"French infantry white cockade" Topic

Greetings all. I should be grateful for clarification as to the wearing of a white cockade by French infantry in the AWI period. Would I be right in thinking this was a long-standing Bourbon emblem?

I am thinking more of the Caribbean campaigns. I believe an 'alliance' cockade may have been worn by French troops serving with Washington's army on the mainland.

Many thanks

The white Bourbon cockade was worn by the French army. White was the Bourbon color.

The alliance cockade was worn by Rochambeau's expeditionary force in North America, which was the black US cockade worn over the white regulation cockade.

From The French Army in the American War of Independence by Rene Chartrand, page 37:

'During the war, cockades of an allied nation were joined to one's own cockade to symbolize the alliances. The first instance appears to be Rochambeau's order in June 1780 to add black, the cockade color of the United States, to the white cockade of the French troops landing in the US. Portraits of Spanish colonial officers in Louisiana ca 1781-1783, show white added to their red Spanish cockades. French troops in the West Indies apparently also added red to their white cockades, as would the French corps serving with the Spanish at Minorca and Gibraltar. It is probably that the Dutch orange cockade was added by the French troops at the Cape, Ceylon, Demerara and the Dutch West Indies. There was also a fashion for triple cockades. The Chevalier de Pontgibaud noted at Corunna, Spain, in 1782 that the Spanish and French armies wore a white (French), red (Spain) and black (USA) cockade, which also agrees with a self-portrait of Lieutenant de Verger of the Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment.'

Yep. Even later this happened--the British landing in Spain in 1808 were issued red cockades to symbolize alliance with Spain. According to "TS", in _A Soldier of the 71st_, they were all thrown away by the end of the day.

"General Order, Headquarters, Lisbon
25th October 1808

Upon entering Spain, as a compliment to the Spanish nation, the army will wear the red cockade in addition to their own. Commanding officers will order them to be provided to non-commissioned officers and soldiers and the expence will be paid by the Commissary General.

[Signed] H.Clinton. A.G."

Private James Gunn of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, writing in later life, recalled:
"We were honoured by their Sovereign, or their Government or both, by a bit of scarlet cloth about the size of a ha'penny to wear in front of our bonnets as a star or token of their regard, and the officers had a portrait if His Most Catholic Majesty in a small case, but it would be a clever fellow who could catch any of these Royal emblems in 24 hours. They found their way back by the stream to where they came from."

(Curiously, it has been suggested that something of the sort was the origin of a badge backing later worn by the 2nd Bn South Lancs Regt prior to the Great War. I can't think why.

The British soldier seems incapable of shrugging and saying, 'I dunno.' Not when there's a tradition to be cited.)

I believe that the South Lancs' red back badge predates the formation of the regiment in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment and 82nd Regiment of Foot (Prince of Wales's Volunteers).

The light company of the 40th had been present at Paoli and in response to various empty threats after that action the regiment thereafter wore a red hackle or feather so that they would not be mistaken should anyone want to cross bayonets again. This later became the red patch behind the regiment's badge.

Such is the tale I was once told by QLR sergeant major on a dark and stormy BATUS night, sitting on a sandbag under a swinging lamp, anyway.

even during periods of alliances such as the AWI the Spaniards can be very reluctant to wear the white (and black with the US alliance) of their Bourbons cousins, and more the black of rebellious colonies despite today there are many people in both Spain and US to explain that Spain was actually the greatest ally of the United States in the AWI

below the captain Joseph Bernard Vallière d'Hauterive from the Regimiento de Luisiana in Arkansas Post 1787-1790, French officer in the Spanish colonial Army still wearing the mixed red and white cockade of 1779-1783

Yes, the Peninsula tradition of the South Lance is associated with the 82nd POW Volunteers.

As for the claimed Paoli connection of the 40th, it seems senior NCOs have a duty to mislead the young and innocent; in this case it is one of a number extrapolations riding piggy back on the claim made by the 46th South Devons in 1833, after years abroad, explaining that their Light coy wore a non-regulation red feather to commemorate that defiant gesture made by the 2nd LI after Paoli.

There is in fact no evidence and little likelihood this happened- at least not as it is usually represented. The rebels knew exactly who to come to for revenge a mere fortnight later when they gave the men of the 2nd Light Infantry- in the van- a serious buffeting at Germantown, and there is little likelihood the 2nd LI would have had time to arrange red feathers by then, although it might feasibly hsve happened the following spring.

There is little evidence of a red feather tradition in the 40th predating 1881. Ironically, perhaps, there is a competing claim now made by the Duke of Lancs which says that it was after Germantown that the 40th adopted a red feather, not Paoli. This was in response to similar threats made after their bloody stand at Chew House held up the American advance and caused Washington's ambitious battle plan finally to unravel. However, on that occasion it was the battalion companies not the light coy- and, if we are to believe Xavier della Gatta's painting, they were wearing red feathers before the battle started.

Those Lancashire boys seem to be terrible magpies. They are not alone, though. The Royal Berkshires appropriated the Paoli story for themselves in 1934, but for reasons that aren't clear they called it the 'Brandywine Distinction. I have also read that the Middlesex made a similar late claim. The same story was claimed for Fraser's 71st Highlanders as early as 1821.

I had my own sergeant major moment in my youth when a much respected former KRRC RSM explained to me that the red backing to their black Maltese Cross commemorated a fight the 60th Royal Americans had with 'the Indians' when the victorious men of th 60th "took feathers off the dead red men, dipped them in the blood and put them in their hats, so aa the redskins would know who to come to- for revenge!"

Familiar? For years I took this to be gospel but, sadly, it turned out to be pretty good nonsense; a mix of the alleged gesture of the 46th after Paoli and the 5th supposedly picking up white feathers off dead Frenchmen at St Lucia in 1778; perhaps vaguely inspired by the battle of Bushy Run in 1763 (for which the KRRC in later years claimed exaggerated credit).

It is an interesting coincidence that the Black Watch were in the last wave at Paoli, clearing through the position with their bayonets but there has never been a serious suggestion that their Red Hackle originated in the same way- although it is now accepted their cherished emblem most probably had its origins in America, contrary to previous legend.

And so it goes.

@Lilian- what a cracker of a portrait- presumably not painted in some pestilential stockade 300 miles up the Mississippi amongst the Quapaw.

The format of the bi-colour cockade is interesting; almost modernistic; rather than the concentric discs of contrasting colour that one might expect.

I found this- Ignacio de Balderes, Subteniente de granaderos, Rgto. Luisiana c.1790

link