La Legion Irlandaise
by Ian Barstow
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At right, tireur d' elite on the cover of FE 47. Large cover: (slow: 88K) I have no idea why it is that the Irish Legion inspires such a degree of fascination within Napoleonic enthusiasts, far outweighing any actual contributions to the period. Perhaps it is as the notional predecessor of the French Foreign Legion. Perhaps the romance of jolly Irish fellows doing what they arguably do best. Perhaps you just like green uniforms. Whatever, the beacon of Ireland was something of a constant during the French revolution and clearly here was an untapped source of manpower right on England's flank. Plus any fool knew that Irishmen could fight. The Bourbons had a brigade of Irish troops already in French service, and so there was also a tradition to uphold. First plans to recreate an Irish regiment began in 1796, along with the half-dozen half-baked plans to invade Ireland itself. Nothing much more than paper exercises continued until after the attempted 1801 rebellion in Ireland. Finally, on August 30, 1803 a decree was passed commanding the establishment of an Irish Legion to be composed of Irishmen (obviously) plus Frenchmen of Irish descent ű of whom there were quite a few, that being one of the other things that they had a reputation for! Assembly began at Morlaix in Brittany over the winter of 1803, organised as a Legere battalion of nine companies. It had been decided to put a ceiling of captain on new Irish recruits, but it appears that this didn't stand up in practice, and pretty much all the officers were Irish, commanded by a veteran in Bourbon service, Colonel Bernard McSheehy. PR Exercise The then First Consul took quite an interest in the budding Legion, probably because he saw it as a good PR exercise what with the forthcoming invasion of England and all. The highlight of all this interest was when the newly crowned Emperor presented the Legion with its own eagle, the only foreign unit to get one. The gorgeous green and gold flag with its Guinness sponsorship is famous across wargames tables throughout the civilised world. Being Irishmen, it was not long before a little spot of bother ensued, and during the summer of 1804 the Legion sustained its first casualty. One Captain Sweeney accused Captain Thomas Corbet (there were a number of Corbets on the books) of not raising his hand high enough whilst swearing loyalty to Napoleon. This lead to the ever-popular satisfaction being demanded, and the officers promptly shot each other! Obviously Corbet had indeed been remiss in his oath, as he was shot on a permanent basis. It would seem that this particular duel was only the tip of an iceberg which was actively condoned by Colonel McSheehy, who was that kind of bloke. The upshot was that when news reached Paris that the men in green were intent on leaving their own men officer-less McSheehy paid with his job. The new man, Lt Colonel Peterzelli (that well-known Irish name) formerly of the 16th Legere was given the task of reorganising the Legion along the new six-company lines. This was completed just in time for Napoleon to completely lose interest in the whole England project and set off for Central Europe instead, leaving a very disappointed Irish Legion behind to make sure the Channel didn't run off whilst the French weren't looking. They must have been absolutely gutted. In fact they were so fed up that they sent an official complaint to the Emperor's office, but sadly he was out. In fact nothing decent happened until the October of 1806, when an Imperial order summoned the Legion to Berlin. Unfortunately they only got as far as Mainz before they got handed garrison duties on the Rhine instead, under the auspices of the venerable Kellermann. At this time the Legion was bulked out by upwards of 1300 Poles who had been in Prussian service and another 200 Irishmen who had at one time been sold by the British government to the Prussians for military service. How quaint. This marks the beginnings of the Legion being watered down into a truly multi-national outfit. In March 1807, probably as a gag, the Legion were sent back to do garrison duty on the English Channel coast, where they stayed until that September when they reformed on the dreaded Walcheren Island. The Legion may have wondered if it was ever going to fight somebody in a different uniform, but luckily(?) Napoleon made the mistake in investing in his Spanish time-share. Now there was enough fighting for everyone. Actually rather more than enough. The Emperor soon realised that the Peninsula had the capacity to swallow up thousands of troops, and he suddenly found an urgent use for his various foreign units. Thus, when Marshal Moncey entered Spain in January 1808 he took with him a newly formed second battalion of the Irish Legion. Sadly this initial episode as rather tarnished when during the opening skirmishes the battalion commander, Captain Lacy, deserted to the enemy! It turned out that he had been born in Spain and thus had more chums on the other side. Throughout the rest of the year it became a familiar story of rear echelon garrison duties. This time they were not entirely forgotten however, and on December 16, 1808 the Legion was officially granted regimental status as the Irish Regiment. The second battalion provided Napoleon's honour guard at Burgos the following January, and he was impressed enough to authorise the recruitment of a further two battalions. Needless to say the number of actual Irishmen was only a fraction of the new recruits, and whilst the two new battalions were recruiting the first battalion as in the thick of it when the British suddenly turned up at Walcheren. Massively outnumbered, Flushing was subjected to a 48 hour naval bombardment which resulted in over 1000 deaths, many of these being what we now euphemistically call collateral damage. When the garrison commander surrendered, the whole battalion went into captivity, with the exception of one man. Playing possum, the badly wounded Captain Lawless hid the regiment's eagle and eventually escaped with it back to France. With the loss of the first battalion, the newly raised third were sent to defend Antwerp until the British left, whereupon they were instantly shipped off to Spain. All this rapid relocation meant that by the time the notional 800 strong battalion reached its final destination only 300 were left! Along with the second battalion they were posted to VIII Corps commanded by Junot in the Army of Portugal. Anti-Partisan Duties Early 1810 saw the Irish involved in anti-partisan duties as well as participating with distinction at the siege of Astorga in April. They then saw light action at Bussaco before the two battalions were amalgamated at Torres Vedras in November, with the third battalion's cadre being sent back to Landau (the Regiment's home depot in France) for fresh recruits. The fourth battalion meanwhile had finished recruiting in early 1810 and was promptly redesignated as a new first battalion and filled out with former veterans from the defunct Dutch army. Back in Spain at the start of 1811 the second battalion were heavily involved in the retreat from Lisbon and at Fuentes d'Onoro before going back to guerrilla fighting. Losses reduced the unit to under 400 men, and with practically all the new recruits having as much Irish blood in them as Stig Blomqvist the military authorities decided that calling the unit the Irish Regiment was now a bit daft, and probably in fact hindered recruitment. Accordingly on August 11, 1811 the regiment became the 3eme Regiment Etranger, and the rump of the second battalion was recalled for a refit at Landau. For a change, it turned out to be a good thing not to be sent to the Grand Army in 1812, although I don't suppose the Regiment saw it that way at the time, left as they were to once more carry out various garrison duties, with the depot being shifted to Bois-le-Duc in Holland. If they had been concerned that they would never see front line duty, then they need not have feared. After 1812 there was literally nothing left, and Napoleon wasn't going to turn down two battalions of well-trained and eager troops. The same Lawless who had saved the eagle at Flushing was now the regimental commander, and he led them in almost constant action throughout March and April of 1813 in numerous large scale skirmishes along the Elbe, under the command of Davout and subsequently Sebastiani. They were therefore unavailable for Lutzen but were in Pucthod's Division of Lauriston's V Corps for Bautzen, participating in the grand flank attack. It seems that during all, the years of inactivity the regiment had the opportunity to put together a top notch band, led by a gigantic seven foot tall Drum Major, and it was they that lead the regiment into action. Following the victory at Bautzen, the regiment were heavily involved in the pursuit, and were only reprieved by the disastrous (as it turned out) June Armistice. When the Armistice ended in August V Corps was in Silesia, facing Blucher. When the Soon-To-Be-Made-Pregnant-By-An-Elephant One launched his attack the French were swept back. The regiment itself was nearly overrun on August 19, and the threat of enemy cavalry meant that the whole brigade of which the regiment was a part had to retreat in square. Raked by artillery fire, the regiment lost nearly 300 men, yet when Napoleon arrived two days later, they were in the vanguard of the counter-attack. Storming the Bober River, Colonel Lawless was hit and carried from the field with a shattered leg which as subsequently amputated by none other that Baron Larrey himself. Command of the regiment passed to Lt Colonel Ware, unfortunately at the same time that command of the army passed to Marshal Macdonald when napoleon departed. The inept marshal decided to ignore the Emperor's orders to remain on the defensive, foolishly thinking that he could general quite as well as Napoleon himself. Ware was fortunate to find his regiment as part of Pucthod's flanking force at the disastrous Battle of Katzbach on August 26, even though they were now cut off. Crossings The division headed for the Bober crossings at Lowenberg, but when they arrived they found that these had already been destroyed, and they were trapped with their backs to the river. To Pucthod's credit, he did not simply surrender. At the end of 12 hours hard fighting, Ware led the survivors of the regiment on a swim across the Bober, taking of course the prized eagle with them. Nine officers and thirty men made it across. Back in Imperial territory, the regiment was reformed by incorporating the 4eme Regiment Etranger into its ranks, bringing the total strength up to 403 men. They were posted to the garrison of Antwerp. In January 1814 the Allies attempted to take Antwerp and the regiment performed well under the eye of the veteran republican Carnot before having to abandon the city. The regiment ended the 1814 campaign with Maison's ad hoc formation. They now numbered 300 all told. With the return of the Bourbons, nobody really knew just what was going to happen. Posted to Picardy, the regiment sat back and waited. The obligatory anti-Bonapartist witch hunt followed, and Ware was replaced by a Bourbon stooge, Colonel Mahony. Apart from that though, they were officially recognised and incorporated virtually intact into the new scheme of things. Needless to say Napoleon's return caused a degree of uproar, and Mahony was quickly sent packing and Ware reinstated, he being a rampant Bonapartist. Napoleon needed troops quickly and with a lot on his mind he completely overlooked the Regiment when he authorised the formation of six foreign regiments in April 1815. This was put right at the start of May when Napoleon disbanded the first two of the old Etranger regiments, but reprieved the Third, renumbering it as the 7th and redefining its character as predominantly Irish to boot. This restructuring meant that the Regiment was not ready for Waterloo and thus the war had ended before it had really got going. This time when the Bourbons returned they were not so forgiving. The regiment was disbanded on September 29, 1815. Overall it can thus be seen that the Irish Legion and what they became did remarkably little during the broad expanse of the period as a whole, yet this factor has made little difference to enthusiast of the period. Perhaps it is the romantic picture of roguish Irishmen with big moustaches cavorting around Europe in gorgeous uniforms, or perhaps in the case of the British, because they were the only English-speaking troops fighting en masse for the Emperor, thus allowing us to have it both way. Whatever the reason, The Irish Legion hold a continued fascination which sustains the occasional lightweight dissertation such as this. Related Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #47 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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As a wargamer I ended up painting two battalions of figures for In The Grand Manner. As a re-enactor only the spite of a few others stopped me forming them. Who are they? Obviously unless you are a complete thicky the title gives it away. The Irish Legion. Specifically that in the service of the Emperor Napoleon between 1803 and 1815.