"BY GOD, THEY FRIGHTEN ME!"

BRITISH INFANTRY COLORS  •  NAPOLEONIC WARS

After 1800 the colors of British regiments of foot were based on the second pattern of the Union Flag (with the Cross of St. Patrick placed over the Cross of St. Andrew). Otherwise the previous system was continued, with each regiment carrying a King's Colour and a Regimental Colour, the latter with a field in the regimental facing color. As before, regiments with white, gray, red and black facings had a Regimental Colour with the Cross of St. George throughout on a white field for white, gray and red facings and on a black field for black facings. All royal regiments had dark blue facings. The union wreath now included shamrocks for Ireland. In 1782 the Commander-in-Chief had promulgated a regulation assigning a county affiliation to all foot regiments other than the Guards, regiments with royal titles and the highland regiments. The county affiliation was added in parenthesis to the regimental title as shown below. It became common to refer to foot regiments by their county affiliation, e.g. the Sussex Regiment for the 35th Foot. Some regiments also had traditional nicknames, such as the 3rd Foot (the Buffs) and the 42nd Foot (the Black Watch). Most regiments' colors had within the wreath a scarlet, gold-edged shield bearing the regiment's number in gold Roman numerals. There were variations, however, since regiments with royal badges or "ancient devices" were permitted to bear them on their colors. The shape of the shield and the style of the wreath also varied, as illustrated for the 52nd, 79th and 91st Foot. As the years of war wore on, battle honors were added to the colors, sometimes in the form of badges such as the sphinx (for service in Egypt) and sometimes as inscriptions or scrolls. The Foot Guards continued to carry company colors. Those of the Colonel's, Lieutenant-Colonel's and Major's Companies were scarlet with regimental badges, the latter two including a canton of the Union Flag. The rest were Union Flags with company badges and Roman numerals indicating the number of the company. Usually a Guards battalion would carry only two of its several colors in the field. As a general rule, the Colonel's, Lieutenant-Colonel's or Major's Colour served the battalion as the King's Colour, and a company color as the Regimental Colour. The Guards colors depicted below are those believed to have been carried by the 1/1 Guards and the 2/3 Guards at Waterloo. The King's German Legion was a corps formed from German subjects of King George III, who was also Elector of Havover. When the Electorate was occupied by French troops and dissolved in 1803 many soldiers of its army fled to Britain, where the KGL was formed. Uniforms and colors were much the same as those of British regiments. Ultimately the KGL had eight line infantry battalions, two light infantry battalions, two regiments of light dragoons and three of hussars, four foot and two horse artillery batteries, and several engineer companies. The title of this page is taken from a remark attributed to the Duke of Wellington as he inspected newly arrived replacements for his army in the Peninsula: "I don't know if these men will frighten the enemy but by God, they frighten me!" Note on the Illustrations: Except for the Guards battalions, for each regiment the King's Colour is shown to the left and the Regimental Colour to the right. Credit: Many of these drawings are based on images and information from Alan Pendlebury's outstanding site devoted to Napoleonic Wargaming Flags. Images Added July 2016 3rd Regiment of Foot (The Buffs)  •  10th Regiment of Foot (North Lincoln)  •  87th Regiment of Foot (Prince of Wales' Own Irish) 91st Regiment of Foot (Agryllshire Highlanders)  •  93rd Regiment of Foot (Sutherland Highlanders)

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