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British and French Troops in the West Indies, 1794-1796
UniformInfo - Military Modelling magazine, July 1976
Q.
Sirs,
I am at present carrying out research for an historical novel set in the West Indies around the year 1795. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find details of the uniforms for the following regiments.
1. Prince Lowenstein's Jager-Regiment, commanded by Graf von Heillimer, and engaged by the British for the relief of Grenada during 1795-96.
2. The 1st West India Regiment, which was formed in May 1795 by amalgamating Malcolm’s Rangers and the Carolina Corps, used in Grenada 1795-96. The 2nd West India Regiment, formed in 1795 by converting the St. Vincent Black Rangers. All of these coloured troops were used in the relief of Grenada 1795-96.
3. The Pyrenean Rifles or Regiment of Basques, used by the French Republican Government for the capture of Guadeloupe in June 1794.
4. The 17th Light Dragoons used by the British for the relief of Grenada, 1795-96.
Feltham. Middx. I. Blackbush.
A.
There is no uniform information on the coloured units raised in the West Indies prior to 1802. Their activities and amalgamations are well documented and, as they were classified as regular units of the British Army, there seems no reason to suppose that they were not clothed and accoutred as other regular units in the theatre. Their facing colours are of course still open to conjecture. The facings of the 1st and 2nd. West India Regiments were white and yellow respectively after 1802 and this could have had a bearing on what was worn before that date but no definite statement can be made on this issue.
There are a number of possibilities for the uniforms of these corps which should be stated. The period in question was one of transition as far as the dress of the British Army was concerned. They could have worn the eighteenth Century type of long tailed coat with folded back lapels in the facing colour. This coat was normally worn open to reveal the waistcoat. On the other hand it seems likely that the more modern short-tailed coatee type jacket was worn. This coat was buttoned to the waist and either had ʺplastron half lapelsʺ or was single-breasted with one row of buttons and the fronts decorated with white lace loops.
The head-dress was probably a form of the ʺround hatʺ worn by most British troops in hot climates. The hat would probably be of straw or stiffened linen and the élite companies, i.e. grenadiers may have had a bearskin crest. Officers would be Europeans, either British or Dutch and would have worn the cocked hat. All ranks probably wore the white mosquito trousers, a garment which had the lower parts shaped to cover the calves and the insteps and was buckled under the boots. It is likely of course that the black troops of the period went barefoot.
The dress of the British Light Dragoon of the period was the black leather caterpillar crested helmet which is sometimes referred to as the ʺTarleton Helmetʺ. The caterpillar was black bearskin and the cap had a pleated ʺturbanʺ which was either black or in the facing colour.
The jacket was in fact two garments, a waistlength, sleeved waistcoat worn under a sleeveless waist-length jacket called a shell. For home service both were made of dark blue cloth and were elaborately looped with white braid for the other ranks and in silver for the officers. The collars and pointed cuffs were in the facing colour, for the 17th in white. Across each shoulder was a narrow blue cloth wing which helped to hide the shoulder part of the jacket where the sleeve passed through the armholes of the outer garment. White leather breeches were worn with black cuffed boots with steel spurs. However in 1796 it was decided to dress light dragoons in hot climates in a lighter jacket of grey. There were thereafter a number of orders and counter orders between the King and the Horse Guards authorising and refusing to allow this clothing, it appears that regiments serving in the West Indies were to continue to wear the dark blue jacket. Nevertheless it is considered that some concession must have been made to the heat and that they probably wore the sleeved waistcoat without the shell or, alternatively the shell over the white shirt but this is of course conjecture and at the most an educated guess. It is known that some form of lighter head-dress was taken into use made from tin with a light crest and a horsehair ornament. The precise design is not known. There are some sketchy drawings of a slightly later period which show light dragoons wearing a cap very similar to a small shako with a small feather ornament but the details are not clear. The white breeches would continue to be worn but probably with black cloth gaiters. When fighting on foot the white mosquito trousers would be worn and muskets carried in lieu of the light carbines.
Little information is available on the dress of the Pyrenean unit other than the bald statement in one contemporary document that ʺthey are dressed in Spanish brown with sky blue pipings on the collar, lapels, cuffs and the skirtsʺ. One would expect the officers to wear the black cocked hat with a tricolour cockade and a similarly coloured sash around their waists while the troopers would take into use the ubiquitous head-dress of the West Indies, that is the wide-brimmed straw hat similarly embellished with the Republican cockade.
Lowenstein’s Chasseurs or Jägers were originally raised by the Prince Lowenstein-Wertheim in 1795 and they then served with the army of the United Provinces. The unit was later transferred to the British service with an establishment of eight companies, each of four officers and eighty five rank and file, together with a staff of ten officers and two senior non-commissioned officers.
The men were mostly Alsatians and Swiss although a high proportion of the officers were emigré French ʺaristosʺ.
In the winter of 1797-1798 the regiment was embodied in the 60th. Regiment of Foot and became the famous 5th. Battalion of that distinguished regiment. It was commanded by Colonel von Schismmersdorf.
The uniform was a black felt (straw in hot climates) round hat with a tapering crown and the left side folded up ʺcorsicanʺ style. The authorities differ as to the details of the head-dress. French documents show a white feather or tuft and a round white cockade with a simple yellow loop and button and with ʺstegenʺ or stay cords on either side of the button to support the folded up side. Another contemporary source quoted in a Dutch document of the period gives a green feather and Charles Hamilton Smith’s original water colour in his MSS volume in the Victoria and Albert Museum Print Room shows a black feather.
Vicomte Grouvel, the leading French authority on emigré regiments, gives a description from another contemporary source which describes a similar cap with the base of the crown, the edge of the brim, and the cockade cord green and a green feather. A later source quoted by the same historian gives no binding to the brim but a yellow band around the base of the crown and a white cockade and plume but with a black cockade cord with a small brass buckle.
An interesting painting, attributed to a Captain Louisenthal, of the Regiment, portrays an incident in the Battle of St. Lucia in 1796. The figures of the regiment have a green binding to the cap brim and with the folded up part further embellished with a green cord. This type of decoration is repeated by Charles Hamilton Smith but he shows the other side of the hat folded up with black ribbons or tapes across the top of the crown.
The coats are described in a variety of colours including dark sky blue, grey green, pike grey (ʺlike the Austrian jägersʺ) grey blue, bright blue or even blue grey and were probably an indeterminate shade of grey somewhat between all these. The jackets had green collars, shoulder straps, round cuffs, turnbacks and ʺplastron half lapelsʺ and yellow buttons. Hamilton Smith adds green tufts or fringes to the shoulder straps. Grouvel, Hamilton Smith, C.C.P. Lawson and the Dutch source all give very short tails but the Louisenthal painting gives tails to the coat which reach half way to the knee. Breeches were tight and are either the grey tone or white, if the latter they had green ʺfer de lanceʺ on the front flaps. Officers wore cocked hats with gold cockade loops and tassels, black cockades and green feathers, crimson sashes, gilt buttons and rank epaulettes as in the British service, black sword belts with brass ornaments and sabres in black scabbards with gilt mounts and gold sword knots. One figure in the St. Lucia painting confirms this dress and has Hessian boots. The ranks and file wore short calf length gaiters with green binding and tassels.
In a letter to the writer the late C.C.P. Lawson stated it was his understanding that the men carried short, double-barrelled Swiss or Austrian rifles and had brass powder horns.
All the sources show black leather equipment. A shoulder belt supporting a black pouch on the right hip, a black waistbelt with a brass snakeclasp and a sword bayonet with a brass hilt. Hamilton Smith shows crossed shoulder belts.
All authorities show the men wearing moustaches.