"British light companies" Topic

We noticed that the light companies of British battalions in eg the Peninsular War were combined into separate light battalions. This imho is documented enough.

But: did the battalions who "lost" their light company did or did not have light skirmishing capabilities? We couldn't find any source for this.
Any clue?

Stuart's forces at Maida in 1806 included converged battalions of light and grenadier companies from the battalion he had plus those left behind on Sicily. In addition, he had a unit of 'flankers', who were picked men from the centre companies, but who skirmished.

The battalions Stuart had were not unusual in any way that would mark this out as exceptional. One, the 78th, consisted mainly of 16- and 17-year-olds. So I'd guess the answer is yes, residually line battalions generally did retain some skirmishing capacity. How proficient they were and whether battalions used this capacity I can't answer. It can't be too hard for infantry to shake out into extended order and to then fire at will, and maybe that's all they did.

I hadn't heard of this practice (battalions of combined light companies), do tell me more.
Presumably battalion training manuals might say if there was any skirmishing training for the centre companies.

I found this interesting article online: link

There's no telling what a wargamer might do with a "separate" light battalion, but since The way Wellington did it, they were deployed as skirmishers within sight of their regiments I doubt the issue came up very often.

That said, as I recall at Waterloo you will find British grenadiers and eventually volunteers from the center companies used to bolster a thinning skirmish line, and the same program of placing a field grade in charge of the brigade's light companies was in effect there.

See p. 187 & 395 of The General Orders of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington for the orders for these Light Infantry Bns. : link

Light troops and grenadiers troops were used separately from their battalion in the American War of Independence also, Lexington and Concord being examples.

In Wellington's army in the Peninsula you have to think in terms of the brigade as a whole.

The basic idea was that skirmish capacity was moved from battalion level to brigade level. So each brigade would have a ‘skirmish unit' made up of each battalion's light company, plus a few detached companies of rifles from the 95th or 60th regiments and detached companies of Portuguese Cacadores.

This gave each infantry brigade a powerful, centrally controlled, light element. It also meant that the ‘light-less' line battalions didn't have to faff about with skirmishers…

Cerdic is spot on regarding the deployment of British brigade skirmish screens during the Peninsular War.

I believe it was common in the peninsula for the division's light companies plus a company or two from the 5/60th or Brunswick bn to form adhoc skirmish battalions. If your game scale is that granular you could also do so, if it is more grand tactical I'd consider it a mechanism your higher-level commanders would not worry about.
IIRC the 95th and other formal light battalions were part of the Light division and used more as a vanguard than formal skirmish screen.
(oops, someone else beat me to the punch)

And as if by magic, General d'Armee has brigade skirmish screens. All makes sense; and quite different from the converged battalions of the AWI.

In 1793 the Gusrds Brigade had a combined Grenadier battalion of 4 companies. There was also a battalion of Light infantry drawn fron the Line regiments.

Weren't all British regiments capable of skirmishing by 1813/1814 at the latest.

I've a picture of a Scots regiment in a book somewhere, referencing that whole regiments were capable by then..

In 1793-95, grouping of light coys into battalion groupings was very ad hoc, especially in the later stages when the increasing depletion of infantry battalions as a result of sickness and exposure meant that every bayonet counted. Outpost duties tended to fall to Hessian and Hanoverian troops, although certain British battalions, like the 33rd filled the role as well.

Can't remember where I read this, but during one peninsular war battle, the French skirmishers mistook the Allied skirmish line for the main battle-line, it was so dense. So it does look like brigades threw anyone they could forward, to harass the froggy light infantry.

Also don't forget that per Rod MacArthur's research, the Guards establishment had more light companies than battalions. This raises the intriguing possibility that when they generated a battalion for field service, it arrived in theatre with either more than ten companies, or ten companies of which more than two were elite.