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Many historians have credited Lord Howe with the creation of light infantry, and have called the 55th Regiment a light infantry regiment, however that was not the case. While Lord Loudoun contemplated creating light infantry companies in each redcoat battalion, the idea was scrapped when Colonel Thomas Gage proposed to raise a regiment of Light ...
Howe commanded a light infantry battalion under General Wolfe during the 1759 Siege of Quebec. He was in the Battle of Beauport, and was chosen by Wolfe to lead the ascent from the Saint Lawrence River up to the Plains of Abraham that led to the British victory in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on 13 September 1759. [8]
In Germantown, Howe had his light infantry and the 40th Foot spread across his front as pickets. In the main camp, Wilhelm von Knyphausen commanded the British left, while Howe himself personally led the British right. A heavy fog caused a great deal of confusion among the approaching Americans.
The Battle of Germantown on 4 October 1777 pitted a 9,000-man British army under General William Howe against an 11,000-strong American army commanded by General George Washington. After an initial advance, the American reserve allowed itself to be diverted by 120 British troops holding out in the Benjamin Chew House .
At the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777 a colonial American army led by General George Washington fought a British-Hessian army commanded by General William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe. Washington drew up his troops in a defensive position behind Brandywine Creek .
Other officers, notably George Howe, the elder brother of William Howe, had adapted their regiments to serve as light infantry on their own initiative. [54] On becoming commander-in-chief in North America in 1758, General Jeffery Amherst ordered every regiment to form light infantry companies from their ranks. [55]
55th Regiment of Foot, Company of Light Infantry (1759-1764) (Archived 2009-10-22) Living History group re-enacting the light infantry company of the 55th Regiment during the French and Indian War and Pontiac's Rebellion. The 55th Regiment of Foot, Capt. James Taylor Trevor's Co'y Living History and reenactment unit portraying the 55th in 1776.
The history of British light infantry goes back to the early days of the British Army, when irregular troops and mercenaries added skills in light infantry fighting. From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Army dedicated some line regiments as specific light infantry troops, were trained under the Shorncliffe System devised by Sir John Moore and Sir Kenneth MacKenzie Douglas.