"British Officers Commanding Portuguese Brigades" Topic

Does anyone know which uniform was worn by British officers commanding Portuguese brigades during the Peninsular War e.g. Powers at Salamanca? Did they just wear the 'old scarlet', the common blue frock coat or the Portuguese regulation? I am checking all my sources and TMP is usually a good one.

If they were in British service, they would wear British uniforms, even in command of foreign troops.

I don't know for sure and am still looking at this, but I am inclined to think that they wore Portuguese uniforms. Two reasons:

Beresford is always painted in his Portuguese uniform
The step in promotion the British officers got for taking up service in the Portuguese army (if they kept their British uniforms, they would be wearing the next rank in the British service, not the Portuguese)

Stubbs and Trant were already in the Portuguese Army I think (i.e. didn't transfer across) so they would definitely be in Portuguese uniform.

Whirlwind, You are right, my mistake. I did some research and read that the British officers would be given a rank higher and wear the Portuguese blue uniforms.

Whirlwind and Cavcrazy, your logic is sound. Thanks for the information. Ironically, in recreating these characters, you could probably get away with a figure in a plain frock coat and a covered bicorne. Maybe the Perrys will produce a more specific figure in their new Portuguese range.

Ironically, in recreating these characters, you could probably get away with a figure in a plain frock coat and a covered bicorne.

Don't forget you can use those for French too. Gouvion Saint-Cyr tended to dress like that, a habit he'd learned in the Army of the Rhine during the Revolutionary War. He was ridden down in Russia by cavalry and ignored because he was assumed to be a civilian.