"WAS French Grenadiers" Topic

Were there any distinguishing features worn by French Grenadier companies during the War of Austrian Succession?

I am really tempted to give mine bearskins, but realise that it is probably 10 years too early, so perhaps I will refrain from such a historical anachronism.

Rod

Except for the moustache I think you are largely out of luck. I say largely because you cannot exclude the possibility that a Swiss or German regiment might have had them on the personal whim of the regimental owner. If that was the case he would have been seen by his contemporaries as rather a trend setter as the French were rather conservative in sartorial matters.

Some sources say that the Royal Ecossais grenadier company wore British style mitres, and apparently some of these were captured, with other personnel and equipment, from a French resupply ship in 1745.

I therefore wonder about the Irish Brigade, who were also supposed to be the legitimate British Army in exile. Would they have also worn mitres?

Rod

Even with the Swiss and Germans, the earliest evidence for bearskins comes in the latter half of the SYW, and then it is by no means uniform. It's worth mentioning that neither had grenadier companies during the period. The Swiss, in fact, never had any authorized on their establishment while the Germans had a small number present in each company.

The best you argue for is the possibility of some of the grenadiers in the independent companies, legions, etc. raised by the French. Some of the units raised during the last two years of the WAS may have had them, or they may have received them after the war.

Except for the mustache and perhaps a different hanger, there isn't much differentiation between French fusiliers and grenadiers.

There are some sources that suggest the grenadiers of the Royale Ecossais wore kilts as well as the mitre. That would certainly be a unique miniature given that most kilted grenadiers wore bearskins.

Check out the new Minden Grenadiers de France wearing bearskins. A bit late for you, but exquisite miniatures.

OK, so apart from Royal Ecossais, I will model all other WAS French grenadiers in hats, but with moustaches.

I am currently building a Jacobite Rebelion set up, but planning to expand it into WAS.

I will give my Royal Ecossais a kilted piper, but no other kilts. Grenadiers will have mitres.

Rod

Grenadiers carried an axe suspended from the belt behind the cartridge box with the handle visible below the box. The hanger was curved like a sabre as suggested above. David Wilson's book suggests that grenadiers also had larger cartridge boxes and small belly boxes as well. Grenadier officers carried the fusil, not the spontoon, and had a small belly box.

The kilts and mitre caps for the Royal Eccossois are figments of the imagination and poor historiography from the 19th. century.

The mitre cap in question is actually a Scots militia cap from the 1750's.

The description of the Grenadiers of the Royal Eccossois in kilts actually stems from an author describing them in " highland clothes" which at the time merely meant short clothes ( jackets,waiscoats), and probably Scots bonnets. With the revival of tartans and the spread of kilts across Scotland, including the Lowlands; it was assumed that "Highland clothes" meant kilts, tartans, etc.

I will grant they probably had a piper, and he may have been dressed in a breacan an feilidh, or belted plaid.

Good response from Spontoon. Listen to what he says.

Spontoon,

I agree about kilts, and also agree that if the Royal Ecossais did have pipers then they would have worn a belted plaid, not the more modern cut down kilt.

Stuart Reid claims (in his Osprey "The Scottish Jacobite a Army") that the mitre cap he illustrates as worn by the grenadier company of the Royal Ecossais is a surviving one originally belonging to one of five officers captured abroad a blockade runner called L'Esperance in November 1745.

Rod

Sounds spurious to me. Stuart Reid gets carried away sometimes, methinks. Probably a mixed up family story regarding the cap.

There is no mention of this story in Christopher Duffy's "The 45", which I must admit I prefer as my primary source. He mentions the capture of the ship, but not the mitres.

I think I will drop the mitres then!!!

Rod