15mm British AWI

[noigrim]

Regular infantry

http://noigrimintothemaelstorm.blogspot.com.es/2016/09/his-british-majestys-regiments-of-foot.html

[jrames]

Very nice!!

[jambo1]

Good work!!!

[noigrim]

Thanks! With this brigade of guards there's only one batallion of hessians to go!

http://noigrimintothemaelstorm.blogspot.com.es/2016/09/guard-brigade.html



I'm a bit confused with what role had the light troops in this war so if you couls lend me a hand that'd be great. Were light troops part of the batallions or converged in light units?
The british had light companies sure but what about the french, american and spanish? They had specializzed regiments of them instead?

[noigrim]

Done

http://noigrimintothemaelstorm.blogspot.com.es/2016/09/kings-german-infantry.html

[zippyfusenet]

Good painting noigrim. I find I no longer have the vision or the stamina to paint up masses of 15mm figures, though I keep working on a battalion here and there from my back inventory. None of my projects is ever completely done, but I'm not starting any new ones in 15mm.

I don't see that anyone answered your question about light infantry.

British light infantry companies were administratively part of the regiments of foot, one light company per battalion. Light companies were converged into light battalions for field service, with battalion organization usually remaining stable through a campaign or even longer. Light battalions were often grouped, along with available converged grenadier battalions, into one or more 'elite' brigades per army. There were seldom enough regular lights to form a brigade by themselves.

The Continental army went through several organizational changes. Washington formed an experimental light infantry 'corps' of chosen men in 1777. Congress authorized one light infantry company per battalion in the 1778 organization, and this was kept in the 1781 organization. Similar to the British system, light infantry companies were converged into light battalions. In Washington's Main Army, the light battalions were grouped into Lafayette's Corps of Light Infantry, a division of 2,000 men that was the flower of the army.

German regiments had no organic light infantry. A few companies of jaeger were sent to North America, armed with a mix of muskets and rifles.

I believe the French at this time had one Piquet company per infantry battalion, which were converged into light battalions.

I don't know about the Spanish, but doubt they had light companies in their infantry regiments.

However, in North America, the regular light infantry was the least of it, as both Patriot and British/Loyalist armies fielded several regular Legions and Partisan Corps for the petit guerre, and both sides fielded large numbers of Indians and white rangers as irregular light infantry. Regular light infantry were kept with the main armies and used mostly as shock troops, rather than as scouts and skirmishers.

[noigrim]

Thanks for the answer but after making some research of my own i found that the britsh had one light/grenadier company for regiment, the french two (in two batallions) and the spanish had one grenadier for batallion (2-3batallions for regiment).

[zippyfusenet]

To pick a nit: Most British regiments of foot had only one battalion, but a few raised two or more. In those cases, each battalion had its own flank companies, so it's one light company per battalion, rather than per regiment in the British army.

[noigrim]

Ah, but british regiment didn't have batallions back then, the regiment had eigh musketeer field companies, one grenedier, one light and two depot companies (one in ireland, one in england).

pg 48: http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/060/60-4-1/CMH_Pub_60-4-1.pdf

[zippyfusenet]

Certainly most British regiments of foot in the AWI raised only a single battalion, but there were exceptions. The 84th Regiment of Foot, for one example, raised two battalions. The 60th foot, originally four battalions, still had two battalions in 1775 when they left for the West Indies. When a regular regiment had more than one battalion, every battalion was organized with eight 'hat' companies and one company each of grenadiers and light infantry.

[noigrim]

You'll have your sources