"The British army's debt to Austria's army...?" Topic

One of the less remarked-on oddities of this era is quite how influential Austria's army was in shaping military practice elsewhere.

The Spanish army's organisation was almost a straight lift from that of the Austrian army, with its 3.5-battalion white-coated regiments, the 0.5 being two companies of grenadiers. A surprising additional imitator was Britain. As well as favouring Austrian-style linear tactics, British uniforms ripped off Austrian styles wholesale. The Belgic shako closely resembles the early Austrian Kaskett and the coats are likewise similar. Austrian and British regiments both had a huge variety of facing colours and, apparently in imitation of Austria's grenzers, British light troops kept their klobuk-style stovepipe shakoes after all its other troops had adopted the quasi-Austrian Belgic cap.

All this seems too much of a coincidence, yet I've never seen it commented on. Am I imagining it?

Imagining it? No. Exaggerating it? Undoubtedly.

I always thought the Belgiuc shako was copied from the Portuguese. Maybe the Portuguese got it from the Austrians?

The British stuff was pretty unique. They might have stolen bits from other armies but they always reinvented it in a uniquely British way.

The Austrian Hapsburg army influenced a wide range of uniform styles and troop types from the mid-C17th onwards: 'Croats' and 'Pandours,' Hussars & Grenadiers, 'looped' coats in various forms, tight-fitting pantaloons, kolpacks and bearskin caps, klobucks, haiduckenmutz, flügelmutze and csakos; kasketts and barretinas, uhlan regiments with square-topped Polish czapkas, the fore-and-aft folding laagerkappe with earflaps, the peaked feldmutze ditto, the low-crowned shako and the 'kepi..'

There were definitely elements of British uniform that were similar if not actually inspired by the Austrian items especially the cut of the coatee and the old 'stovepipe' shako or cap. Like Minipigs I think it was the Portuguese Barretina which was the inspiration rather than the old Austrian Kasket for the 'Belgic' shako of 1812. The use of different coloured regimental facings were not unique to any one army and were widely used in Europe throughout the 18th Century and well into the 19th.

Regarding tactics, the British linear formations were just the continuation of the old 18th Century methods which the highly professional British infantry retained and everyone had used in that period before columns became so popular. Indeed, the Austrians started to use the 'Mass' (a kind of column) more and more as the Napoleonic Wars progressed.

The barretina may have been inspired by the Austrian kasket despite cultural contacts being remote- although more generally frontlet or 'false front' caps can be found dating back to the mid-C17th.

'Looped coats' with decorated buttonholes, along with the 'Persian' style of coat succeeding the earlier doublet. do appear to have come from the eastern approaches- either directly from the Ottoman world or via the Danube borderlands of Hungary.

To me the Belgic cap (and let's not forget that Belgium was Austrian until 1797) resembles the Kaskett more closely than the barretina.

Extant ORs' specimens are essentially a ~6" tall i.e. low fez, with a 2" taller false front. A human head is about 9" from chin to top of head link . Given that the Belgic came down to the tops of the ears, about 7" above the chin, it added at most 6" to the wearer's apparent height and only 4" from the side. Here's my sketch of it, ripped from the Wikipedia drawing, which is correctly scaled for relative height:

flic.kr/p/2k7PG3R

Most British post-1812 miniatures and reproductions that I have seen have the body of the Belgic taller than the distance from chin to ears. That is, it is depicted with the dimensions of a typical French / Prussian shako. It should be quite a bit less, so these depictions are basically 50% or more oversized, and they are more or less showing a barretina.

The Austrian pattern was much closer to the Belgic rthan is generally depicted:

The Belgic cap was widely despised at the time as a horrid, mean-looking thing, which is why it was dumped after in effect one campaign. When you look at one with its correct proportions, it's hard to disagree, but it looks more Austrian than Portuguese to me (and it is not obvious why Britain would have copied a Portuguese pattern anyway).

The Belgic cap was widely despised at the time as a horrid, mean-looking thing

Certainly that Grenadier in your illustration seems to be less than impressed by it

DBDD

Perhaps the Belgic shako was another of Prinny's 'good' ideas?

To me the Belgic cap (and let's not forget that Belgium was Austrian until 1797) resembles the Kaskett more closely than the barretina….When you look at one with its correct proportions, it's hard to disagree, but it looks more Austrian than Portuguese to me (and it is not obvious why Britain would have copied a Portuguese pattern anyway).

Not that the 'Belgic' shako, so-called, had any connection with the Austrian Netherlands other than it was the issue cap worn by British and Kings German troops defending a hill south of Brussels on 18th June 1815.

The link between British headgear and Portuguese presumably was that troops of the two nations fought side by side in the Peninsula and that for once Horse Guards heeded Wellington's entreaty that the primary consideration in design of any new headgear should be that "we may be as different as possible from the French in every thing." (6.11.11) Mind you, he believed that the "narrow tops" of the current shako served that purpose well enough, but it was deemed inconvenient in most others way.

It is intriguing how illustrations from very early on suggested that the mean 'bang up' was grander than it was, although this Hamilton Smith illustration perhaps hints at the truth.

Not that the 'Belgic' shako, so-called, had any connection with the Austrian Netherlands

Are you sure about that? It was called that for some reason, and from before Waterloo.

I struggle with the process by which Wellington decided the army needed to look more Portuguese, the Horse Guards agreed, the military tailors were instructed accordingly, and the net result was that each army inherited its ally's obsolete cap style. It presupposes much more co-ordinated thinking than was actually going on between these allies. It seems likelier that both decided at the same time to adopt Austrian headwear – just a different style in their separate cases.

"From before Waterloo" Really? I'd like to know more about that.

Wellington had no control over uniform decisions. Hence his harassed letter re. Light Dragoon headgear.

The Portugueses cap preceded the British by some years. By 1812 the Austrian cap had been superseded some fifteen years before.

Isn't the simple answer that false-fronted caps are cheaper to manufacture than full height shakos, and saving money appeals to governments of all nations!

Isn't the simple answer that false-fronted caps are cheaper to manufacture

natürlich

Can't be the only reason. Austria went from false-fronted to helmet to shako; Portugal from false-fronted to stovepipe; etc.

In Portugal's case, weren't the stovepipe shakos supplied by Britain?

Out of curiosity when did the "Belgic" shako first get called a "Belgic shako"? When does the term first show up in official records?

There was an important Austrian influence on the British cavalry in the early period. In Flanders in 1793-4 Austrian Hussars taught British Light Dragoons the basics of light cavalry work virtually from scratch, to the point of having Austrian detachments with squadrons. John Le Marchant's cavalry execise was also based on Austraan practise.

Really, 'Really'? That is an interesting detail. Was this true of all the light dragoon detachments sent to the Low Countries to form the Light Brigade:7th, 11th, 15th, & 16th? (The 8th & 14th troops joined later). There was close co-operation between Austrian and British cavalry, perhaps most famously at Le Cateau and Villers en Cauchies in 1794, before the retreat from Austrian Flanders but I wasn't aware of cadres Austrians of being attached. Perhaps not a detail to find in Victorian regimental histories.

Out of curiosity when did the "Belgic" shako first get called a "Belgic shako"? When does the term first show up in official records?

Not a direct answer to that question, perhaps because it was never an official term but Alex Cattely in his article 'The British Infantry shako' from {Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. 15, No. 60 (Winter, 1936), pp. 188-208 (25 pages)} – admittedly flawed and outdated- adds this footnote:

"Although generally known as the Waterloo Shako, it was also called the Wellington Shako, and subsequently was sometimes referred to as the Belgium type;" – indicating that not only was there no awareness of the 1812 cap being called before Waterloo but that the term 'Belgic' was not current in 1936.

He goes on to say to reflect:

"possibly it was an adaptation of type worn by the troops of the Netherlands, or it may have been on account of it having been worn during the campaign in Belgium."

I would argue that both the available data and logic suggests that the latter is the more likely explanation.

If any one has access to the Military History Society's excellent monograph 'The British Infantry Shako 1800 – 1897 by Bryan Fosten & Gary Gibbs. (Item no. S017) Special Number, 2008.' that will provide more up-to-date information and conclusions.

interesting on the ex post nature of the terms 'stovepipe' and 'belgic'

link

"The first 1800 cap was known colloquially at the time as the ‘smoke-jack', the second 1806 cap the ‘sugar-loaf' and the third 1812 cap as the ‘bang-up'[ii] or ‘Wellington cap'"

"The first 1800 cap was known colloquially at the time as the ‘smoke-jack', the second 1806 cap the ‘sugar-loaf' and the third 1812 cap as the ‘bang-up'[ii] or ‘Wellington cap'"

Yes, that 1859 summary of less well known terms came to light some years ago now, on the lamented Napoleonic Wars Forum, and subsequently here on TMP:
TMP link

While we're discussing the appearance of the 'bang-up' 1812 pattern cap, it's worth remembering this little quoted description from Cavalie Mercer of the Royal Horse Aartillery. It seems less surprising, perhaps, that the 'Wellington' shako was so quickly superseded:

"Our infantry indeed, our whole army appeared at the review in the same clothes in which they had marched, slept, and fought for months. The colour had faded to a dusky _brick-dust_
hue; their coats, originally not very smartly made, had acquired by constant wearing that loose easy set so characteristic of old clothes, comfortable to the wearer, but not calculated to add grace to his appearance. Pour surcroit de laideur, their cap is
perhaps the meanest, ugliest thing ever invented.

From all these causes it arose that our infantry appeared to the utmost disadvantage dirty, shabby, mean, and very small."

Let's not forget that early 19th century bricks were orange-red rather than brown-red…

Depending where they were made, they still can be.

The question of headgear puzzles me.

We know, from official documents, that a new pattern of cap was approved for the British infantry in 1812.

We know, from the contemporary Hamilton Smith illustrations and a description of what officers of 104th Foot wore when they sailed for North America, that what we now call the "Belgic" shako was current by early 1812.

We also know from that the "bang-up" was adopted by some battalions of the Light Division in the Peninsula 1813.

We know that by the 1850s, the 1812 pattern cap, the "Belgic" shako, and the "bang up" were regarded as synonymous.

The question seems to be whether or not this is correct. Is there any conclusive evidence on what the new official headgear was?

Now, we know that 20,000 Brown bess muskets and 20,000 rather Portuguese-looking blue coatees were shipped to the Netherlands around the start of 1814, and that in conjunction with some of these, a few thousand rather Portuguese-looking shakos were used to re-hat the Belgic Legion when they were converted from Austrian Empire regiments to Kingdom of the Netherlands battalions…

So, personally, I would not be surprised if fully 20,000 Portuguese-pattern shakos had been delivered, and there were enough left over to re-hat the British infantry there. Obviously, this would be easier if they were already the official pattern…

… but I am aware that this whole idea is really just a convenient conjecture, and that the reality may have been quite different!!

"a few thousand rather Portuguese-looking shakos"

Is that estimation based on contemporary images or a quoted observation?

42flanker: by calling them "Portuguese-looking", I was referring to the resemblance to the Portuguese barretina – the point isn't made in primary sources.

I think the evidence that the Belgic infantry wore the Belgic shako in 1815 is pretty good. However, while chasing up the primary sources to reply to you, I found that the Brussels press repeatedly describes the new shako design as anglais in early 1815:

link

… and moreover, conversely, and quite unexpectedly, I found what appears to be a contemporary reference to the Belgic shako as a "cap of Belgian fashion" in official British Army orders as early as August 1813, when the Royal Artillery changed their headgear:

link

So the Belgians thought of the design as British, whereas the British Army already thought of the design as "Belgian" in 1813…

(… and ironically, none of this rules out the possibility that the British Army actually did re-hat with surplus Belgic infantry headgear in 1815, or that these were actually surplus Portuguese-pattern hats, though that would be a bewilderingly circular chain of events…!)

So your hypothesis is that false-fronted caps were made for Portuguese troops, diverted to Belgium for the use of Belgian troops, then diverted further for use by British ones?

You could falsify this right away if the dimensions of the barretina are different to those of the 1812 cap. Do we know what they were? If different, the conjecture falters.

I am inclining more and more to the view that the lights and rifles did indeed adopt the Belgic. As well as there being no order that they should not, and the assumption proving to originate from a single non-contemporary source, the "Belgic" was suitably Austrian, like the klobuk pattern they were dispensing with. There are accounts and paintings that show them in it, and while the artists may be mistaken, there doesn't seem to be any strong reason to think so. If they are reliable enough in other particulars there is no reason to assume otherwise here – unless one is invested in the idea they kept the klobuk.

4th Cuirassier: yes, further complicated by the unexpected source saying that the cap was already called "Belgian" by the British Army… which presumably refers back to some sort of peaked mitre-cap in use by Hapsburg forces before 1797…

I've not found specific details of the designs – I can't even find a contemporary source which confirms that the pattern approved by the Prince Regent and Horse Guards in 1812 was actually the "Belgic" type… though technically such regulations don't tell us what pattern the caps sent to various places actually were – they could just be a close enough approximation to pass muster for what they're supposed to be!

I think it's clear that a significant proportions of the Light Division adopted the "bang-up" around 1813, and on present evidence, the "Belgic" is the best candidate. But was this supply sourced from London or Lisbon, and did the line infantry (and even the rest of the division, like 1/95th) follow suit?!

The Belgian Infantry adopted the 'Belgic' shako in september 1814 under Dutch rule. The 4th Bataillon, stationed in Brussels, first appeared with this cap in the last days of January 1815.
These caps had not been imported, but made by Belgian manufacturers.

The Dutch Militia had been equipped with British supplied stovepipe caps in the early months of 1814. The 8th Line (2nd Bataillon of the Dutch Legion of Orange) and the 10th Line (Orange Legion raised in GB) had both been supplied with similar caps when they were dressed and equipped by the British in the beginning of 1814.

Interesting!

Can you say what the evidence is for the local production of the "Belgic" shako in Belgium – and for the Dutch line infantry using an older pattern (I presume the inward-tapered version, as with the National Militia)?

Thanks!!

The tentacles of the Austrian Army's influence on other European cultures extended into other spheres than just the miltary. For example,it can still be discerned in modern Croatian slang, where Pandur is an offensively derisive term for a policeman, presumably in remembrance of oppressive and rapacious behaviour by the Hapsbug monarchy's Grenzer Pandours in their secondary role of a rural gendarmerie charged with keeping the Slav population of the military Border in line).
BTW anyone holidaying on the Dalmatian Coast should take great care never to mention the term Pandur during any interaction with the local police – the reaction will be comparable to that elicited by an African American rash enough to address a Mississipi Sheriff's Deputy as Pig.

The only solution is never to visit Croatia. Now I know not to say it, it's inevitable that I will.

"That black and white soft toy hanging from my rear-view mirror, officer? Why, that's a panda…I don't know why it's there, it came with this rental car, which is a Fiat Panda…sorry, you've obviously misunderstood something I said but I'm not going to pander to ignorance…"

@ Passing Scotsman: my references suggest the Dutch shako was bell-topped, not tapering. A lot of uniform originally produced for Portugal does seem still to have ben in the hands / on the backs of Prussian ex-Reserve regiments in 1815, including stovepipe shakoes and single-breasted blue infantry tunics.

4th Cuirassier – the official Netherlands shako seems to have been a fairly plain bell-top with front and back peaks, but in practice they used all kinds…

The Belgian regulars were in "Belgic" shakos, the Dutch "National Militia" are shown in the tapered British type, a lot of the Dutch regular units used French bell-tops (certainly the German-speaking Nassau regiments, apparently at least some Dutch-speaking line and light battalions too), the chasseurs were in British light dragoon shakos, though they also had a proportion of tall cylindrical hussar shakos, perhas of French rather than English origin, which are said to have been primarily used by officers.

Interesting that Portuguese regimentals went to Prussia, too. "Any uniform so long as it's dark blue"?

@A Passing Scotsman
I the Archives of the Belgian War Department of 1814-1815 are in the Belgian State Archives (Rijksarchief) They include a set off all contracts let for equipment and materials for the Belgian troops and a nearly complete set of receipts for receiving and issuing of materials and clothing from the General Clothing Store in Brussels.

All infantry caps received and issued originate from local contracts. Only the Dutch had received nearly 20.000 uniforms – including felt stovepipe pattern caps with plumes – from the British.

The regulation Dutch shako, also used by the Belgian regular artillery, was similar in dimensions to the French 1806 model, though it had no side chevrons and a leather chinstrap.

The 1815 pattern was lower and wider and had an Austrian style rear peak. They were contracted for centrally and the first batch had to be modified. In the end very few had been issued before Waterloo and even less would have made it to the battlefield proper.

Oh, that's brilliant – I'd seen source citations for the 20,000 coatees and 20,000 muskets, but knowing that the caps are documented as well is superb.

Is it clear which pattern the British shakos were (I assume you mean the unstiffened, tapered 1806 pattern which the National Militia used?) and that the "Belgic" ones procured locally were actually of local manufacture?

I didn't know that there was an older Dutch pattern before the rear-peak pattern came in. Apart fom the chinstrap, was the basic design obviously different from the later French models? The impression I had was that the Nassau regiments at least would be using actual Grande Armée models, and that at least some of the Orange Legion and 27 Jager would still be in French uniforms.

The clothing did not just consist of caps and coatees. Each set included also a sleeved waistcoat, a pair of grey trousers and half-gaiters, socks and shoes. There were not sufficient greatcoat and the difference was made up with blankets. There were also linnen knapsacks (old pattern), sets of greatcoat straps, wooden water-bottles and haversacks. The muskets included slings, cross-belts and cartridge boxes, generally second hand ones.

The militia caps were of the 1806 pattern, the knapsacks also of the old yellow painted linen ones.
The Dutch 1814 pattern was 7 Rhineland Inches of 26mm or 182 mm high, slightly higher than the Fench 1806 cap, which was 6½ French Inches of 27mm or 176mm. Otherwise it was much the same. The crown folded over to form a top band, probably 32mm (1¼ Rhineland inch) wide, the lower band was probably 26mm (1 Rhineland Inch) wide. The peak was pressed in French style, the cockade without loop as the French one.
The shako plate was a copy of the British 1812 pattern, but smaller to fit the available space, with a continental crown and a blockletter W.

The Nassau regiments did wear a French pattern shako, the Orange-Nassau regiment probably too.

The Jager Bataillon Nr 27 had been newly raised in 1814 and therefore never wore any French clothing and what Orange Legion are you referring too? There were three.

- The 1st Bataillon Orange Legion, raised in the Hague, became the 1st line bataillon on 5 January 1814 and was absorbed into the Bataillon Nr 8 in april 1815.
- the Dutch Legion of Orange was raised in Prussia and its three bataillons became the 7th, 8th and 9th Line Infantry Bataillon upon entering Dutch territory.
- The Orange Legion was raised in Plymouth and became the 10th Line Infantry Bataillon upon landing in Holland. It was absorbed into the 2nd Bataillon in late 1814.

God I love this place.

40 years ago I had to pay £2.75 GBP for Haythornthwaite's Uniforms of Waterloo – about twenty quid in money of today – for maybe 10% of the info in the above post.

Today it's all free, and if I want, I get a free argument thrown in.
YouTube link

Not to mention, along with multiple arguments, a free dog house to boot. ;>)

That's really great detail on the uniforms that the British supplied. My understanding is that the idea of a fundamental change in British knapsack design is something of a myth, but that's only from following the online discussion…

In 1810 the French shakos went up to 7 pouces / 19cm (a slight rounding, 7 pouces being about 18.95 cm) – did the Dutch just swap which inch they were using?!

I got my Dutch Jager battalion numbers backwards – I meant Jager Nr. 18, which incorporated the two Dutch battalions from the Garde Imperiale cadet school, though I've read that Jager Nr. 27 had a company or two of non-Dutch cadets who had been affiliated to them (Italians?) plus the non-Belgian personnel of the Perez Chasseurs, whoever they were (miscellaneous Grande Armée prisoners taken at Breda on 10th December 1813?).

By the "Legion of Orange", I meant the two thousand ex-Grande Armée infantry of the "Dutch Legion of Orange", who presumably came with blue uniforms piped in something close to orange.

Maybe you can confirm or demolish some questions about the cavalry regimentals, too – the chasseurs / light dragoons look like they're using old British light dragoon dolmans and more recent British light dragoon shakos, the hussars look like they might be in KGL/7th Hussars or ex-Kingdom of Holland line hussar uniforms, or a mix of both (some illustrations seem to show two different shades of blue in the same uniform), and the heavy dragoons / Dutch carabiniers are wearing something very like the regimentals that the Royal Horse Guards were forced to give up in 1813…

4th Cuirassier, Major Bloodnok – at the risk of failing to argue with anyone… agreed!!

About the height of the shako: that's possible. However, in 1814 there was a tendency to hark back to older Dutch patterns, so the dimensions of the 1806 shako of the Kingdom of Holland might have had some influence on the 1814 one.

The Pupils of the Imperial Guard: the 2nd Bataillon returned to Holland in may 1814 as an small organized unit. It was taken into Dutch service but retained its uniform, only purging it from imperial symbols. It was disbanded in the fall and most of its personnel absorbed into the 5th Jager, which was to become the Jager Bataillon nr. 18. By that time the 5th Bataillon was fully clothed and the French uniforms were not retained.

Of the Dutch Legion of Orange both the 1st and 3rd Bataillon arrived in Holland unarmed and unclothed. Only the 2nd Bataillon (8th Line Bataillon) was dressed and equipped from British stores. Their coatees were scarlet, not blue. The last scarlet coatees were withdrawn in may 1815.
The 1st bataillon (7th once in Holland) was hastily equipped from the recently arrived clothing and equipment sets from GB, only their coatees, waistcoats and shako plates being of regular Dutch pattern.

The Uniform of the Dutch light dragoons might have been inspired by British uniform, but the clothing was all newly made. So were those of the other regiments.
The uniform of the carabiniers (in 1814: heavy dragoons) was based on that of the Batavian dragoons, not on any British pattern.
The uniform of the hussars was indeed part light, part dark blue and I believe it was based on Austrian patterns (yellow and black braid and scarlet chabraque). The dolman, Hungarian pantaloons, waistcoat, cloak coat and valise were light blue, the pelisse, overalls, stable jacket and stable cap were dark blue.

All but the 1st Carabiniers used British light cavalry equipment without their sabretaches in 1815, the light cavalry with Dutch cartridge boxes and the hussars with Dutch sabretaches. All had British swivel ramrod pistols. The light dragoons and hussars also had British carbines and the British M1796 Light Cavalry Sabre. The Light Dragoons were also largely equipped with British Hussar saddlery, including (dark blue) chabraques and valises, but not sheepskins.

About the British knapsack: an original black one surfaced in the Swedish Army Museum. The guys from the 2nd Bat., 95th Rifles conclude that it its likely to be the elusive 1811 pattern.

Interesting – did the 1806 Kingdom of Holland shako already use 7 Rhineland inches rather than the 6.5 pouces of the contemporary French one?

I was under the impression that both the Dutch battalions of the Guard cadets were repatriated, and they were then amalgamated into one jager battalion.

I would have thought that all three battalions of the Dutch Legion arrived wearing French uniforms. ;) What do you mean by saying that one of them subsequently had coatees and waistcoats of "regular Dutch pattern" – the blue coatees of British origin, or something different?

And the uniform of the light dragoons was of local manufacture? Does that even include the shakos, which are a very direct copy of the British one?

The Dutch heavy dragoon / carabiner uniform obviously resembles earlier Dutch cavalry ones, but is also a close match for the uniform which the British Royal Horse Guards had given up a few months earlier – making me wonder if they might have inherited them.

If the hussars had yellow-and-black Austrian braid, I can see why that would suggest Austrian sources. Was that true of both the Dutch and Belgian regiments?

And the opinion of the 2nd Bn. 95th counts for a lot, but now you have me curious what beyond the black finish differentiates this knapsack from other ones!

Unfortunately I don't know the exact dimensions of the Dutch 1806 pattern shako, so I can't say conclusively.

As far as I know, only the 2nd Bataillon of Pupils was repatriated with arms and uniforms. They were renamed the Corps of Velites in the Netherlands, the same name they had used under the Kingdom of Holland.

The regular Dutch pattern was adopted at the end of December 1814. The coatee had British style skirts but only eight buttons down the front, piping all round and different facing colours ( light blue for the 7th ) . It's because these patterns already existed that the British coatees had been used to dress the militia ( even being adopted as the official pattern for them ) .

The shako for the Light Dragoons was of the same pattern as that for the infantry, only had a white shako plate, white loop over the cockade, white cap lines and a black feather plume. In spite of what most depiction show, it did not have a white lace band around the top.

The Dutch 1st Regiment of Dragoons/Carabiniers had pink facings, not scarlet ones. Besides, in the archives I've found a contract with a Steinmetz for the manufacture of the clothing. Also a document noting the result of William's inspection of the proposed uniform, choosing between proposed variations.

The Belgian regiment of Hussars had an entirely different uniform, sky blue with scarlet facings and pelisse lining and white braid and buttons. The cut was different too.

As far as the 2nd Bat. 95th Rifles are concerned, they have a forum, on the public part of which you can follow the discussion:
tapatalk.com/groups/2nd95thrifles/knapsack-the-thatcher-t823.html

Unfortunately I don't know the exact dimensions of the Dutch 1806 pattern shako

Well, shame on you.

No worries on the Kingdom of Holland shako height – you've already given me more answers and interesting details than I thought I'd find even here!!

There seems to be some inconsistency about the pupilles / vélites – my understanding was that 1e Bataillon at St Malo had been sent back to the Netherlands without their muskets, followed by 2e Bataillon at Boulogne fully armed, both in June 1814, but although the published sources all seem to be using the same underlying material, they all give slightly different interpretations:

link
link
link
link

Green uniforms with yellow collar and piping, which were at least the right colour to make them into Jagers.

As to the infantry uniforms, I suppose I'd been influenced by the images which show French-style details like triple-buttoned vertical pocket-piping.

link
link

I thought I'd also seen sources indicating that very British-looking white shako-band for the light dragoons, but maybe those were modern interpretations. What do you mean by white "shako-lines"? V-shaped side stripes?

I take your point on the 1st Karabiniers' pink facings. Anything interesting in the variations that were being considered?

Trying to work out the details on the Belgian hussar uniforms and how they differed from the Dutch ones just left me feeling confused, so that's appreciated.

And thanks for the link to the forum for the 2nd Bat. 95th.

The real debt the British owed to the Austrians was that they bore the brunt of fighting the Grande Armee from 1805-1815 in five campaigns.

They could not have done such a sustained effort without British subsidies, especially in 1813-1814, but they still provided the necessary cannon fodder.

There is a portrait of an officer of the Velites, wearing the French uniform with Dutch buttons and epaulette.

Captain Theodorus van spengler

As far as the variations in the dragon uniform: the Colonel, one sergeant-major and one dragoon presented themselves to William and he chose between the variations. The note reads like: "the coat worn by the sergeant-major De Rook, made by the tailor Caron. Buttons arranged like those of the Colonel's coat" etc. Not very helpful as far as detail are concerned. One thing stands out as being different from what is generally accepted: "waistcoat not to be visible, so no pattern".

Thanks for the Vélite image! I should have guessed they'd use a chasseur surtout, really…

Interesting information on the Dutch heavy dragoons / carabiniers, too. I wonder how the button layout could have varied. And do other sources indicate what a waistcoat "pattern" meant – light-cavalry style lacing, braid edging?

It's more significant that as a captain Von Spengler wore a regimental coat, rather than an old guard pattern.

The waistcoat of the Dutch Dragoons was according to the tarifs a simple affair: white with a single row of nine small uniform buttons.

As far as the continued use of the Velite uniform is concerned: on 15 February 1815 both the Chasseur Bataillons Nr. 18 and 27 were instructed to issue the former Velites with a full first issue of clothing, as if they had come directly from civil life.