19th Century Regiment Sizes?

OK chaps here we go, another question.:eek:

Any idea of the sizes of a British (plus Empire), European (plus Empires) and US Regiments in the 1880's?
I know that sizes could be very different, what I have found, or not as the case maybe, is that they could be anything from 400 to 3,000 men. But as a rule of thumb, 900?

Any help would be very nice.:)
 

Moglwi

Monthly Donor
do you mean establsment streanth or actual warm bodies on parade on Monday morning? As they are 2 different things

Aslo Regiments of Infantry or cavalry or Artilery

British service had infantry regiments split into 2 or more battalions wherease the cavalry was a regiment.
 
These two books may help, though slightly later than your period. Worth maintaining the distinction between a regiment and a battalion, though. In most continental armies regiments were tactical formations: a division might have two brigades of two regiments of three battalions each. In the British army, it was an administrative formation: for instance, the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry had two regular battalions, a militia battalion, and a volunteer battalion, none of which would necessarily serve together in wartime.
 
A Swedish infantry regiment was 1 200 men at this time. This was made up of 2 600-man battalions, each of 4 150-man companies.

A Swedish cavalry regiment was 1 000 men at this time. This was made up of 8 125-man squadrons.
 
I believe that the rule of thumb is 100 men and officers per company, ten companies (1 light infantry, 1 grenadier, 8 regular).

Many British Regiments had more than one battalion, usually in times of war as they allowed them to move experienced officers to the 2nd battalion and keep from having too many "raw" units.

The British also had their "half-pay" officers.

I don't know if other armies followed these practices. Prussia and France had much larger armies and these tended to be more professional in the 19th century in that regard. I can't tell you what the regimental organizations were like in the early 20th centuries.
 
Any other ideas?
Emory Upton covers Italy, Russia, Austria, Germany, France, Britain, and British India here, but for 1878. It might help if you gave us an indication of which countries you didn't feel sure about, based on the information you've already been given. For instance, between this, this and this, I'm not sure what other questions you might have about the strength of a German battalion or regiment, or about an Austro-Hungarian one based on this, this and this.

I believe that the rule of thumb is 100 men and officers per company, ten companies (1 light infantry, 1 grenadier, 8 regular).
Grenadier and light infantry companies were abolished about twenty years before the period we're talking about here.
 
French Napoleonic regiments typically had anywhere between 2 and 7 battalions. The 5th battalion was the depot unit with 4 fusilier or in legere regiments chasseur companies. The senior battalions had 4 centre fusilier if chasseur companies each supposedly of 140 all ranks, plus one grenadier (carabinier for legere) and 1 voltigeur company. The 21eme de Ligne for example when part of 1e Corps in 1812 set off with its four senior battalions the first carrying the regimental eagle, plus a new 6th battalion formed with six fusilier companies with an officer cadre from the Imperial Guard and new subleturns direct from St Cyr. In addition to all of that you can throw in an artillery company equipped with 4 Austrian 3pdr guns. At the same time the 7th Royal Fusiliers in the British army had 4 battalions each of 8 fusilier companies obstensibly each 100 strong plus one light and one grenadier company same size, 4th being recruited from Yorkshire. Each battalion served in different places, totally separate from the other. Other British regiments had anywhere from only one battalion to around 8 that last being the 60th Foot (Royal Americans) and them later becoming the KRRC.

In 1881 Lord Cardwell reformed the regiments giving each its own recruiting district, it's own affiliated militia and volunteers. So the Duke of Wellingtons regiment took the old 33rd (1st Yorkshire, West Riding) and added them to the 76th(Hindoostan) Foot, as the third battalion they got one of the West Riding Militia regiments and then for the 4th and 5th battalions around a half dozen rifle volunteer corps. He also at the same time regularised battalion rolls and what have you.
 
During the American Civil War it was 1,000 men to a regiment of infantry (even though it never was come a battle) with ten 100 man companies comprising a regiment. Two regiments per brigade, two brigades per division, and two divisions per corps. The number went up during the war of course with sometimes four-ten regiments per brigade.
 
Actual strength of US regiments in the 1880s tended to be on the low side. Note, the below numbers don't include officers, but even so, you have some infantry regiments that have barely more than three-hundred men in them. In theory, the infantry regiments have ten companies each (organized into a single battalion), the cavalry twelve, and the artillery twelves batteries. In actual practice, even discounting skeleton units, several companies tended to be missing altogether from each regiment's organization.

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