Coldstream Guard 1815 Light Coy Sergeant sword or no sword?

[peedee]

Make the sword ya lazy bugger

 

[Jimbo]

Peedee....No!...not gonna happen mate.

 

[valiant]

Kind of academic, really, anyway.... safe to say there's no one alive now who was there to tell you it's wrong....

 

[peedee]

Peedee....No!...not gonna happen mate.

Anyone asks....it fell off getting out of the transport, and the drummer's minding it.

Kind of academic, really, anyway.... safe to say there's no one alive now who was there to tell you it's wrong....

...unless he signed for it

 

[Babelfish]

Ah.......but others show it being worn .....

It's a flipping minefield, some show a sword & others don't?

Which probably means that both are perfectly feasible!

As long as it's period-accurate I don't think there's much in this hobby that's a 100% exact science, given that soldiers have always adapted, improvised and begged, borrowed or stole items of kit since time immemorial.

- Steve

 

[fogie]

Hi Mike
Didn't the Lt coy also carry a shortened musket

Nap

As I hadn't come across shortened 'brown bess' variants before, I thought I'd better find out a bit more. So... by the time of
the Peninsular War the original 'Long Land' pattern musket had been replaced eventually by the 'India' pattern. It had a
barrel length of 39 inches, a slightly smaller bore, and a marginally lesser weight than the original. The Foot Guards however
were supplied with the 'New Land' variant - with the same barrel length and additional design improvements around the cocking
device and trigger guard. The main point, Kev, is that as far as I can see, 'shortened' muskets with a barrel length of 26 inches
were produced essentially for cavalry units and received the official nomenclature of 'carbines'.

Now then.........how boring is all that ?



Mike

 

[Henry1756]

The initial color print at the beginning thread is from the Waterloo book done by Haythornthwaite c1974. It shows a Guardsman from the light company. He is not armed with a shorten Brown Bess Musket or a "Fusil" as was sometimes carried by musket armed NCOs/junior officers. Most British light companies carried the smoothbore Brn Bess. By Waterloo, many had been armed with the somewhat lightened and slightly shortened Brn Bess c1812. Back to the Guardsman figure. He is armed with a Baker Rifle with the attendant sword bayonet. What some are identifying as a sword....is a sword bayonet. Theoritically NCOs of any stature were authorized a sword. In the field, really only the SgtMaj and 3-4 other NCOs might bother to carry the sword. Pikes were often only carried by Flag guards. The exception for Waterloo is that the Army had been freshly rearmed since the ending of the war in 1814 ...and Wellington's shiny new Army had not spent the last year tramping across Andulusia. So a few more NCO swords and the like may have been carried. Guardsman due to their dress right dress reputation might also have been more likely to be wearing & carrying all the latest regulation kit. Lastly, did the Guards light companies carry Baker rifles? Conceivable but unlikely. 95th/60 Rifles, KGL Rifles and the Light Companies of the KGL did. I'd love to see returns on all the Waterloo Regts to see if any more of the Regt Light Companies carried Bakers. Could/did individual Lgt Coy Sgts/men have a Baker or two .... maybe? I'm trying to see if the Cameron Lgt Company carried any .... unlikely.