"British Regimental/Battalion and Company Distinctions" Topic

I am checking to see if I have this right about line British infantry battalions in 1815.

Light Company – Green Plumes
Center/Command – White over Red Plumes
Grenadier Company – White Plumes

Drummers are reverse jacket colors. Except for royal or guard battalions which are the same as the rest of the battalion.

That's how I do mine…

Reverse color drummer jackets were supposed to be cancelled in 1812. Some units in 1815 may still have had them.

Getting into the weeds here, but does anyone know which regiments retained the reverse jackets at least up through Waterloo?

Not sure how definitive it is or what sources he used, but Coppens did a series of plates for Waterloo that show a 33rd Ft.drummer in white, 69th bugler in green and 79th drummer in green.

If you are not familiar with it, this site will have the answers to most of your questions regarding uniforms at Waterloo. The site is in French but you will find it easy to navigate and the colour guides are excellent for painters:

link

here's an example:

I hope that this helps,regards, steve

The regulation tufts on caps were as described with a couple of exceptions (naturally).

The 42nd RHR battalion coys had scarlet hackle feather plumes in their bonnets, on the LHS. Flank coy distinctions _may_ have been bi-colour, each with scarlet tips, as represented on the centjours.mont-saint-jean site, but that may well be a Victorianism.

Similarly, the 5th Northumberland wore non-regulation white 'tufts' in their caps, it would seem for all companies, an ornament in evidence as early as 1792 and supposedly adopted in 1778.

The 5th were engaged in a long campaign to be recognised as a Fusilier regiment; the nearest the British got to having grenadier regiments – until 1815 and the granting of the title 'Grenadier' to the First Foot Guards.. The picture is not entirely clear but there is some evidence that the three Fusilier regiments (7th 21st & 23rd) had adopted a white 'grenadier' plume in the years after the AWI.

Thanks to everyone. Arcane Steve thanks for that link.

Be aware 'for example' that the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers wore white plumes throughout all their companies.

And Scottish Regiments like the 42nd who had all red for the battalion companies, green with a red tip for the light company, and white with a red tip for the grenadier company.

And though it probably won't matter much, the 30th had bastion lace in pairs, not singles as shown in the charts of that link and many other illustrations.

De Bosset and Hamilton-Smith's charts should be studied with caution as they too are plagued with inaccuracies.

Thanks, Paul, for clearing up the fusilier question.

The 42nd were the only Highland regiment that sported the 'red feather' as a distinction. The others all wore the 'regulation feather.' The earliest evidence for wearing bi-coloured 'feathers' comes from a late C19th source referring back to a brief interlude in the 1820s.

Wollen's "The Black Watch at bay" (1889) showing the regiment at Quatre Bras with grenadiers sporting bi-coloured hackles, would seem to have taken its cue from that late source. Authors such as Haythornthwaite and Wilkinson-Latham then apparently accepted this as historical reference for the earlier wartime practice. In fact, it is hard to find any reference at all relating to that period. Such as there is shows a plain red hackle.