Hi everyone,
Over the past year, I have found conflicting information on the three detached companies of the Brunswick Oels Jagers battalion that served in the Peninsula from 1810-1814. I have set out the two options below, and would be interested in anything that the membership can throw at me that might support/sink either one.
Like many wargamers, I started off with the (largely British-inspired) assumption that all three detached companies - one in the 4th Division, two in the 5th Division - were dressed in green tunics and grey trousers, and armed with Baker Rifles (which appear to have been so plentiful that they were being issued to Yeomanry cavalry units in Great Britain and Ireland).
More recently, I have been shown German documents that suggest that only one of the three companies was formed from the single "scharfschutzen" company of the 1809 "Black Horde" and that it alone retained the German rifles with which it was equipped in that year (95 of them, to be precise); the other two companies wore the all-black uniform of the main body of the battalion and - again, like them - were armed with the Brown Bess. However, recent discussions with a Brunswick expert in Australia (no, not Austria) suggests that option 1. above is actually correct.
Can anyone clear this up for me?
Supplementary questions for bonus points - I have also read that one of the companies of the main body was a grenadier company, is this correct? If so, did it wear any uniform distinctions and/or operate in any way differently from the other 8 companies of the main body? And whilst I am aware that the entire 12-company unit was a "Light Battalion" in British parlance, and that the main body was brigaded with the 1st and 2nd KGL Light Battalions, did that main body form a separate "super-light" skirmish detachment to operate in advance either in battle or on the march?
Thanks.
Brendan
As I mentioned last time you posed the question of which companies had rifles, I've seen the returns for the regiment at The National Archives, and there was definitely only one rifle-armed company. Here is a return from 1812, and you can see they only had 95 rifles, which was enough for a company.
I speculate that however the companies were initially clothed they probably later were issued Britiah coats and trousers. The reason for this is a practical one: Three or four years is an awfully long time for one to be wearing the same clothes on campaign. Normally, I think, uniforms were replaced after a year of use. The companies likely would not have had accrss to Brunswick stores of clothing and would eventually have been issued British uniforms to replace the worn-out Brunswick uniforms.
Hello, this came up during the research for my book Wellington at Bay which featured the 5th Division. This division included the 2nd and 10th companies. The green clad sharpshooter company was numbered 3; here is the appropriate footnote from my book, the reference is available on-line;
'Kortzfleisch, Geschichte, Vol.I, pp.158, 239, 250; neither the 2nd or 10th companies were the
sharpshooter company, which was numbered 3 and served with the 4th Division. This unit is
known by several names; the Army List 1812 refers to them as the Duke of Brunswick Oels
Corps including the Hussars, while in modern accounts they are widely referred to as Jagers.
I have chosen the contemporary description of the Duke of Brunswick Oels Light Infantry as
shown, for example, in Wellington (ed.), Supplementary Despatches, 1871, Vol.XIII, pp.472,
636.'
Regards
Garry