The Foreign Riflemen Who Fought Like British Lions Against Napoleon
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- A forgotten elite…a unit of foreigners that helped to change the face of war.
Yep, today we are talking about the 5/60th Rifles. A unit that was part of the British army throughout the Napoleonic era.
Often overshadowed by the 95th Rifles, the fact is that they were at every major battle of the Peninsular and their soldiers were legendary. In fact they were said to be so effective that Sir Arthur Wellesley described them as the "most useful, active and brave troops in the field".
Today’s episode is a bit different. I had a lot of interviews about the unit and decided to re-edit them and put the best bits together in one place.
We are going to look at their history, tactics, uniform and weapons. If you are a true military history geek then you will love today’s video.
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Captain William Frederickson, nicknamed 'Sweet William' by his men. My favorite character from the Sharpe series. The 60th has a wonderful history. Cheers Ron
That is quite true
Sharpe with an E!!!!
If I remeber corectly he goes to Canada to fight in the war of 1812
I thought Sweet William was in the Kings German Legion, the KGL, a different unit from the 60th. I may be wrong though!
@DrivermanO yep the 60th rifle men are dirty rifle are clean
I've been rewatching Sharpe. Epic series with a star studded cast, Each episode is like a mini movie
Absolutely riveting!
Always thought Bernard Cornwell missed a trick when he made Richard Sharpe an officer in the 95th not the 5/60th, as the 5/60th are easier to attach to redcoat units and were at every engagement, unlike the 95th.
But then it would have to be filled with Foreign soldiers.
Absolutely fascinating stuff. They do tend to get a bit overshadowed by the 95th, which is unfortunate. Having a rifle company in each recoated brigade must have given that often outnumbered skirmish line a bit of a sting.
Plus, I've always had a soft spot for Sweet William , (in the books). Any man who can spend a pause in a desperate battle sketching old architecture, is a great character. Much underrated body of Kameraden.
Another great video sir.
Thanks for this, I found it entertaining.
Among my ancestors is Conrad Gugy, a Swiss mercenary who joined the 60th Regiment of Foot as a junior officer. He was involved in the taking of Louisbourg by Wolfe and later served on Wolfe's staff in the capture of Quebec. He stayed on in Canada as the governor's secretary Frederick Haldimand, who was also a Swiss. Conrad died at Trois-Rivières without legitimate issue, so his estate with its seigneuries passed to his brother Bartholomew, who had been a Swiss guard serving Louis XVI and who, by 1794, was at loose ends in Basel.
Those raising the regiment had intended to recruit North Americans, but they found few takers. European, Protestant, multilingual officers like Conrad were quite useful, especially since he also had been raised by a sapper officer in the army of the Princes of Orange.
Soldiers are dirty, rifles are clean
I love to see anything on the 5/60th. What a ride these guys had. Thanks for the great episode, Chris!
Glad you enjoyed it, Ryan. Anything else you'd like to see in the near future?
@@redcoathistory Can you organise world peace and a queue of horny supermodels at my door? Ta.
@bertPreast consider it done mate
It's a little niche, but I'd love to hear about the Third Anglo-Mysore War, or really any of those conflicts.
They were Greenjackets later Royal Green Jackets, but thank God the ox n bucks joined them to be the best regiment in the British army.
Cannot argue really.
Celer et Audax
Rifle units in the Napoleonic Wars... something I always wanted to see more exploration of.
Great - glad to know that this is what you were after.
How the tactics and uniform have changed over the years. Thanks, Chris.
And the 95th and 60th showed the early stages of the change... largely GREEN uniforms rather than red/grey/white. And of course Rifles.
The Royal America Regiment (60th Foot) had 8 battalions. 1st-4th battalions was Red Coats , 5th - 8th battalions was Green Jackets. The 5th Battalion was full Rifleman, the 6th-8th battalions had many just Muskets just some specialist had the Baker Rifle. The Royal America Regiment was later The Kings Royal Rifle Corp then the 2th Battalion Royal Green Jackets, the battalion was later The 1st battalion RGJs then the 2th Battalion The Rifles. I was a Rifleman in 5th RGJs
Great video indeed about a great unit. Thanks for sharing mate.
"FIX SWORDS!" Sharpe said then realised that...yet again dispite the fact he has not served in the 95th rifles but the south essex for tons and tons of books he corrected himself.
" FIX BAYONETS!" He corrected himself.
"For the love of Jesus sir, will you ever get that right?" Pat said as he turned and fired his Nock Gun blowing 3.5 new arseholes to the two french Voltigeurs who had mistaken them for characters with no plot armor.
" I know Pat I know....but its too good to not say everytime. Sure I hear the men say if I dont make the mistake then that means this is a battle that we lose about 1/4 of the men before a triumpant but pyrrhic victory!" Said Sharpe......wondering how the hell he know what a pyrrhic victory was.
Yeah....that was all from the the sword part.
Great video!
This was a great story to listen too. I had no idea this unit existed. So thanks for that.
Great video Chris, thanks for putting it together 😎
60Th Royal American Regiment was originally raised in the American Colonies in 1755-56 as the American Regiment and made Royal after they were recognized by the King for their service during the French and Indian War. And mostly fought in the south during AWI. 4 battalions were raised 5th added as stated.
The original number was the 62nd they were re numbered after the original 60th Foot were disbanded.
They were Royal Americans from formation in December1755; 60th from 1757.
Fascinating history, keep them coming!
The old Royal Americans!
Both visited us in the Bayou at the Battle of New Orleans. Both a sword bayonet and Baker are in collections privately owned here in New Orleans. I often think it would be quite smashing to take the field as a historical interpreter in the 95th. As a teenager I marched with the Americans because the uniform was far cheaper to assemble.
Excellent video, thank you for sharing.
Found a pile of spent Baker balls in front of RMC's Fort Fredrick in Kingston Ont. The Rifles there practiced on a water range with floating targets. All balls fell in a specific area. The double-grove rifling is quite apparent on them. At least a ton of lead still down there.
Makes me wonder if that’s why WW2 British Commando chose a dark green beret? A homage to these Napoleonic riflemen who were like the Commando units of their day.
No, it wasn't. My grandfather was in the Commandos from '41 till the end of the war. It was taken from the shoulder badge of 1 Commando, its design of a green salamander going through fire: red, yellow, and green. Green was chosen as the most suitable.😎
Really enjoyed that chap.... Brilliant as usual ta!✌️
Great story! I had no idea of their history. Thank you, Chris!
Glad you enjoyed it mate
Interesting that the basic two man fire team, is still in use in much the same way of fire and manoeuvre.
A great episode!
Another great video. Just want to remind "red coat history" that fast approaching next year will be the 60th anniversary of the Nov 11,1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence, UDI by Rhodesia and the creation of such outstanding units as the Selous Scouts, RLI and Grey Scouts and many more.
I am most definitely a military history geek, and I am loving this. I am also of Tyrolean descent, so my blood is up ! Have you done a Black Brunswick video yet ?
The 60th Regiment had 8 battalions in total during the Napoleonic wars, the first four being regular redcoats, the most famous 5th as in the video, the 6th red coated light infantry, 7th and 8th also light infantry in green as per the 5th but with muskets mostly. The exploits of the rest of the regiment might be worth a look too.
A very interesting video 👌
Glad you liked it
Got to love the 5/60th
Steve, looks like you need a tot of brandy, you look a little “green”. Big night out last night?😂 thanks for the kit review!
As the King was the Elector of Hanover technically they were not mercenaries
I think you are conflating the KGL (Hanoverian troops) with the 5/60th (a mix of soldiers from many nations and backgrounds).
I hope you do videos on The Battle Of Waterloo
I wonder if they're at all related to hompesch hussars? They had that exact uniform (hussar style and the colours and facings), and were sent to the West indies at the time the rifles were formed. They had mounted rifles among them.
They were originally German but were litterally sold to Britian and had no choice but to become members of the King's Foreign Legion.
Now that‘s soldiering.
3:21 This looks like it was taken from one of those old British made, History channel documentaries from the 90s. Uno like Bob Carruthers, Cromwell Productions, History of Warfare etc.
No, I filmed it.
They also served at the battle of New Orleans in January of 1815
The 60th performed a vital service in Wellesley’s Army of Portugal!
Does anyone have any detail about the two decorated soldiers?
My favourite regiment from the napoleonic wars
Bloody Grasshoppers. Lol love the Vid. I would still like to see a video on the 32nd Cornwalls. Deep in history from Gibraltar to India. Most losses at Waterloo. They stood, they fought, they died. Oh and Poldark
Old uniforms but modern battle commands 😊
Man, that's something. Think of this unit from Sharpe commanded by Capt. Frederickson.
Now that's some soldiering.😉
No, Frederickson was KGL, not 60th
There was also the the kings German legion
👍👍👍
Thanks Jan. Hpe you enjoyed the video. Did you know much about the 5/60th before?
@@redcoathistory
Actually yes; but I thank you for further details. How are the studies in Maori going?
"never own a pub when you retire because you will drink all the profits" UNKNOWN
My understanding is that the 60th began as the Royal Americans, largely made up of German and Swiss-German colonials. By the time of the Peninsular war though, they were almost all British - any German speakers of that time would have gone to the King's German Legion. I never heard of any significant numbers of Dutch in the unit, could this be a confusion over Dutch/Deutsch which was common back then?
Hi - no Rob has written an indepth book on the unit that looks at almost every officer and recruit - his knowledge is second to none on their background etc. If you are interested you should pick up a copy, I highly reccomend it.
@@redcoathistory Fair enough, I shall look out for the book. My knowledge comes from recruit training in the RGJ, and admittedly we were not historians. A good book if you haven't read it already is "A British Rifleman" by Major George Simmons of the 95th, who went through the Peninsular War and then on to Waterloo. My favourite bit is when his kid brother joins the regiment, and Simmons limits him to a mere two quarts of wine per day while he is studying for his Lieutenant's exams - one of those little details that show how they managed to sustain such a harsh lifestyle for so long :D
I read another book on it years ago, which was the ghost-written account of a Rifleman's war in the Peninsula. If I can dredge the name from my memory, I will let you know!
Cheers mate. Ha ha love the story of the younger brother - classic!
Indeed, Deutsch was often mistaken for Dutch in ‘murica as in Pennsylvania Dutch.
What I never see are articles about the Calcuta Lighthorse and British India
The class system would prevent the average person from hunting with firearms. Actively discouraged from partaking in gentlemanly pursuit's....
Steve get that Lint off uniform, Kings army after all
and the Baker was used 'round the world...by the Mexican army inder😢Santa Anna in 1835...and many others...like the Gardner gun ..an advancement in technology
I would like to thank you for not letting advising into your channel,I personally don’t have any interest in middle aging womens anti wrinkle cream from a shop that doesn’t exsist in my country,or American investment companies……go u tube…..
So thankyou for extending my understanding and your presentation is unhyped…..you and your contributors efforts are much appreciated. Please do nz., there’s so much here that informs other countries.
York Rangers...British or Canadian?
Spread over the army a company per brigade, no?
Yes.
2:54 the left guy looks like young "Mr.Bean".😁
Not very kind 😂
Rude
The Royal America Regiment birthday is 25th December as it was created on it time. The RGJs birthday is 25th August same as The Rifle Birgade
The royal Irish Spanish guards from sharpe I was wondering if they were a real unit? As a Irish man 😊
The real unit was the Regiment of Hibernia also sometimes called O'Neill's Regiment , it existed from 1709 until 1818. Hibernia is the ancient latin name for Ireland.
@@GeorgHaeder cool been meaning to look into them for a while had forgotten about them till I watched this lol cheers pal don't worry I no about Hibernia tis what the Romans and Greeks referred to us as
The French had a Marshal McDonald, from when some Catholic Scots decamped after Bonnie Prince Charlie!
Stuck the smile on for free
The 60th Rifles, Britain's Foreign Legion ?
What about the 'King's German Legion'; 14,000 Germans in the British Army, mostly former soldiers of the Army of Hannover
And the 'Aegean Volunteers'; Greek light infantry, the Dutch Brigade and Chasseurs Britanniques
What is you're point? They didn't say 'Britain's ONLY foreign legion' so not quite sure what youre trying to say
Les Chasseurs Britanniques?
Will do a film on them one day.
Spare flints???
Why did they believe no Brits could be rifleman? Very odd...
Because few people owned guns let alone rifles. As stated the the use of a rifle to hunt game was a very middle class sport. The ranks were not middle class who became officers or were mounted as cavalry or dragoons.
@glynluff2595 I understand that... but most also didn't own muskets or cannon yet they felt they could train them as artillery or fusillier.
.
@@daveweiss5647 Well in the matter of artillery only bright officers with mathematical ability could command a gun battery and senior NCO.s were in charge of a gun and supervised. The two shiny spots in the British Army were Gunnery and the Sappers whose officers were quite sharp and many of the NCO were from a passable educated background. Lots of black sheep in the forces!
As for Fusiliers well they were Brown Bess Boys by this time and the best of them as with any regiment were turned into light troops and the strongest grenadiers.
30 - 40% of Wellingtons Army was Irish.
It did not a bayonet they have swords.
Not a fan of the re-enactors and their shite history knowledge! Why?
Oh please tell us why????
@@chriswilletts3621 they talk shit, history is non existentant. Sergeant that can not get the uniform right but, an expert? From their gloves, sashes, boots to uniforms, to oh please go there, to tactics. A f'ing embarrassment to real Soldiers and; our fallen! Try defending them, fun boy?
Yes, tell us why?
Always a phat barstart…waddling around
Who "peed" in your cornflakes?
5 Battalions....that's unusual right?
Like lions.... Lol, ffs. Cheesy exceptionalism... Getting like the yanks ffs. Hubris leads to defeat... And it has 😂😂😂😂😂
Pipe down