So, as it was requested yesterday I thought it would be interesting (and a move marginally away from the RN, which happens on occasion) to cover the Experimental Corps of Riflemen (later @The_95th_Rifles ) who of course served at the Battle of Copenhagen #OTD 1801 too!

One company of the Experimental Corps of Riflemen, commanded by Captain Beckwith, along with the 49th Regiment of Foot & an artillery detachment, joined the fleet at Portsmouth, and were later distributed out across the ships of Nelson’s squadron to act as marksmen.

The Army contingent at Copenhagen were commanded by Lt Col William Stewart (who had previously commanded the Experimental Corps of Riflemen at Ferrol.

Stewart was known for his tactical thinking & implemented new drills, manoeuvres etc as well as bringing in medals for bravery & good conduct.

He also required his officers to get to know each of their men as individuals (something Collingwood also pushed on the naval side)

Stewart was on the quarterdeck of HMS Elephant (Horatio Nelson’s flagship) throughout the Battle of Copenhagen and Nelson later wrote to Lord St Vincent calling Stewart “an excellent and indefatigable young man, and depend upon it, the rising hope of our army".

They remained in contact and there are quite a few letters between Nelson and Stewart in the years after Copenhagen, prior to Nelson’s death at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805.

Anyway, moving on!

Here’s a thread on the Battle itself, I didn’t mention the Riflemen (sorry, Army folks) but they played an integral role, sharpshooters & marksmen were very important!

I'm sure if you want to know more then @The_95th_Rifles can go into more detail! https://twitter.com/kateejamieson/status/1112996864863989760?s=20

Lieutenant & Adjutant J.A. Grant was on the Isis, under Captain James Walker (who is an interesting chap in himself)

He was the first of the Experimental Corps of Riflemen to be killed in action since the creation of the Corps in 1800.

According to the RGJ Museum only 2 members of the Corps claimed the Naval General Service Medal (1793-1840) with a clasp reading ‘Copenhagen 1801’ after it was authorised in 1847 and, in total, only 25 medals with the clasp ‘Copenhagen 1801’ were awarded.

Often they were given medals within their Regiment though and the RGJ Museum has a couple of great examples. if you look very closely you can see the rugged ship, naval anchor etc...

*rigged

dammit got too excited about ships again