"French deserters in British service?" Topic

I'm looking to add some interesting support units for my Napoleonic forces and was interested by a reference to 'French' deserters in British service during the Peninsular War. It seems that they are more likely to be German, Italian or Swiss rather than French, but I was keen to find more information on any such units.

Can anyone kindly point me in the right direction?

Chasseurs Britanniques. Originally French emigres fleeing the excesses of the Revolution. As time went on, the ranks were filled out with rogues, scoundrels and deserters.

German deserters were likely to be pressed into the Brunswick Owls. Spanish deserters would be pressed into whatever redcoat unit "liberated" them. French – possibly widely defined – would be enrolled in the CB's.

There were no units composed entirely of French deserters in British service, but it would not be unlikely for some individuals who had deserted from French service to have enlisted subsequently in most any British regiment. From a British perspective, they are unlikely to have distinguished less-than-enthusiastic French allies, or men from the French foreign regiments, from French troops, properly speaking. Moreover, Napoleon had forcibly annexed many areas to France which were not ethnically French at all, including all of the Low Countries, parts of northern Italy (Piedmont), and some parts of western Germany, so a good many of the "deserters" from nominally French regiments may have merely been seizing an opportunity to return to what they considered their proper side in the war.

Certain units of the British Army would have been more likely to receive recruits from "French" deserters. The 60th Foot (Royal American Regiment), had been something of a "foreign legion" from its inception during the Seven Years War, and the 5/60th being a rifle unit would have been a good candidate for any experienced riflemen deserting from the French side. The King's German Legion would also have been recruiting from Germanic prisoners and deserters, with a preference for Hanoverians. There were three nominally Swiss regiments in British service (and all served in the Peninsula): The Regiments de Watteville, de Meuron, and Roll. Unable to recruit replacements directly in Switzerland (which was surrounded by territory controlled by France), they became increasingly motley in composition as time went on. The same holds true for Dillon's Regiment, which was probably quite mixed in origin from its inception. The Duke of Brunswick's Corps started out composed entirely of Brunswickers, but like the Swiss regiments would have been unable to recruit replacements at home, and was forced to recruit deserters and prisoners. The unit most likely of all to contain truly French deserters was the Chasseurs Britanniques; as indicated by its French title, it was originally made up of royalist emigres. Although they did not serve in the Peninsula, there were also the two "Independent Companies of Foreigners," which were recruited entirely from French prisoners and deserters. These latter gained notoriety for running amok at Hampton, Viriginia during the War of 1812, committing rape and murder, as well as pillage.

The CB as stated were originally a French emigre corps. Fairly good initially but had to replace wastage with French deserters or POWs neither of which are usually reliable. They would also take in other foreigners who had escaped from French service like Croats, Hungarians, Danes and what not. Germans would be sent to the KGL, Italians to Dillion's regiment I think. Waterville and De Rolls units were nominally Swiss but resorted to taking any foreigner they could find.
The Brunswickers were at the bottom of the queue for German recruits so took in all manner of waifs and strays.
The 60th had connections to America and Germany. Germans were part of the unit the 1820s I think. But it's character was in the early 1800s mostly British.
The 97th were also foreign in origin being formerly a German unit in the Spanish army.

The 97th, (originally Stuart's Minorca Regiment; later the Queen's Own Germans; taken into the line in 1805) were recruited in 1798 from a variety of foreign troops. Antoine Lutz, caught up in the controversy over who captured the standard of 21e DB Legère at Alexandria in 1801, was of Alsatian origin, I believe.

I have read that a portion of the original rank and file were Austrian prisoners of war captured in Italy who were effectively sold by the French into Spanish service.

By 1810, its strength was made up to such an extent by British recruits that it was no longer considered a foreign corps. The name Queen's Own Germans nonetheless remained in use.

I think all the units have already been mentioned. Perhaps worth pointing out that Oman notes--I think in Wellington's Army--that the 5/60th and 97th switched to British recruits. while basically all the officially foreign units are recruiting out of the same pool of prisoners and deserters, with the KGL getting first pick and the Chasseurs Britanique dead last. You'd like to think there was some sorting by language, but a lot of these professional hard cases would have spoken a number of languages--all very badly.

One British enlisted man was court-martialed for knocking down and tackling a CB officer on recon--and exonerated, the court having concluded that thinking any member of the Chasseurs moving toward the enemy must be attempting to desert was a perfectly reasonable assumption. (No comments about the time the Brunswickers ate a British regimental mascot, please.)

But if you watch the sharp drop in KGL strength between 1814 and Waterloo, you can see how many of these people they didn't want to fool with come peacetime, and they got first pick. Some of the other units could fight, but there were none I'd put out for pickets.

Oh. Worth remembering that Napoleon had the interesting notion that Walloons, Flemings, Dutchmen, northern Italians Hanoverians and the Germans of the Hanseatic States were all Frenchmen. I bet there was a lot of "French" desertion.

I think Rifleman Harris talks about a unit of French deserters uniformed in a similar manner to his regiment -it came up because they had to form the firing squad for one that swapped back…Not sure what the regiment was or that he could be relied upon to tell the difference between an actual Frenchman and say an Italian…

Green Tiger,

Uniforms basically like those of the 95th were supplied to a range of foreign allies, the KGL light battalions, and various colonial units like the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles in Canada. I would like to suggest, however, that Harris might have been talking about the two Independent Companies of Foreigners, formed from "French" prisoners and deserters. So far as I am aware, they never served in field operations in the Peninsula, but they were probably organized there before being shipped to America.