Abstract
In the last three chapters we have examined the similarities and differences between British soldiers and their German counterparts, be they allies in a coalition army, or as auxiliaries to Britain’s armed forces. In this and the next chapter, we will turn to those German soldiers who served formally within the British Army from the mid-eighteenth to early-nineteenth centuries, focusing on the staggered progression towards direct integration into the army. Rather than following the template adhered to for the last three chapters, this chapter will survey the history of Germans within the British Army in this period, and rather than stressing the perceptions towards fellow-soldiers (in part because so few exist), the emphasis will be placed on some of the key themes in their recruitment and integration, and what made service in the British Army so desirable or undesirable. This chapter will then be followed by a case study of one particular entity that achieved a degree of structural and social integration that no previous foreign corps had attained — be they Dutch, Huguenot or German. That this force, the King’s German Legion, should come into being at the end of the period under examination is no coincidence as those factors that spurred German assimilation throughout this era were particularly acute in the quarter century of conflict with Republican and Imperial France.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Kenneth Ferguson, ‘The Organization of King William’s Army in Ireland, 1689–92’, Irish Sword, XVIII(70) (1990), pp. 68–9.
Matthew H. Glozier, The Huguenots of William of Orange and the Glorious ‘Revolution’ of 1688 (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2002), p. 136.
For an insightful history of the 60th Regiment see: Alexander Campbell, The Royal American Regiment: An Atlantic History in Microcosm, 1756–1762 (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010).
Such foreign contingents were only allowed to serve in the American Colonies and the Caribbean until the 1804 Act, permitting as many as 10,000 foreign men to serve in Britain. Lewis Butler, The Annals of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps: Volume I. ‘The Royal Americans’ (London: Smith & Elder, 1913), p. 208
Richard Holmes, Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket (London: Harper Collins: 2002), p. 329.
For more on these issues, see, Peter Wilson, ‘The Politics of Military Recruitment in Eighteenth-Century Germany’, English Historical Review, (472) (June 2002), p. 539.
See: Charles Oman, Wellington’s Army, 1809–1814 (London: Greenhill Books, 1986), p. 227
Charles Boutflower, The Journal of an Army Surgeon Duringthe Peninsular War (Staplehurst: Spellmount, 1997), p. 53.
For a fascinating and highly readable monograph on the many propagandized retellings of Major von Schill’s life, see: Sam Mustafa, The Long Ride of Major von Schill: A Journey Through German History and Memory (Plymouth: Rowan & Littlefield, 2008)
See also: Anon, Wider Napoleon! Ein Deutsches Reiterleben 1806–1815, herausgegeben von Friedrich M. Kircheisen (Stuttgart: Robert Luß, 1911), esp. vol. I.
The King’s German Legion have received by far the most attention of all Germans within the British Army, with the most noteworthy and significant contributions to their history from North Ludlow Beamish, History of the King’s German Legion (London: Thomas and William Boone, 1837 (1997))
Adolf Pfannkuche, Die Königlich Deutsche Legion 1803–1816 (Hannover: Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1926)
Anthony Brett-James, Life in Wellington’s Army (London: George Allen, 1972)
Roger Edward Francis Guilford North, ‘The Raising and Organizing of the King’s German Legion’, JSAHR, 39 (1961), pp. 168–84
Bernhard Heinrich Schwertfeger, Geschichte der königlich deutschen Legion, 1803–1816 (Hanover and Leipzig: Hahn’sche Buchhandlung, 1907).
C.T. Atkinson, ‘Hanoverian Soldiers in Gibraltar’, United Service Magazine, 180 (1919), p. 25.
The growth of Bexhill from a village to a town at the beginning of the nineteenth century is credited to the presence of the Legion’s headquarters, where a number of men were continuously stationed. For an account of the headquarters, see: Emanuel Biedermann, Von Malta Bis Waterloo: erinnerungen Aus den Kriegen gegen Napoleon I (Bern: Hallwag, 1941), p. 134.
For the letters of a soldier serving in these newly formed regiments, see: Joachim Kannicht, Mit der hanseatischen Legion gegen Napoleon: Erfahrungen eines jungen Studenten 1813–1816 (Aachen: Helios, 2008).
W.B. Tyler, ‘The British German Legion — 1854–1862’, JSAHR, 54 (1976), pp. 14–29.
Harding, Hanover and the British Empire, pp. 255–8. For a collection of William Cobbett’s arguments against this favouritism, see: Daniel Green, The Great Cobbett: The Noblest Agitator (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1983), pp. 345–8, 377.
For the 60th’s focus on frontier warfare: see A.J. Barker, Redcoats (London: Gordon Cremonesi, 1976), p. 145.
Gleig, Hussar, p. 35; René Chartrand, Émigré and Foreign Troops in British Service (I) 1793–1802 (Oxford: Osprey, 1999).
Conway, War of American Independence, p. 246; Lieut.-Col. Sir Frederick von Arentschildt, Instructions for Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers of Cavalry On Outpost Duty (London: Parker Furnival and Parker, 18
Anon, Memoirs of A Sergeant: The 43rd Light Infantry During the Peninsular War (Gloucestershire: Nonsuch, 2005).
See also: Christopher Hibbert (ed.), A Soldier of the Seventy-First: The Journal of a Soldier of the Highland Light Infantry 1806–1815 (London: Leo Cooper, 1975), p. 33.
Captain George Bent, ‘Major Morris Bent, South Staffordshire Regiment, A “Royal American”’, Journal for the Society of Army Historical Research, JSAHR, 1 (1921), p. 98.
It should be noted that the validity of this memoir is somewhat in doubt. Anon, Adventures of a Young Rifleman in the French and English Armies, During the War in Spain and Portugal, From 1806 to 1916 (London: Henry Colburn, 1826), pp. 297–8.
In Canada during the Seven Years War, German soldiers who had been tricked into French service were quick to desert to the British. See: John Knox, An Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North America for the Years 1757, 1758, 1759 and 1760, edited by Sir Arthur Doughty (Toronto, ON: Champlain Society, 1914–16), vol. I, pp. 246, 323.
Thomas Agostini, ‘“Deserted his Majesty’s Service”, Military Runaways, the Press, and the Problem of Desertion in the Seven Years War’, Journal of Social History, 40(4) (2007), p. 967.
For Montesquieu’s opinions, see: Michael Rapport, ‘“The Germans are Hydrophobes”’: Germany and the Germans in the Shaping of French Identity’, in Alan Forrest and Peter H. Wilson, The Bee and Eagle (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2009), pp. 234–55.
Friedrich Lindau, Erinnerungen Eines Soldaten aus den Feldzügen der königlichdeutschen Legion (Hameln: Niemeyer, 1846), p. 8.
Christopher Hibbert (ed.), The Wheatley Diary: A Journal and Sketch-Book Kept During the Peninsular War and the Waterloo Campaign, 2nd ed. (Gloucestershire: Windrush Press, 1997), p. 8.
Peter Way, ‘Class and the Common Soldier in the Seven Years’ War’, Labor History, 44(4) (2003), p. 476
See also: Thomas Agostini, ‘“Deserted his Majesty’s Service”, Military Runaways, the Press, and the Problem of Desertion in the Seven Years War’, Journal of Social History, 40(4) (2007), pp. 957–85.
Victor Sutcliffe, Regiments of the British Army: Part 1 Infantry (East Rudham: Mulberry Coach House, 2007), p. 329.
Sir Augustus Simon Frazer, Letters of Colonel Sir Augustus Simon Frazer, K.C.B., edited by Major-General Edward Sabine (East Sussex: Naval Military Press, 2001), p. 263.
Adolf Pfannkuche, Die Königlich Deutsche Legion 1803–1816 (Hannover: Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1926), p. 18.
John Spencer Cooper, Rough Notes of Seven Campaigns in Portugal, Spain, France and America During the Years 1809–1815 (Staplehurst: Spellmount, 1996), pp. 14, 20.
Linda Colley, Captives: Britain, Empire, and the World, 1600–1815 (New York: Anchor Books, 2002), pp. 328–32.
Quoted in Peter Way, ‘Soldiers of Misfortune: New England Regulars and the Fall of Oswego’, Massachusetts Historical Review, 3 (2001), p. 77.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Mark Wishon
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wishon, M. (2013). Germans within the British Army. In: German Forces and the British Army. War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137284013_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137284013_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-44900-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-28401-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)