The primary aim of this study of redcoat officers is to describe the men who served as infantry officers in the army between 1740 and 1815, how they went about joining and how they were trained and promoted. However, it will be helpful to put them in context by taking a brief look at the command structure of a typical infantry regiment.
For most of the time under discussion, an infantry regiment had just one battalion. There were exceptions; second battalions were often added in wartime but it was very rare for both battalions to actually serve together and to all intents and purposes they were normally independent of each other.
The regiment was commanded by a colonel; in the early days he gave the regiment its name and actually led it in the field. However, from the mid-18th century onwards his role was no more than an administrative one. He was in fact a colonel-proprietor, or inhaber, and actual command was exercised by his notional deputy, the lieutenant-colonel, assisted by the major.
Throughout this period infantry battalions were normally made up of ten companies, each commanded by a captain, and until 25 May 1803, three of the captains also ranked as field officers; the colonel, lieutenant colonel and major. However, on 1 September 1795 an additional lieutenant-colonel and major were added to the establishment of each battalion. These additional officers, unlike their existing counterparts, did not have to look after a company as well as carrying out their regimental duties. A subsequent War Office circular dated 27 May 1803, stated that ‘… in future each Troop and Company throughout the Army shall have an effective Captain, and therefore that the Colonels, First Lieutenant Colonels, and First Majors, in the respective Regiments, shall no longer have Troops or Companies.’ At the same time three captains were added to the establishment in order to take over the vacated companies – abolishing the rank of captain-lieutenant in the process.
Until 1803 it was the captain-lieutenant that actually commanded the colonel’s own company. He occupied an ambiguous position in that he was the senior lieutenant in the regiment and paid accordingly, but in practice he normally enjoyed the status of junior captain, and was entitled to be addressed as such. Moreover, when he received any subsequent promotion, his seniority as a fully fledged captain was counted from the date of his earlier appointment as captain-lieutenant rather than the actual date of his promotion to the higher rank.
This can be seen in the example of Lieutenant James Urquhart, who became Captain-Lieutenant of the 14th Foot on 22 December 1772, and as such remained junior to all the captains until 10 December 1775. On that date he succeeded to the command of a company and then ranked as third in order of seniority, ahead of five other officers who had been promoted directly to captain in the intervening period and had, until that moment, outranked him.
The lieutenant was normally second in command of the company. Originally there was only one lieutenant to each company (including the captain-lieutenant), but grenadier companies had two since their officers needed to be men of some experience. There was also a longstanding practise of taking on an additional lieutenant in wartime. These additional officers were the first to be placed on half-pay on the outbreak of peace and should not be confused with the second lieutenant. Ordinarily, the most junior commissioned officer in the company was the ensign (although Grenadier companies had none), and in Fusilier regiments they were designated as second lieutenants, although this was merely a terminological distinction.
In addition to the company grade or line officers in each infantry battalion, there were four regimental staff officers; surgeon, chaplain, quartermaster, paymaster and adjutant.
The surgeon held his commission by virtue of his professional standing and his status was on a par with a captain when it came to the allocation of billets and allowances.
Sir William Howe, the British Commander-in-Chief in North America during the early part of the Revolutionary War. Although he never lost a battle, he failed to destroy the embryonic American Army.
Brigadier-General Charles O’Hara surrenders to Major-General Lincoln at Yorktown in 1781.
Chaplains were rarely encountered in the army, especially on foreign postings. The appointment was really a sinecure in the gift of the colonel, and so flagrantly abused as such that on 23 September 1796, a Royal Warrant abolished regimental chaplains. Those already appointed (few if any actually spent any time at all with their unit) were pensioned off and no more were taken on. Instead, all future religious care was to be exercised by brigade or garrison chaplains, acting under the authority of the chaplain-general, but otherwise commanding officers of a religious mind were encouraged to seek the services of any local clergymen.
Although quartermasters’ commissions were originally purchasable – like any other – this practice was forbidden by George III in 1779: ‘the proper persons to be recommended for quartermasters are active Sergeants, His Majesty not thinking the office very fit for men of better extraction and consequently very improper for a Captain’. Nevertheless, there was nothing to prevent a quartermaster who had risen from the ranks subsequently holding an ensign’s commission by purchase. A particularly good example was Alexander Davidson, who was commissioned quartermaster of 1/1st (Royal) on 28 May 1782. Ten years later, while the battalion was on Jamaica, he obtained an ensign’s commission and he would have been promoted to lieutenant in October 1794 but died before the good news reached him on St. Domingo.
Prior to 1797 the paymaster’s job, oddly enough, was held on a part-time basis by one of the company officers – almost invariably one of the captains. He did not hold rank as such, but took on the job in addition to his ordinary military duties after providing suitable financial securities. This was a hangover from the days when each captain ran his own company and expected to profit from doing so, but on 18 November 1797, a circular letter from the War Office advised that all existing appointments would cease as of 24 December. Those nominated to fill the position after that date were to be properly commissioned as such; but while they were to rank with the captains, it was strictly laid down that they were not to undertake ordinary regimental duties, assume military command, or expect promotion.
The adjutant was expected to act as assistant to the major, look after the drill of recruits (including newly commissioned ensigns) and generally take responsibility for administration. The appointment was traditionally given to keen young lieutenants, or (much less commonly) to ensigns. On 10 June 1802, a War Office circular laid down that they were no longer to receive their subaltern’s pay and were to be borne on the regiment’s books as supernumeraries in whatever rank they presently held. Those adjutants not already holding subalterns’ commissions were to rank as ensigns as of 25 May 1802, and while they would initially draw pay for that rank, they would subsequently rise in seniority accordingly.