2/4th Portugeuese Regiment of Foot

During the Napoleonic Wars it was practice within Beresford's reorganised Portuguese army to pair-up Portuguese officers with British officers. As a general rule of thumb, a regiment was commanded by British officers if they were brigaded under a Portuguese commander. By extension, a brigadier of one nationality has an ADC of the other. A colonel or lieutenant colonel commanding a regiment or battalion would have a 2iC (Major) from the alternate nation. Operating on this understanding, my Portuguese battalions will correspondingly have two officers leading.

The 4th Brigade (constituting the 4th and 10th Portuguese Line regiments) was commanded by the field-promoted Archibald Campbell, Campbell was in fact colonel of the 4th Portuguese Line regiment and notionally retained command of the regiment by the time of Busaco in September 1810.

We know very little about specific Portuguese officers - certainly I've been unable to find out who they were at least down to regimental and battalion levels. We do have some very useful details on the British officers; however, thanks to S.G.P Ward's 'The Portuguese Infantry Brigades 1809-1814' for the Journal of the Society of Army Historical Research (1975) and also thanks to Captain Lionel S Challis and his work 'British Officers Serving in the Portuguese Army 1909-1914'.

Sir Archibald Campbell: Lieutenant General

I am depicting my Portuguese 4th Brigade with a brigade command base of Archibald Campbell and a Portuguese ADC. Sir Archibald Campbell had last held a majority in the 88th foot (Connaught Rangers) before assuming command with the Portuguese army so these are the facings I am giving him (yellow). He was 41 years of age at Busaco.

The 4th Portuguese Line regiment fielded two battalions - as did the 10th. Consequently, my 1/4th battalion will have a mounted Portuguese officer commanding - representing the 2iC stepping up to command (presumably a major).

The first battalion I have completed is the 2/4th battalion and is commanded by a British officer, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Armstrong. Armstrong served as Lt Col. with the 4th from June 1809 through to September 1813. At this early stage in the war, I am depicting my British officers in British uniforms but with the Portuguese cockade (blue and red) and Portuguese officer sashes (red with white tassels). Armstrong last held rank with the 97th foot so I am depicting him with those uniform distinctions (blue facings). He was 28 years old at Busaco.

The majority of my battalion comprises Elite Miniatures figures from the limited but characterful Portuguese range. Elite's Portuguese are in the older, indigenous Barretina shako which is fine for my early (1810) Peninsular army. They are quite complex compared to my usual British shakos and the diced chords add a finicky and time consuming step to the painting process. In fact, the piping is also fiddly compared to what I'm used to when it comes to Napoleonic infantry.

I enjoyed creating the Portuguese flags - it was just a pleasant change from all those Union Jacks. I also had to create the flag cravats from green stuff - so again, more time consuming than I had anticipated.

I have a couple of easily recognizable mounted Portuguese officers from the Front Rank range. I removed the feather edging from one of the officers to demote him and he accompanies my Brigadier Campbell. For this army my brigadier command bases are all 50mm square with one command figure (usually) but I'm changing that to two, starting with the Portuguese.

The 2/4th (like all second battalions) has two stands of light infantry in skirmish order but no grenadiers - they are with the first battalion.

Like all my efforts, this has taken far longer than it should have with work and family, Christmas and New Years commitments confounding my ability to get to my painting table. I'm also distracting myself with some scatter terrain for Spain - two new buildings with my true 25mm footprint philosophy being applied. I've also revamped and old church which I'm far happier with and am developing some vineyards and a handful of orange trees.

I don't normally do a yearly review or annual wrap-up - in fact I'm not going to do this now either but as I Iook back over last year I've certainly boosted my allied Peninsular army. I have replaced one and added an additional five infantry battalions, an extra field piece to give me the option of two-two gun batteries, I added two more rifle companies and have added a cavalry regiment. Whilst I'll continue to have some Peninsular additions simmering in the background, it's definitely time to re-invigorate my many other projects for the new year.