Incavart77 | 13 Mar 2020 8:18 a.m. PST |
Are there good references for the 95th Rifles fighting in battalion sized units? If possible, it would be nice to find a collated reference giving accounts of the 95th fighting in larger formations whether it was volley fire or hand to hand combat. Thank you. |
Windy Miller | 13 Mar 2020 2:03 p.m. PST |
The 95th almost always fought as battalions. The 5th/60th however only fought as a battalion in the first year of the Peninsular campaign, at Rolica and Vimeiro. After that the battalion was split up with each infantry brigade normally having a company of the 60th attached as extra skirmishers. Likewise the Brunswick Oels Jägers. |
Mserafin | 14 Mar 2020 9:26 a.m. PST |
The only instance I've heard of where they fought formed like regular infantry was Waterloo, where I think one battalion did this while the others skirmished. |
deadhead | 14 Mar 2020 9:50 a.m. PST |
We had much discussion of 95th formations here; TMP link As Mserfarin says, at Waterloo the 2nd Bttn 95th and two companies of the third fought just like line infantry…..lines, squares, columns. The 1st were famous for the sandpit defence near LHS "Rifle Green at Waterloo" is very good on this. |
Windy Miller | 14 Mar 2020 11:09 a.m. PST |
Fuentes de Oñoro was another occasion the 95th fought in close order, frequently forming square while covering the 7th Division's withdrawal. |
dibble | 14 Mar 2020 12:04 p.m. PST |
As deadhead states. "Rifle Green at Waterloo" is very good on this. The best and most excellent books on the subject are the four books 'Rifle Green in the Peninsula' and 'Rifle Green at Waterloo' by George Caldwell and Robert Cooper Published by Buglehorn. buglehorn.co.uk I have all of them, including the very rare first hardback edition of 'Rifle Green at Waterloo' and the revised 2nd edition. I also have Rifle green in the Crimea. Oh! they are all signed by the authors…:) |
dibble | 14 Mar 2020 1:08 p.m. PST |
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Garde de Paris | 14 Mar 2020 1:49 p.m. PST |
In the 7 Years War, Frederick lost his rifle battalion, caught in the open by the enemy (cavalry?). The 95th always fought with light infantry or line infantry nearby. If they had been caught in square, they might well have suffered much more than conventional line infantry for lack of a long weapon an bayonet, and the slow rate of fire. GdeP |
Windy Miller | 14 Mar 2020 3:13 p.m. PST |
That's why the Baker rifle had a 23 inch bayonet. It gave it the same reach as an ordinary musket. And it's also why the Rifles don't fix bayonets, we fix swords! |
von Winterfeldt | 15 Mar 2020 1:18 a.m. PST |
indeed the Prussian Jäger were almost destroyed, later they got a so called rifled carbine, a bit like the Baker rifle, where you could fix bayonets, but then they went back to the rifle, and the rifles were converted in such way that the short swords – the Hirschfänger – could be fixed to the barrely, seemingly copied by other Jäger units. |
Green Tiger | 16 Mar 2020 2:41 a.m. PST |
Kincaid's memoirs have plentiful references to the 95th fighting in line just like everyone else (very few references to doing anything else in fact). |