The three-cornered hat was largely replaced by the sugar-loaf-shaped
“Kevenhuller” hat; and, in addition to the bright-barrelled musket
and bayonet, the privates carried a short sword. Wigs were abolished,
and long gaiters covered the leg to the knee, while the coats were
shortened to a sort of turned-back swallow-tail, in imitation of the
Prussian uniform.
[Illustration: _Private 24^{th} Reg^{t}. 1751._]
Body armour had been reduced to a mere relic of defence in the
“duty gorget”--a small plate of brass with the Royal Arms, which
was suspended by a piece of black ribbon from the neck by officers
“on duty”; a custom that obtained up to 1830. There had been no
material change in tactics; but the Royal Artillery had become more
fully organised in four companies, the uniform being a loose, long,
heavily-cuffed blue cloth coat with red facings. The Royal Military
Academy, for the education of artillery officers, was also established
about 1741, and the “Horse Guards” as an institution about 1750.
The Black Watch, however, the first of the new Highland regiments, was
permitted, for some time, to carry a dirk, pistols, and round target.
Medals were issued after Culloden, and regimental numbers appeared on
the coat buttons about 1767.
Tactics and the “order of battle” were slow in changing, but the
growing preponderance of infantry, now organised in three ranks only,
was becoming more evident after Dettingen and Fontenoy. Battles were
fought on more modern lines, and infantry bore the brunt; while the
cavalry at Dettingen had at last discovered its proper rôle, and
behaved with the greatest gallantry, in _not_ leading the main attack
as at Blenheim, but in meeting its own opposing arm and keeping it in
check, and finally in converting the French retreat across the river
into very nearly a rout.
The artillery still lacked mobility, and were not vigorously handled,
with the exception of some Hanoverian batteries, which pushed up to
support the final advance of the infantry, and opened fire on the
French flank. So at Fontenoy the infantry had most to do. This was the
beginnings of the tactics of the future.
Thus by 1755, or thereabout, the army had been steadily increasing.
After the death of Marlborough, the 9th and 10th Dragoons and the 40th
and 41st Regiments of infantry came on the permanent establishment,
chiefly because of the Jacobite rising of 1715; the 10th, 11th, 12th,
13th, and 14th Regiments of cavalry also date from the same period;
the 42nd had been formed from the separate Highland companies into the
“Black Watch,” so called from the sombre colour of their tartans; and
soon followed the 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, and 48th of the line.
The 49th, at first known as the 63rd Americans, dates from 1743.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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