Bengal Native Infantry light companies at the time of the Sikh Wars

[Arthur]

Esteemed fellow adventurers

I'm currently stumbling on a minor question as I'm gathering info on HEIC Bengal native infantry units for the first Anglo-Sikh war of 1845/46. Should I paint my light company sepoys in red or dark green coats ? It would seem that at some point during the mid C19th the light companies of most BNI battalions were re-uniformed and re-equipped as riflemen to make up for the lack of true light infantry. What I can't seem to confirm however is whether the change occurred before or after the Sikh wars - or possibly in-between the first and the second Sikh war sometime in 1847.   

I've checked both Boris Mollo (The Indian Army) and John French (The British in India 1825-1859) and while both confirm that light companies wore rifle green and were armed with the Brunswick rifle, none give an exact date for the switch to rifleman uniform and equipment. The only reliable contemporary source I have at the moment is a lithograph after Wyndham depicting a rifle company sepoy in dark green circa 1850 (reproduced on page 73 of Mollo's book)

Is anyone able to shed some light on this somewhat obscure point ?     

[sepoy1857]

Arthur,
Some regiments had an additional Rifle company in green uniforms, black trim, and Brunswick rifles, but these did not replace the light companies (in red).  See French for the list of regiments with additional Rifle companies.

[Gluteus Maximus]

I've a feeling this could be one of those questions that nobody knows the answer to. If John French doesn't give the info, you can be sure he doesn't know it and if he doesn't know. it must be a very obscure fact. His book is the most recent and I know he is an expert on British wars in India.

sepoy1857 seems to have spotted the best info here - it may be that you can use either or both uniforms together.

It looks like you have some leeway as to which uniform to use at the date you want. After all, if nobody knows an exact date, nobody can criticize  (much) 

[smirnoff]

Arthur,
Some regiments had an additional Rifle company in green uniforms, black trim, and Brunswick rifles, but these did not replace the light companies (in red).  See French for the list of regiments with additional Rifle companies.

This is my understanding of the organisation too; I have been down the same road and ended here.

[Arthur]

Many thanks for the answers, chaps 

Sepoy1857 : yes, I was familiar with the info French provides in his chapter on the mutiny. But since his list post-dates the first Anglo-Sikh war by twelve years, I wasn't too sure what to make of it. As to whether the rifle company replaced the light coy or not, French remains guarded, which suggests that there's no solid evidence one way or the other (he writes that they "seem to have been an addition and not a replacement" - my emphasis on 'seem').

In the end, I think I'll paint a rifle company for the 42nd BNI (which was after all a light infantry regiment, at least on paper), and possibly for the 48th and the 26th as well. As Gluteus says, it is most unlikely anyone will produce period colour photographs to prove me wrong anyway     

   

[sukhe_bator]

The Sikhs modelled their modern army the 'Khalsa Raaj' largely on the British model, though many of their instructors and brigadiers were French. Paintings made for General Claude August Court in Lahore ca.1840 show Sikh 'Gurkha' regiments (mostly Kashmiri's) in Flank company redcoats with shakos with green plumes. I don't know if that helps much, but it would tend to indicate a more Napoleonic period trend in uniforms. I'm not sure if the Sirmoor and Nasiri Gurkha battalions in the EIC were in green jackets at this time.

[Arthur]

The Gurkhas (or Local Hill Corps, to give them their proper name) were dressed in dark green from the very beginning. On January 9 1829, a directive from the Adjutant General established that their uniform would consist of dark green jackets and trousers of rifle pattern. They also wore a peaked belltop shako, unlike the Bengal native infantry who had peakless shakos. Boris Mollo's The Indian Army features a watercolour from 1834 depicting 'Goorkhas of the Sabathu battalion' and they are all dressed in the regulation uniform described above.