Note 76 — Chapter III · 1718-1793. THE SECOND SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR—THE SIEGE OF OSTEND—LEXINGTON—BUNKER’S HILL.

The origin of grenadier companies is mentioned in Chapter I. Light infantry companies were officially recognised soon after the end of the Seven Years’ War (1763); they were composed of small, active men, trained to act as skirmishers and in the outpost line. It was the custom to collect the flank companies of different regiments and turn them into provisional battalions: for instance, in the attack on the Terra Nova at Namur the grenadier companies of thirteen battalions were detached from their own corps and brigaded together; and, nearly a hundred years later, both the grenadier and the light infantry companies of the garrison of Boston were used in the same way at Lexington and Bunker’s Hill. After the Crimean War flank companies were abolished.