The First Foot Guards
We are a Revolutionary War
reenactment group based in Boston MA,
accurately portraying the royal household regiment that is now known as
The Grenadier Guards
{
Regiments of the army
"The
regiments of the British army were of two kinds - Household regiments, and regiments
of the line. The former included the three regiments of Foot Guards:
The First Foot Guards, or Grenadier Guards,
the Second Foot Guards, or Coldstream Guards,
and the Third Foot Guards, or Scots Guards.
There were also three regiments of Horse Guards.
The Household Regiments were the oldest corps in the army and constituted a
body of picked men. Ordinarily they were stationed in London and Westminster
as a bodyguard to the King. During the American Revolution a 'Brigade of Guards'
formed by selecting 15 men from each of the 64 companies of Household infantry
served in America. The
regiments of the line were simply the ordinary regiments of the army. The infantry
were numbered from 1 to 70, although some of the regiments had names as well
as numbers. During the Revolutionary war, other regiments were created.
The average strength of the infantry on the English establishment was 477 (Guards differed). The ordinary regiment consisted of one battalion organized into 10 companies. The strength of a company varied. Of the ten companies, one consisted of Grenadiers, and another of Light Infantry.
There were several 'establishments' around the world.
These are the numbers of infantrymen attached to the Establishments in 1775 (Curtis):
England
19 regiments: 11,396
Scotland
1 regiment: 474
Isle of Man
3 companies: 142
Ireland
21 regiments: 9815
Minorca
5 regiments: 2385
Gibraltar
7 regiments: 3339
West Indies
3 regiments: 1909
America
18 regiments: 8580
Africa
1 corps: 214
Total: 38,254
This number excluded militia. additionally there were 6869 cavalry and 2484 artillery. This was the strength much as it had been since the close of the Seven Years War (F&I).
The
Brigade of Guards
in the American Revolution
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