British Order of Battle:
4th Foot (King's Own)
7th Foot (Royal Fusiliers)
21st Foot (Royal North British Fusiliers)
43rd Light Infantry (Monmouth)
44th Foot (East Essex)
85th Foot (Buck's Volunteers)
93rd Foot (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders)
95th Rifle Corps
1st West Indian Infantry (Colored)
2nd West Indian Infantry (Colored)
14th Dragoons (dismounted)
Detachments of:
Royal Artillery
Royal Engineers
Royal Rocket Corps
Royal Corps of Sappers and Miners
Sailors from the Royal Navy
Royal Marines
My point was and remains that its rather a romantic myth that what ‘defeated’ the British in 1812-15 were poor farmers with weak firepower. Again, like the first war, what actually won America victory were well trained armies and militias, with good equipment, and led by very good officers and senior commanders. That’s however less ‘sexy’ than a ‘The Patriot’ type history.
As to the units, yes there were crack British units there, I never suggested that what crossed the sea in 1812-14 were all old men and boys.
My point was and is that for all the hoopla since Stateside about the war, it was for Britain actually very much the secondary ‘side war’, the war against France was much more important, ultimately threatening Britain’s actual security (and by extension the Empire).
Winning or losing in N America was ultimately less important, nice to retain Canada and would have been great to win America back, but even the loss of all British terrority in 1815 wouldn’t have ultimately crippled the Empire.
After all, the loss in 1783 really didn’t affect the Empire ultimately. It was a bad loss shrugged off pretty quickly as the Empire expanded to even greater heights. Losing to France however WOULD have been catastrophic for Britain.