"British Brigade of Guards (Organization)" Topic

The 64 companies, from the three guard regiments each contributed 15 privates to form the Brigade of Guards in America, for a total of 960 men. This brigade had 10 companies, 8 "hat" or center men, and a company each of grenadiers and light infantry (or so called, given the Guard unit had no light companies.)

Ok, so the grenadier company had 120 men, 15 men from each of the 8 grenadier companies in the three original regiments, so that math works here, I get this. However, I am not certain where the men from the light company came from. The number of these men does not divide evenly from the remaining 56 "non – grenadier" companies, so there must have been an uneven number of these men drawn from the 56.

Were these men taken in uneven amounts from each of the 56, or evenly from just some of the 56? Although they had the same facing color, the royal blue, there were minor differences, notably in the cyphers. This is even more problematic for the center companies, seeing as how the 8 new center companies had a mixture of the original three regiments? So would how would this be reflected on the battlefield? Would there be drummers with two or three cyphers from the original three regiments?

What about the original company flags from 64 companies? Were these abandoned, just some, new ones created, or none at all?

Thanks to all,

ilodic

Flags stayed with the parent companies. Not really a problem ,since Colours were very rarely carried in the field in America, starting with the FIW.

There is a tradition, that they took two of their colours to America but AFAIK there is no hard evidence to support it.

link

Hope this helps you. Outstanding work to start with. Also please check with Jay Callahan who formed 4th company guards. His website is very good.

@ Ilodic,

The centre companies were organised along regimental lines; only one centre company (the 4th) contained a mix of men and hence was known as the "Brigade Company". Companies 1-3 were from the 1st Regt, 5 & 6 were from the Coldstream (2nd), and 7 & 8 were from the 3rd. The officers of each company were drawn from the appropriate regiment; those of the 4th Company were a mix. The 1st-4th companies formed the 1st Battalion, the 5th-8th the 2nd Battalion; note that the original plan was to form a single battalion of 10 companies, but the two-battalion organisation and large companies allowed the unit to cover the same ground as a Line brigade.

For brief periods in the latter half of the war the organisation changed. In 1779, during the "war between the lines" around NYC, two extra flank companies (one of each) were formed and both battalions had two flank companies as well as the centre companies; this experiment only last a year. During the Southern campaigns, the centre companies were reduced due to losses.

As the article states, the men removed their regimental lace to encourage a single identity, with the only distinction being to identify the 1st and 2nd Battalions.

The light company would, I suspect, have been selected from the draftees on the basis of aptitude and marksmanship – much as they were within the Line regiments. Like the grenadier company, they were from all three regiments.

An interesting point about the Guards was that their squads were not formed around the individual messes (ie occupants of each tent) as was normally the case, but were mixed up in order to encourage the men to get to know each other.

Flags – there is a legend that the Major's Colour of the 3rd Gaurds along with one of that regiment's Company Colours, were taken to America, but there are no references to them being carried in the field. The diary of an Ensign Glyn refers to "there being no colours" when he is promoted and given a special job.