"Brunswick company in Cole's IV Division in Spain?" Topic

I recall that Lowry Cole's IVth Division had one brigade of the 7th and 23rd Fusiliers (3 battalions) and a company of the 60th Rifles, or a company of the Brunswickers.

The other British brigade has the 3/27th and 1/40th, with the other of these two companies.

Does anyone know how the Brunswick company was uniformed? Black or green coats?

The third brigade was Portuguese – a battalion of the Loyal Lusitanian Legion; the 11th line and the 23rd line. Possibly some rifles among the LLL?

GdeP

See: link and TMP link

Jim

Thanks Jim, but I'm more confused than ever! I thought there was only one company in green, 2 detached in black. Not sure which was in the 4th Division.

GdeP

My understanding from Kortzfleisch (p.158) is that the Sharpshooter company, which was the 3rd company, served in the 4th Division and wore green. The other companies wore black.

The confusion arises I believe from the nomenclature used – in the British Army list the regiment is called the Brunswick Oels Corps including the Hussars and the infantry is known as Light Infantry not Jagers in contemporary documents such as Wellington's dispatches and as indicated the 3rd company was a sharpshooter company. Even Kortzfleisch, while describing, in German, the individual soldiers as jagers refers to the regiment as the "English Brunswick infantry regiment".

A bit nerdy but I prefer the contemporary name, Brunswick Light Infantry regiment.

Hope this helps

Regards

Garry
caseshotpublishing.com

As I understand it the Brunswick Oels had 12 companies – only 3 of them were designated as independent companies. The other 9 companies (+ HQ) operated as a (formed) light infantry battalion (dressed in black).

The light battalion (9 + HQ) appears to have originally been assigned to 4th division, was switched to the Light Division (but there were some concerns about their use in outpost duties?) and were then switched once more to the newly forming 7th Division.

In 1811, there were 3 jaeger companies, namely: 1 in 4th Division and 2 in 5th Division helping to form the independent light battalions in these two divisions.

Just to clarify my first answer, I was specifically referring to 1812. The 2nd and 10th Companies were the ones with the 5th division, dressed in black.

Regards

Garry

Thanks, All!

GdeP

IIRC, the Brunswick Corps had the common problem as other "foreign regiments", in that it quickly filled up with adventurers, deserters and impressed POW's when the original ranks were atritted and the regiment fell below strength. What was originally a good quality unit became far less so over time. And deserters and impressed POW's cannot be used on outpost duty because they tend to drift over to the other side in return for bounty or simply to rejoin their buddies.

I wonder if the 3 companies who were used as skirmishers were hand-picked from the original Brunswick patriots who accompanied the Duke on his march across Germany and whether the 9 remaining companies were unreliable and less effective?