"Cacadores' trousers" Topic

All my uniform references describe Portuguese Cacadores' uniforms but never mention what colour overalls/ trousers they might have been issued with. The illustrations I have all show them in brown breeches and black gaiters, but like other troops, must have been issued with trousers, and that's what Warlord's new (and very good) Cacadores are wearing. I'm halfway through painting them.

What do you think? Brown to match their coats? White summer overalls like the line regiments? I can't imagine they'd ever want to wear the blue winter overalls worn by their Line comrades unless there really wasn't anything else.

I take it as read that veterans would have worn anything they could have got their hands on as issue trousers items wore out.

I'll be going brown to match jackets (using Front Rank Figures), but Osprey does have a rifleman of the 3rd Caz' wearing grey pantaloons. Like much Peninsular stuff I guess it is horses for courses, do as yo please, everyone's a winner.

Judging from Haythornthwaite's 'Uniforms of the Peninsular War' brown Spanish cloth seems to have been the most readily available material for replacing uniforms so I would stick with brown. Of course it doesn't have to be an exact match for the jackets.

Thank you, much as I thought. Mixed shades of brown it is, with the odd pair of grubby white and grey.

My limited understanding is that with the Cacadores their uniform was all made locally out of the local brown cloth.

Windrow & Embleton in their venerable 'Uniforms of the Peninsular War' show a 3rd Caçador circa 1811 in brown jacket and trousers (described as 'umber), with long black gaiters.