 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2023) |
The 8th Line Battalion of the King's German Legion was a Hanoverian unit in British service during the Napoleonic Wars.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2023) |
The 8th Line Battalion of the King's German Legion was a Hanoverian unit in British service during the Napoleonic Wars.
The unit was raised during the year 1806 as the last out of eight line battalions that the Legion levied in total. It was only half completed when the British Expeditionary force withdrew from Hanover early 1806 and subsequently filled up as recruits became available.
The battalion was initially brigaded with the 7th Line Battalion of the Legion. It served from 1805 until 1816 in Ireland, Walcheren, Copenhagen, Sicily, Peninsula and Belgium. It took part in the Northern Italian campaign, resulting in the capture of Genoa in April 1814. [1]
On 18 June 1815, during the Battle of Waterloo, the battalion was nearly wiped out during the fighting in the centre of Wellington's battle line and lost a flag.
Uniform and Equipment of the Legion's Line battalions was of standard British pattern of the time. In accord it was repeatedly revised during the years from 1803 until 1815. In general it was composed of:
The principal distinction from British units was that the backpack was of dark blue colour rather than black.
La Haye Sainte is a walled farmhouse compound at the foot of an escarpment on the Charleroi-Brussels road in Belgium. It has changed very little since it played a crucial part in the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.
The King's German Legion was a British Army unit of mostly expatriated German personnel during the period 1803–16. The legion achieved the distinction of being the only German force to fight without interruption against the French during the Napoleonic Wars.
General Sir Colin Halkett was a British Army officer who became Lieutenant Governor of Jersey.
A shako is a tall, cylindrical military cap, usually with a visor, and sometimes tapered at the top. It is usually adorned with an ornamental plate or badge on the front, metallic or otherwise; and often has a feather, plume or pompom attached at the top.
The Voltigeurs were French military skirmish units created in 1804 by Emperor Napoleon I. They replaced the second company of fusiliers in each existing infantry battalion.
The Brunswick Ducal Field-Corps, commonly known as the Black Brunswickers in English and the Schwarze Schar or Schwarze Legion in German, were a military unit in the Napoleonic Wars. The corps was raised from volunteers by German-born Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1771–1815). The Duke was a harsh opponent of Napoleon Bonaparte's occupation of his native Germany. Formed in 1809 when war broke out between the First French Empire and the Austrian Empire, the corps initially comprised a mixed force, around 2,300 strong, of infantry, cavalry and later supporting artillery.
The 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot was a light infantry regiment of the British Army throughout much of the 18th and 19th centuries. The regiment first saw active service during the American War of Independence, and were posted to India during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. During the Napoleonic Wars, the 52nd were part of the Light Division, and were present at most major battles of the Peninsula campaign, becoming one of the most celebrated regiments, described by Sir William Napier as "a regiment never surpassed in arms since arms were first borne by men". They had the largest British battalion at Waterloo, 1815, where they formed part of the final charge against Napoleon's Imperial Guard. They were also involved in various campaigns in India.
The Battle of Venta del Pozo, also known as the Battle of Villodrigo by the French and Spanish, was a rear-guard action fought as part of the Peninsular War on 23 October 1812 between an Anglo-German force led by Major-General Stapleton Cotton against French cavalry under Major-Generals Jean-Baptiste Curto and Pierre François Xavier Boyer. The result was a French victory.
In the Battle of García Hernández on 23 July 1812, two brigades of Anglo-German cavalry led by Major-General Eberhardt Otto George von Bock defeated 4,000 French infantry led by Major-General Maximilien Foy. In what would otherwise have been an unremarkable Peninsular War skirmish, the German heavy dragoons achieved the unusual feat of breaking three French squares, those of the 6th, 69th and 76th Line, routing the entire French force with heavy losses.
The battle of the Göhrde was a battle of the War of the Sixth Coalition on 16 September 1813 between French and Coalition troops at Göhrde in Germany. The French troops were defeated and withdrew to Hamburg.
The British Army during the Napoleonic Wars experienced a time of rapid change. At the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, the army was a small, awkwardly administered force of barely 40,000 men. By the end of the period, the numbers had vastly increased. At its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. The British infantry was "the only military force not to suffer a major reverse at the hands of Napoleonic France."
The Royal Corsican Rangers was a unit of the British Army, composed mainly of Émigrés, which served during the later part of the French Revolutionary Wars and throughout the Napoleonic Wars.
Konrad Ludwig Georg Baring was an officer in the army of the Electorate of Hanover and the British army's King's German Legion. Some sources also give his name as Baron Georg(e) von Baring.
The Anglo-Portuguese Army was the combined British and Portuguese army that participated in the Peninsular War, under the command of Arthur Wellesley. The Army is also referred to as the British-Portuguese Army and, in Portuguese, as the Exército Anglo-Luso or the Exército Anglo-Português.
The Sicilian Regiment was a light infantry regiment recruited from Sicily that served with the British Army during the Napoleonic wars, from 1806 to its disbandment in 1816.
Roll's Regiment was a regiment of the British Army formed of Swiss, French and German soldiers raised in 1794 for service in the French Revolutionary Wars. The regiment's colonel was Louis de Roll, a former officer of the pre-revolutionary French Swiss Guards. The unit served in various garrisons in the Mediterranean and saw action in Tuscany before being reduced to a single battalion. The regiment was dispatched to Egypt in 1800 to oppose the French occupation and distinguished itself in action at the Battle of Alexandria. The regiment received drafts of French and Polish prisoners of war to replace its losses and in 1810 participated in the British invasion of the Septinsular Republic. The regiment served in Sicily as guard to Ferdinand IV of Naples before joining the Peninsular War. It saw action at the capture of Fort St Felipe and the 1813 Siege of Tarragona. The regiment disbanded at Corfu in 1815 following the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
The 1st Prussian Infantry Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the Old Prussian Army which had initially formed part of the Prussian Life Guard, but later transferred to the line. After notably serving in the War of the Austrian Succession and Seven Years' War, the regiment was demolished following the Battle of Auerstadt. A small part of the regiment went on to help form the famed 8th Life Infantry Regiment, which in turn would serve notably till its disbandment after World War I.
The FrenchImperial Naval Corps was the branch of the French Imperial Navy responsible for administering the infantry and artillery which was tasked with manning and utilising the weapons on the Navy's ships. The corps comprised two 'official' branches and Naval Artillery and one 'unofficial branch'. The Naval Infantry and Naval Artillery formed the 'official' branches as they were under the direct control of the navy and Naval corps. However, the Coastal Artillery was defacto an 'unofficial' branch of the corps, as it remained under control of the army for operational duties, while administration and supply was given to the Navy.
 | This article about a specific British military unit is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |