"How many men in a light battalion?" Topic

I'm about to order more figures and I'm thinking of doing KGL 2nd light battalion. If I do 24figures for a line battalion, how many do I need for a light battalion ? I read they had 400 men at Waterloo, so at 30:1 is that 14 ? Would it be the same for 95th rifles and a french light battalion?

There was always a difference between the 'establishment' and the reality. A British line battalion was supposed to be 1000 strong but on average took to the field with 600. A French light battalion had the same organisation as a line battalion, just different nomenclature and supposedly more elan. From your post, it looks like you are going for the reality of battalion sizes during the 100 Days. I would recommend you try and look up the detail. Try this site to start with.

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It depends on when and where, as Artilleryman observes.

In 1805 at home in Sussex the 1st KGL Light had 625 men in 8 companies and the 2nd had 463 in 6. This gives you an average company strength of 78 men so that the nominal battalion strength with 10 companies would have been 780.

At the same date and place the 1st to 4th KGL Line battalions had 627, 628, 624 and 624 men also in 8 companies, which is also 78 men per company. So there seems to be no difference in line versus light strength.

I am not sure where the other 2 companies were in each case. At Waterloo the KGL line units were at strengths of 400 or so because 2, 3 or 4 companies had been detached from each to form stiffening cadres for the newly-reconstituted Hanover forces.

4th Cuirassier, my understanding is not that the KGL battalions had detached companies, but that they had reorganized into fewer companies--my recollection is six--and sent only the surplus officers and NCOs to stiffen the Hanoverian Landwehr. The battalions were smaller in 1815 because (peace having broken out in 1814) the non-Hanoverian rank and file had already been discharged before Bonaparte took the Napoleonic Wars into overtime.

The KGL lights are very strong in 1808-9--at least as strong as the KGL line. But they were sent to Walcheren in 1809, and "Walcheren fever" killed many and left too many survivors in hospital. That's why they're so late returning to the Peninsula.

Anyway, Happy Hiker, I'd say either try to track down the strength of each battalion--for Waterloo you can do it--or just settle on 24 castings per and be done with it. Most battalions line or light were in the 500-700 man range. Halve the strength for oddities like Kielmansgge's Field Jaeger Corps, and maybe go double-strength for some of the light and guard battalions which were near paper strength and sometimes operated as wings.

If you do 24 figs for a KGL line btn, then you should have 24 figs for a KGL light btn! They both had about 400 men!

Waterloo OOB…

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Or do what I do: 24 figures per battalion regardless, then adjust for specific games. Nothing worse than building a unit for one battle only to find it's too small for your next and you need 4 more figures…

Ok thanks, I'll go for 24 each, thought maybe I could get away with less.
The Waterloo OOB is very impressive, thanks.

"At Waterloo the KGL line units were at strengths of 400 or so because 2, 3 or 4 companies had been detached from each to form stiffening cadres for the newly-reconstituted Hanover forces."

At Waterloo it was decided to transfer a number of Officers and Sergeants into the Hanoverian Landwehr Bns. to help with their in-experienced officers and NCOs. It worked out to about 91 Officers and 104 Sgts. from the 8 K.G.L. Bns. No other men were transferred.
In turn the K.G.L. Bns. were reorganized into 6 companies and the extra men equalized into the 6 cos.

I wish I could remember where I read it, but I vaguely recall 2nd KGL Lights suffering a blow when a troopship carrying part of the battalion home from Corunna sank. It might go some way towards explaining why they seem to have struggled to keep numbers up.

If anyone can expand on, confirm or refute this, I'd be grateful.

Incidentally 400 men at 30:1 would be 13 rather than 14.

Always round up…..

Captain W. Siborne lists the effective strength of the 2nd KGL Light Battalion at Waterloo as 337 (this would be "other ranks" i.e. privates and corporals only on page 423 of his book "History of the War in France and Belgium in 1815 . . .." (London: T.& W. Boone, 1844).

This is supported by the figures given in Dr. Andrew Bamford's article "British Army Individual Unit Strengths, 1808-1815," posted in the "Military Subjects" section on the Napoleon Series website. The last official strength return before Waterloo reported the 2nd Light Bn. had a total strength of 434 other ranks, but 39 were on the sick list, and 65 were "on command" (i.e. detached duty), leaving an effective strength of 330.

I can't seem to get a link directly to the right page on the Napoleon Series website to work correctly, so if you want to look up other units' strengths, type this into your search engine "British Army Unit Strengths: 1808-1815 – The Napoleon Series"

4th Cuirassier,

You wondered where the other two companies were for each battalion in 1805. The answer is that they did not exist!!!

The KGL had an organisation of 8 centre companies per battalion from formation to December 1811. They had no grenadier or light companies in this period, but used the Hanoverian system of having nominated rifle armed sharpshooters in each company, who formed up as a skirmisher screen when the battalion formed for action. There were nominated officers, NCOs and buglers for the sharpshooters.

From 25 December 1811, the structure was changed to 10 company battalions, including a grenadier and light. The light companies were formed from the sharpshooters, so they remained rifle armed.

After the Peninsular War they discharged their non-Hanoverian personnel, and changed from an establishment of 10 companies of 100 R&F to 10 companies of 60 R&F. In theory the reduction to six companies, so as to free 91 Officers and 104 Sergeants to be attached to the Hanoverian Landwehr battalions, should have allowed the KGL battalions to have 6 companies of 100 R&F, but they were actually all considerably under strength.

Rod