Post
by Clibinarium » Thu Sep 10, 2015 9:48 pm
I've been waiting to see if someone knowledgeable would answer this question, but in the absence of that I'll add my thoughts.
The first contingent probably arrived in their English/Irish uniforms. Its likely that on arrival in France uniforms of the contingent of 1691 were in a pretty bad state, (it may be that they were in French cloth already as material was sent to Ireland, but we don;t know if it was used or not) and the next issue of clothing would have been from French stores or on French patterns. So I'd guess these to be in the French cut and conform to what was issued to French regiments, the chances being the grenadiers got hats.
That said it would not have been too difficult for Colonels to have grenadier caps made at their own expense, it was noted that caps were easier to obtain for soldiers than hats during the Irish campaigns, so they might have done this to differentiate their units from the French (though as the Irish regiments integrated more this practice would have probably waned, and don't forget its just supposition anyway). Personally I'd go for hats. I should be remember though that hats were the most common headgear for grenadiers, caps were not unknown in the French army either.
This sort of question can only really be solved by primary research of perhaps diary entries, or most likely clothing returns and order books. Whether this material exists or whether it simply hasn't been looked at yet, I don't know. These things often require so me hardy soul to trawl through dusty archives. I imagine that the extra expense of clothing thousands of newly arrived Irishmen would have made an impact on the ministry's assiduous book keepers.
In Mark Allen's article on the Wild Geese he depicts an Irish grenadier in French service in a hat with shoulder ribbons (both shoulders), but there is no source given (though I don't disagree with this depiction). Its hard to get a handle on the practice of wearing ribbons, the best example is the Giffart plates on the Gardes, though whether they wear them because they are elite or because it was completely standard on coats is harder to say. Ribbons seem to have become less common towards 1700, though the Giffart plates date to 1698 I think.