15th Hussars

I thought the following information might be interesting to everyone:

The 15th Light Dragoons were made 15th Hussars in 1807. The full name of the regiment was in fact 15th (The King's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars). The uniforms, however, were officially approved in 1805. This led later on to a nickname of 'Tabs' due to the large number of journeymen tailors in the ranks. (Tab = small piece of cloth sewn into the clothing by the tailor so that his work can be indentified.

Their uniform had, as regimental distinctions, red facings, silver lace and buttons and red and yellow sash. The dolman was of dark blue colour. The distictive red shako would have been covered in black oilskin cover on campaign. Sabretaches were generally black, although there was a number of them in the regimental colour.

The 15th Hussars under the command of Lord Paget, distinguished themselves at the battle of Sahagun by defeating two regiments of French cavalry: 1st Provisional Chasseurs and 8th Dragoons.

Since in reality the 15th were stationed in England at the time of the game, and it does not do to swell the army ranks too much, I would suggest that 15th Hussars exchange their places with the 16th Hussars who were in fact in Peninsula at the time. It could be written up as them having received new recruits between the retreat and Wellesley's campaign, which would result in them having a lot of fresh, inexperienced troopers.

The numbers for the 16th Hussars at Coimbra were as follows:
37 officers
673 NCOs/troopers, which would amount to about 4 squadrons = 8 troops.
20 men sick

Perhaps, we could use these numbers for the 15th if we do have the two regiments exchange places.

Other info:

Motto: Merebimur (We shall be Worthy)

Picture of 15th Hussars' officer:

It seems (after some searching, lots of confusion and hat talk ) that the common headgear for the 15th Hussars at the time was a busby as shown in the picture below. (Don't ask. XD)

This type of dress - also seen in the picture - was worn for important events, parades and such. The 'work' trousers for the 15th Hussars were as shown above, enforced with leather on the inside to ensure protection from wear. The white breeches - as shown below - 'just looked smart'.

There was also the third type of clothes worn when working with horses at the stables. For such an occasion they also had specialized caps. ...lets skip that, shall we? Enough for now.