“The unit that had proved so deadly was the 5th Battalion of the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot: the first rifle battalion in the British Army.”

By Rob Griffith

SEPT. 1, 1813: Jean-de-Dieu Soult, Marshal of France, sat down wearily at his desk. He had a difficult letter to write.

Soult had been ordered by Napoleon to drive the Anglo-Portuguese army under Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, and its Spanish allies back into Spain. He had failed, and now the enemy was approaching the borders of France. Bonaparte seldom took news of defeat well. On Soult’s desk were reports from his divisional commanders, and long casualty lists. Too long.

When he toured his demoralized battalions, Soult saw that some of the units had been reduced to just two or three officers, even though only a sixth of the men had fallen. He asked his generals why this was the case. The commanders explained the reason for the heavy losses. Soult took up his pen to report the situation to the Minister of War.

“There is in the English army a battalion of the 60th consisting of 10 companies. This battalion is never concentrated, but has a company attached to each infantry division. It is armed with a short rifle. The men are selected for their marksmanship. They perform the duties of scouts, and in action are expressly ordered to pick off the officers, especially field and general officers. Thus, it has been observed that whenever a superior officer goes to the front during an action, either for the purposes of observation or to lead and encourage his men, he is usually hit.”

The unit that had proved so deadly for Soult’s commanders was the 5th Battalion of the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot: the first rifle battalion in the British Army.

In 1793, at the start of the long wars against France, the British Army had been small and poorly trained. It needed more men and it needed them quickly. So, the government paid foreign officers and noblemen, refugees from revolution and war in Europe, to raise regiments.

The soldiers, mostly from the German states, had often served with one of the European armies. Many of these units were sent to fight in the West Indies, and were subsequently decimated by disease. By 1797, they were severely understrength so it was decided to merge them into the battalions of the 60th.

The 60th had been raised during the Seven Years War. During the North American campaigns of the conflict, British redcoats found themselves fighting in the wilderness against the French and their Native American allies. Britain’s infantry could fight well enough in line formation, but had little experience in skirmishing in forests. The 60th would correct this.

Formed from a mix of Swiss and German settlers who were accustomed to hunting in the woods, along with volunteers from British regiments, the experiment proved successful in matching the enemy in frontier warfare. The regiment continued to serve in the Americas, including the West Indies, and through the American War of Independence.

The influx of troops from the disbanded foreign units brought the four battalions of 60th back up to strength. The Duke of York, commander-in-chief of the British Army, also decided to form a fifth battalion from two of the best foreign units; the Lowenstein and the Hompesch Chasseurs. Both were specialist light infantry and armed with rifles. In fact, the new unit would be the first all-rifle armed battalion of the regular British Army.

Most infantry regiments at the time were armed with smooth-bore muskets. Although they were relatively quick to load and could deliver devastating mass volleys, muskets were notoriously inaccurate and had an effective range of less than 100 meters. Rifles, which had grooves in the barrel to spin the bullet, had long been used for hunting, but were expensive and difficult to manufacture. They were, however, much more accurate on the battlefield. A good rifleman could hit an enemy at up to 300 meters.

Other European armies already had units of riflemen and the Duke of York had seen them in action. He decided it was time for the British Army to have some as well. He also got the commander of the 5/60th, Lieutenant Colonel Baron Francis de Rottenburg, to write the first British Army manual for rifle and light infantry troops – Regulations for the Exercise of Riflemen and Light Infantry and Instructions for their Conduct in the Field. De Rottenburg’s manual was to form the basis of all light infantry drill and tactics through to Waterloo and beyond.

The 5/60th served during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, in the West Indies, and Nova Scotia. By the spring of 1808, the battalion was in Ireland preparing for an expedition against the Spanish colonies in South America under Wellesley. When news arrived that the Spanish and Portuguese had risen up against the French occupation, the Rifles’ destination was changed to Portugal. There they would take part in Britain’s campaign to help drive the French out of the Iberian Peninsula.

The 5/60th were among the first troops to land at Mondego Bay in August 1808. When Wellesley formed his army into brigades he placed the 5/60th and four companies of the 95th Rifles into a Light Brigade that was to spearhead the advance inland. The 95th, the first full rifle regiment of the British Army, had been formed several years after the establishment of Fifth Battalion of the 60^th. The riflemen were the first to fight the French at Obidos on Aug. 15, and then again played a leading role in the Battle of Roliça two days later.

Following Roliça, Wellesley decided to take five companies of the 5/60th and place them in each of the other brigades. This would strengthen the light companies of the battalions in those brigades and give them some rifle-armed troops. The decision was quickly vindicated by the 5/60th’s performance at the Battle of Vimeiro on Aug. 21. Not only did the five companies that were still brigaded with the 95th help defeat an attack on Wellesley’s centre, but the detached companies were present wherever the French attacked.

They also quickly gained a reputation for targeting French officers. Charles Leslie of the 29th Foot wrote:

“In this battle the 60th Riflemen, who were all Germans, showed great tact in taking advantage of the ground and dexterity in the use of their arms. General Fane, who commanded the light troops, observing one of these men successfully hit one or two French officers who were gallantly exposing themselves in front leading on their men, exclaimed in the excitement of the moment, ‘Well done, my fine fellow! I will give you half a doubloon for every other one you bring down.’ The man coolly loaded again, fired, and hit another, then looking at the General, he said gravely, ‘By Got, I vill make my vortune’.”

Financial gain was often a factor in the riflemen’s targeting choices. Dead or wounded officers meant richer plunder after the battle.

The French signed a surrender soon after Vimeiro and when Wellesley returned to Portugal in 1809 he again split the 5/60th up and gave companies of riflemen to as many of the brigades as he could. Because of this it was the riflemen of the 5/60th that the French were more likely to encounter, rather than the 95th who remained concentrated in the Light Division.

The 5/60th were at the forefront of almost all of Wellesley’s victories in the Peninsula War. On the first day of Talavera they held an outpost on the far flank of the allied army and when the French suddenly attacked, they steadied the British troops and helped save Wellesley from capture.

At Bussaco they were deployed down the ridge and as the French advanced they fired and retired. As usual targeting the French officers, so that when the French reached the crest, their command and control was already severely disrupted.

At Fuentes de Oñoro, a collection of light and 5/60th companies held the village against repeated attacks and during the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, they sniped the French defenders and then took part in the assaults.

At Salamanca and Vittoria, they were present at all the decisive points, and they continued to be through the drive across the Pyrenees and into France. They were one of only three battalions to be in the Peninsula from Mondego Bay all the way to the final battle at Toulouse in the spring of 1814, but more than five years of continual campaigning had taken their toll and they were down to just 350 men.

Understrength, they missed Waterloo. The battalion was disbanded in 1818. The 60th eventually became the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, then was merged into the Royal Green Jackets, and then the Rifles.

Rob Griffith is a writer specializing in the history of the Peninsular War. His book on the 5/60th, Riflemen, is available from Helion & Co. Riflemen | From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 | Helion & Company. His next book At the Point of the Bayonet, covering the battles of Arroyomolinos and Almaraz, will be published next year. He has a blog (https://daringdutycunningplans.wordpress.com) and you can follow him on Twitter at @Rob_Griffith_ and Facebook @robgriffithauthor.