09/21/2026
Twilight of the Bearskin - Although this illustration doesn't specifically depict the 35th, they look essentially the same. On the right, the soldier has a white shako cover to protect it while on campaign. If worn at all, white covers were usually worn on warm weather stations. On the left is a grenadier of the regiment in his bearskin, which looks more like the Guards' bearskin of today than the bearskins of the American Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Wearing the bearskin by this period was rare and no longer worn on campaign by line regiment grenadiers. They would officially vanish from line infantry grenadier companies in 1842. Grenadier Companies as a whole would vanish shortly after the Indian Mutiny, but regimental tradition held firm. As Lt. Col. Frank Bourne, veteran of the Zulu War, said in a 1936 interview, "Now, the 'A' Company of any Regiment in those days was always called the Grenadier Company and was supposed to have the biggest men. I think the Sergeant Major must have been a wee bit humorous, for he posted me to our 'A' Company although I stood only five foot six inches and was painfully thin." Bourne served after the abolition of flank companies, but this itself represented a change from the wildly inconsistent labeling of a battalion's companies, which in earlier days had been Colonel's (A), Lt. Colonel's (B), Major's (C), Grenadier (D), the various center companies by seniority, and the Light Infantry Company (LI). But why did the grenadier vanish? By the later 18th Century, grenades were no longer used by Infantry soldiers but the companies might be brigaded together as shock battalions, as done in the American Revolution. By the Napoleonic Wars, this seems to have ended as a practice and grenadiers were just the tallest and most experienced troops of a regiment. Their distinctive purpose had gone and all troops were being trained in line and light tactics. With the widespread introduction of the rifled musket in the 1850s, all soldiers were essentially equal in terms of use. It wouldn't be until the First World War that the infantry were given grenades again, but the title of Grenadier was by then restricted to the Grenadier Guards.
