fusiliers

bibio · Post by **bibio** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:45 am

would fusiliers have had pike,or weree they just shot, more precisely Portmore's regiment ie were they a fuslier regiment or an ordinary regiment in fusilier headgear ?

iain

Captain of Dragoons · Post by **Captain of Dragoons** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:39 pm

Hello bibio

The term fusiliers comes from the type of musket they were armed with - the fusil a light type of flintlock. The flintlock was a improve and safer musket that began to replace the matchlock.

The first flintlocks in the British Army (well English Establishment of the King's armies at the time) were used to arm the Royal Fusiliers which were created to guard the artillery train. Flintlocks being safer around the artillery powder trains then the matchlock.

The French also rasied their own regiment of Fusiliers and I remember reading some where that by the end of the League of Augsburg war the ratio of wapons in a French infantry company was 1 matchlock to 1 flintlock to 1 pike.

In the English, Scots and Irish establishments fusiliers did not carry pikes.

Hope this helps

cheers

Edward

Ronan the Librarian · Post by **Ronan the Librarian** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:06 am

IIRC, Portmore's was formerly Kirke's (the Queen's Regiment of Tangiers fame). Were they ever fusiliers? If not, I would imagine they would have had pike as well as shot.

bibio · Post by **bibio** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:09 pm

Iain
the reference I have for the portmores or should i say the one i am looking for Is a Scots regiment on the Dutch establishment which wore fusileer style hats .One of the things which throws me is that colonels seem to have flitted from regiment to regiment.

iain

Churchill · Post by **Churchill** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:02 pm

Hi Iain and everyone,

Ahh Fusiliers......if anyone is interested in reading about the Welsh Fusiliers "23rd Foot" then your welcome to look though my Blenheim OOB thread.I was looking for information on this regiment as my collection of Robert Hall colour plates didn't cover the 23rd Foot and I wanted to know the emblem on the front of the fusiliers mitre and the colonel's flag.
After a long period of research and finding the coat of arm's of the Ingoldsby family I found my answers.
Iain as always was a great help.

Ray.