"French Irish Legion" Topic

What did Irish units fighting for Britain during the Napoleonic wars feel about this unit,were there any confrontations between these two factions on the battlefield during the wars?Why did so many Irish chose to fight for King George in the British army and not in "wild Geese" units against him? Did Irish Battalions in the British army get treated harsher than other units?I understand General Picton upset the 88th during the Peninsular due to comments he had made about them,was this common place?

As with elsewhere in Britain at the time, many Irishmen joined the army to escape poverty, to follow a military tradition or for the adventure. To join the French units meant exile from country and separation from family with the probability of never coming home. Unless the revolutionary fervour was strong, this was not an attractive option. By joining the British Army, you could make your way and maybe come home elevated and with a pension.

Picton had a poor opinion of most soldiers and was an irracible cus anyway. His comments on the 88th were famous but not unique and not because they were Irish especially. They were generally held to be a good unit in a fight.

Irish soldiers tended to be treated no different from English, Scots or Welsh. A lot depended on individual officers, and many were Irish though from the Protestant Ascendancy. But well-behaved soldiers were treated just as well as elsewhere.

Some officers did have a low opinion of the Irish soldier but that was a social conception rather than one based upon experience (see Mercer's memoirs of the day after Waterloo). Wellington himself said that the English were happiest when beef was issued, the Scots on pay day and the Irish when the run ration came round. However, overall there is little evidence to suggest that the Irish units were treated any different from the other nationalities.

The idea of 'Irish units' is a bit of a misconception anyway.

The 'place name' titles of British Regiments were not official in this period. Recruits were not easy to come by so most regiments would take men from wherever they could find them. Yes, most Scots and Irish regiments would be composed mostly of Scots and Irish soldiers. But many supposedly English regiments often had thirty percent or more of their strength composed of Irishmen.

Republican idealism doesn't seem to have been much of a motivating factor at the time. Escaping poverty was. So you joined the army to eat. You lived in Britain so you joined the British army. Simples…

Cerdic ….nicely put.

And the so-called Legion Irlandaise wasn't all that Irish, either. Lots of Germans, Poles, Italians, etc. And some of the "Irish" were really Frenchmen (or others) with some Irish ancestry, often three, four, or more generations past.

Hi

points well made already, although not sure there is much evidence which has survived to say what most Irish soliders on either side thought on the matter.

Choice was a moot thing at the time, live on the verge of starvation and absolute poverty in Ireland or join the Army.

Loyalties and national idenity were not straight forward then (argueably usually never clear cut in history?)

For example the 1798 mass uprisings in Ireland against English rule were crushed with much brutality, partly by Irishmen in the various Militia and regular units. Its likely some of the rebels ended up in the British Army, just as with the Jacobites post 1745.

The long tradition of the Irish Wild Geese who served in the French and Spanish armies through out the eighteenth centuries was coming to an end by the Napoleonic Wars. Many of those still serving were second or third generation Irish, supplemented by a few crossing over from Ireland and deserters from the British army, and lot of other misc foriegners. Still enough of them to field a battalion in 1815 mind.

I would suggest also national identity was still a little fluid and the revolutionary and Napoleonic regimes attracted genunine supporters from other nations.

There were a whole variety of foriegn units which fought for most of the major powers of the time. So there were significant Portugese and Spanish units in Napoleon's army despite their home countries being at war with France.

cheers