"Spanish Uniforms for Florida 1812-1815" Topic

Would the Spanish be wearing the bicorne or would this be teh top hat or even shako period? I'm assuming since they'd be cut off from Spain and no sure of their allegiance to either the Spanish crown or the puppet of Napoleon,they are far down on the resupply list. Any ideas?

Check out the Osprey book on Spanish uniforms in North America. Before the book came out, I collected a large number of uniform post cards on Spanish outfits from souvenir shops in Pensacola and St Augustine. A couple from Mobile and New Orleans.Mostly bicornes. Uniforms were years behind Europe and soldiers would have to buy more than one set to swap out due to humidity.

Prior toSpain becoming a British Ally, they fought a war with the Muskogee (Creek) Free State who actually had a flag and two ship navy. Britain even recognized them as a country. After Spain sided with Britain, they withdrew their support of the Creeks and imprisoned its leader. Supplies was never an issue when they were allied with the British.

I would imagine they were wearing a shako by 1812, certainly by 1815.

Green Tiger, what type of shake have you seen in Florida? The South American forces were using bell shake and by 1815 mainland Slain was in the Portuguese style shake.

I have seen them in floppy hats made from unlocked bicornes.

The Company of Military Historians' journal carries some articles about these units – Louisiana Infantry Regiment, etc. If you are interested, you might search their website. But my recollection is that the regular infantry units were still in bicornes at this time.

Los Uniformes del Estado Militar de España del Año 1815, Antonio Manzano Lahoz and Luis Grávalos González, shows both the Luisiana Regiment and the Cuba Regiment in bicornes. FYI, this is also true of the other colonial regiments illustrated that served in other theaters in the Americas.

Rick