from different but allied/ subservient states combined in the same brigade in the Napoleonic wars?

With Respect
KTravlos

By 1812-13, quite common in the French army, at any rate.

And of course you'll find Portuguese and German units in British brigades in the Peninsular.

Quite frequently in the French imperial armies, look at the "German division" in spain , with contingents of different german states together with the Kingdom of Holland troops, or some of the army corps in 1812, XI corps of Augereau saw some small contingents of German states grouped together and "leftovers" from larger states added to other divisions like the 4th Westfalian inf. with some of the smaller states.
However the general tendency was to keep unit of a same state/region together (eg Bavarian corps, Hessian brigade etc)
but there were exceptions to this , again in 1812 the Portugese regiments (in French service) were all added to French divisions and in different army corps rather than keeping them together.
Same with the cavalry.
I have no off hand knowledge on the allied side have to look that one up.
Regards,
Marcel

TTT beat me to it in speed.
In the Peninsular there were off course Portugese batalions in the Light Division. In 1815 the allied and very diverse army under Wellington seemed in general to keep the brigades as "one state only" building blocks, but mixing different nationality brigades in divisions and corps. On the field there was some more mixing , Hougoumont for example was defended by British foot guards and some German speaking Nassau troops of the Netherlands army
Regards,
Marcel

Oh, goody, one where I've actually done the research and am not just expressing an opinion.

Most of the British Divisions in the Peninsular had a mix of British and Portugeuse Brigades and there was a smattering of KGL, although these were usually brigaded together.

So, same Brigade? Two good examples are British 7th Division at Salamnca and French 2nd (German) Division at Talavera.

7th Division:

1st Bde – 1st and 2nd KGL LI, Brunswick Oels
2nd Bde – 51st and 68th LI, Chasseurs Brittanique
3rd Bde – 7th and 19th Portugeuse Line, 2nd Cacadores

2nd (German) Division:

1eme Bde – 1/2 and 2/2 Nassau, 1/4 and 2/4 Regt Gross-Herzog (Baden), Baden Artillery
2eme Bde – 2 Battalions of Dutch Line, Dutch Horse Artillery
3eme Brigade – 1/4 and 2/4 Regt Grosse und Erprinz (Hesse-Darmstadt), 3eme Confederation of the RHine Regt (Frankfurt), Hesse-Darmstadt Artilley.

There are also plenty of examples of 'foreign' regiments that were actually listed as French Ligne, so wherever they appear you may find more examples.

"Oh, goody, one where I've actually done the research and am not just expressing an opinion."

Then where are your sources? No need to be sarcastic, the guy just wanted some information.

Eh, I did not feel offended by that point, nor felt it was intended as an offense. Thanks everyone for the information. You will not like what I do with it, but I thanks!

The information is accurate, why does he need to provide the sources? Any half decent book on the Peninsular war would have this information.

With the British I think its fair to say, that the nationalities might have been mixed but the units were all British.

Chassuers and KGL were British army regiments… and technically the Oels were a British regiment to, Brunswick as a state didn't exist anymore.

Ones I do remember are from the 1790s and mainly involve mixing British, Austrian cavalry. Generally I think brigades were kept homogenouse (troops from the same state) I'd imagine politics would be too great to have Austrians ordering Russians about. Let alone the difficulties in issuing orders.
Wallmodens corps in 1813 had I think KGL, Russian, Hanovarian and Prussian troops in it as well as the 73rd foot (serving with Hanovarians) and a RHA rocket troop. If some one has the OB they might have had some "mixed nationality" formations.

Look for the battle of Ghorde.

I think you will find the British had multinational divisions. But brigades were not mixed.

The French are a bit different, in that they had many vassal states, like Neufchâtel and the Dutch regiments. These could be under direct French control. But her big main, independent allies like Saxony and Bavaria. They tended to serve amongst their own.

Here you go. Wallmodens corps ….

PDF link

RGL means Russo-German legion. I can't remember if the were Germans in Russian uniforms for Russia or Russians in Russian uniforms fighting for Prussia.

Russo-German Legion was Prussians captured in 1812 fighting in Russian uniforms. I gave mine grey trousers.

I don't have the exact orbats to hand, but at Fuentes de Onoro the Legion Hanovrienne, Legion du Midi and Regiment Irlandais were all mixed into French brigades. As mentioned above, the French orbats for 1813 are replete with odd foreign regiments inserted into French brigades (e.g. off the top of my head, Wurzburg infantry, Baden Light Dragoons, Spanish Joseph Napoleon Regiment, Regiment Irlandais and various Italian & Neapolitan regiments all appear in French brigades at Bautzen).

The Austro-Russian force commanded by Suvarov in 1799 contains several examples of mixed brigades. Typically this was Austrian regular cavalry attached to Russian formations and Cossacks attached to Austrian units. See Duffy's 'Eagles Over the Alps' for specifics.

In 1813 the allied 'Striefkorps' contained a mixture of Russian, Prussian and Austrian troops fighting together in brigade-sized formations.

Also worth mentioning that brigades were often theoretical rather than actual organisations. At Leipzig, for example, there are plenty of examples of units being 'cross-posted' from one allied formation to another during the fighting. For example, elements of Zeithen's Prussian's turn up supporting bits of Klenau's corps on several occasions on the 16th. See Nafziger for some of these (though his work is hampered by the lack of a key to some maps and a very confusing narrative).