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At the outbreak of the Crimean War Britain had difficulty expanding the army because of the policy of voluntary enlistment. As a result, foreign mercenary troops were recruited for service in the Crimea, forming the British Swiss Legion. Recruitment for the British Swiss Legion, recruitment commenced in May 1855 and continued until 28 February 1856.
A brigade, 2,200 strong, was sent to the seat of war; it was stationed at Smyrna when peace was proclaimed. The other stations were, the depots at Schlestadt and Dover, and in camp at Aldershot and Shorncliffe.
The recruitment of the Legions was unpopular at home and abroad, so the British Government was anxious to disband the legions as soon as possible after the Crimean campaign. The East India Company declined to employ the men to strengthen its force in India, and there was opposition to the idea of retaining highly paid foreign troops in Britain for garrison duties. In most cases, repatriation was out of the question as their respective governments were reluctant to re-admit legionaries who had served a foreign state. As a result, many legionaries settled in the colonies. Those who could afford to support themselves for a while opted for North America, but a number were persuaded into joining the military settlement scheme in Cape Colony. The Swiss Legion was disbanded by October 1856, the German Legion was disbanded by November 1856 and the Italian Legion by December 1856. The arms lent by Her Majesty's Government, were returned into store, repairs having been paid for by the men.
The Swiss Legion had an establishment of 3300 men. It was organized as an infantry brigade with 2 regiments, of 2 battalions each.
Additionally there was a Sharpshooter company and originally Artillery had been planned also, made up of one field battery of 6 guns and a heavy battery of four 12pdr guns and two 4pdr guns.
The battery’s where never formed.
The legions uniform was made up of a red coat with black collars and facings and white passepoiles and two rows of gold buttons with Swiss crosses and the circular title British Swiss Legion. The trousers where dark gray, with red passepoiles, white leather accoutrements, a Shako with dark green pompom and brass star with the legions title.
The epaulets also carried the letters B.S.L..
The Sharpshooters where supposed to have had dark green coats.
The battalion colours had the Swiss cross on red field with the legions title on one side and the Queens Crown on the Union Jack on the other.
Colonel Dickson commanded the battalion.
Lt.-Col Jakob von Blarer from Basel commanded the 1. Regiment. The 2. Regiment was lead by Lt.-Col Balthasar a Bundi from canton Grischon.
Battalion commanders where Maj Karl Haefeli from Aarau, Maj Theodore Fornaro from Rapperswil, Maj Friedrich Ginsberg from Zurich (who had lead a Zurich Battalion with distinction at the Gisikon in the Sonderbundskrieg) and Maj Ernst Martignoni from St. Gallen.
Another officer to be mentioned was Captain Theodore de Valliere, the uncle of the historian Paul de Valliere, who had already served in Algeria under General Changarnier, he later became Colonel at the Swiss artillery school in Biere.
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The British Swiss Legion in the Crimean War, Recruitment and Fate
From a pamphlet written by George Hoffmann for the Antiquarian Society of Zurich 13.2.1942
Basis of this account are the documents of the British Swiss Legion from the archives of Countess Castle Stewart in the Swiss Federal Archive and copies of Foreign Office documents in the Swiss Federal Archive.
Switzerland and the Crimean War
The Empire of the Tsar wasn't only distant in terms of space. The absolute monarchy of Russia had no friends in the deep-rooted Swiss republicanism.
Russia was perceived as a police force of absolutism, especially after aiding Austria to subdue the Magyars (Hungary).
The Russian Ambassador to Switzerland, Baron von Kruedener, had to be recalled from Bern in 1848, after liberalism had triumphed in the short Swiss Sonderbundskrieg.
His return was only granted in 1856 when Russia recognized the young federal state.
Relationships with neighbours Austria (Italian Refugee question) and Prussia (Neuchatel insurrection) where unstable.
Switzerland felt more open towards the western powers.
Napoleon III had close ties with Switzerland, having lived there for many years. Towards Britain there was a sense of thankfulness for their support especially during the Neuchatel troubles.
Hence Switzerland's sympathies politically and in terms of worldview, where generally with the western powers during the Crimean War period.
The Swiss Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) wrote: European Society as a whole feels this is a war for and against the highest values of civilization, a war against the cause of war, maybe the last war. The Victory Salute in London and Paris will find joyous echoes in the deepest valley here and the first markets of the world.
The sympathies where increased even at the highest military levels, by the unusually high reports of casualties the French and British where suffering by sickness alone.
Again the NZZ rose it's voice: Never more blood has been spilt on a battlefield than now in the Crimea, never have soldiers shown more chivalry, more stamina and more death defiance than those whose bayonets are deciding the future of Europe at this very moment. Even if the eye may well up over such human losses, the heart beats with pride for such heroic contemporaries.
Neutrality
The passionate support of many liberals for the western powers brought the question of Swiss neutrality in to dispute. The federal government was determined to uphold neutrality with all it's power and warned the cantons in writing to do the same. Criticism by the press and in pamphlets was not long in waiting. All shades of animosity to neutrality came to light, going as far as suggesting an alliance with the western powers.
A free lance correspondent of the NZZ, who got the front page for his personal beliefs on the matter wrote: If all the nations of Europe are picking up arms, is it only the Swiss alone, that should stand aside...by their weaving and spinning stools? He also suggested the creation of an auxiliary corps of 12000-16000 men, made up out of contingents from the Cantons. Articles like these where quickly countered by opposition voices.
A major point of the neutrality discussion was the debate about foreign service. Liberalism did not favor military service for foreign powers and new National pride was averse to the mercenary traditions of previous centuries.
The Federal Government had prohibited any foreign military capitulations (contracts) in article 11 of the 1848 constitution. At the time there where still capitulations with the kingdoms of Sicily in existence, agreed in 1825-1828. These had saved themselves in to the new Federal State, because the liberal government feared breaking contracts more than current law. The old capitulations stayed in force until their expiration, the last one expiring June 15th 1859.
The humble services for the Pope in Rome by the Swiss Guard, that where to outlive the church state, where not taken in to account.
So it happened that Swiss regiments where stationed in southern Italy as pillars of bourbon absolutism, while the federal constitution didn't allow foreign services, towards which the people where sympathetic.
The constitution not only stood in the way of capitulations, but in the way of recruitment also.
Article 65 of Swiss law stated: Who recruits citizens of Switzerland for prohibited foreign military service, will be punished by imprisonment and fine. This ruling covers also employees of recruiting offices outside Swiss territory, who try to circumvent recruitment on Swiss territory.
Article 98 of the Swiss Military Law of 1851 prohibited the recruitment of personnel, on federal and cantonal payrolls and generally in times of war, punishable by prison.
Thus was the situation when British recruitment started to stir emotions.
The British predicament
Victorian England was going to play the major role in the last chapter of Swiss mercenary history.
The basis for the British recruitment undertaking in Switzerland was the Enlistment of Foreigners Act of December 23rd 1854, allowing foreigners to be recruited as officers and soldiers in to Her Majesties Armed Forces.
After nine months of war and the realization that Britain’s professional army could not cope with all the demands on it, the Aberdeen ministry received parliamentary permission to form a foreign legion of 10000 men, only to be used outside Great Britain and not be quartered in any British household.
The Times thought this a bitter pill and nasty Christmas present when in fact, as Foreign Secretary Russell pointed out, Britain had always used foreign troops in its wars for the European power balance and it was in the spirit of Marlborough and Wellington.
In the Fall of 1854 the British put out feelers to Swiss Military circles.
Staff Captain Baumgartner drew up a draft convention and got in to contact with the British Ambassador in Bern, Murray.
Major Friedrich von Wattenwil-OConner, a former officer in the King of Naples army, also submitted a draft to the British government in December.
The Swiss press quickly caught on to what was going on and an article appeared in the Basler Zeitung 21. December 1854.
On December 30th Foreign Secretary Lord Clarendon, telegraphed the new Ambassador in Bern Gordon, to send two suitable Swiss recruitment officers for negotiations.
The instruction specifically named Oberst (Colonel) Adolf von Stuerler also a former officer in the Army of Naples and staunch supporter of the mercenary tradition.
Gordon visited Stuerler on new year's morning on his beautiful estate Oberried at Belp and informed him of the British governments request. He didn't seem surprised and agreed to travel to London. He visited Gordon the same afternoon having decided to travel with his wife on January 4th on family business and that he didn' want his name mentioned publicly in any way. He wasn't prepared to recruit himself or to take any part in it though.
Stuerler traveled to London and met with Lord Newcastle the Secretary for war trying to convince him of the benefits of a traditional capitulation-contract.
He was hoping the British government would be able to win over the Swiss Federal Government to suspend the constitution on this case.
This did not come about, as the British government was not intent on infringing on Swiss law.
London decided on a free recruitment campaign, which the patrician Stuerler declined as a rogue-concept.
The before mentioned Captain Baumgarter then suddenly became the new preferred man for the job. He was a commissariat officer in the federal general staff and was originally an emigration agent, which was an ideal background for a recruiting officer.
It seems Baumgartner had already been meddling in mercenary recruitment in 1852/53 for the French and their Mexican Adventure, but it had come to nothing.
Gordon had sent Baumgartner to London two days before Stuerler, so the government had a chance to deliberate both types of mercenary involvement: Stuerlers straight forward approach and Baumgartners covert one.
The Captain was recommended as an energetic businessman and very friendly to the English cause, but especially as a close friend of the new Swiss Justice and Police Minister Mr. Staempfli.
In the mean time the British Ambassador in Bern was on the hunt for a respected high ranking officer, who would help the recruitment drive by his sheer presence in the recruitment committee.
His sights first fell on Ulrich Ochsenbein, who had been against the continuation of the capitulations with Naples in 1848, but strangely suddenly felt happy to go in to Foreign Service.
On Gordons question if he'd like to go in to British Service he answered: Je ne dis pas oui je ne dis pas non, cest possible et dependerait des offres que l on me ferait. (I do not say yes, I do not say no, it depends on the offer that is made.)
Gordons hopes where dashed when on 13th January he had to read that Ochsenbein had left the Swiss Army and taken up a post as French Brigade General.
Gordon met the French Ambassador Fenelon at a party in the Spanish Embassy and asked for an explanation. The French man tried to avoid the question but then had to admit the paper had been writing the truth. Ochsenbein was in charge of organizing a French Swiss Legion.
The British and French where getting in each others way on neutral ground for the same reason.
Gordon was disgusted with his French counterpart and sent an official complaint to London and thought it necessary to inform the British Ambassador in Paris Lord Cowley. The cooperation of the allies in Bern was put in to question. Both representatives requested instructions from their governments, how far the friendship should go in this matter.
Both where directed to keep close ties and the case was laid to rest.
Gordon didnt get over loosing Ochsenbein for a long time though and dwelt on the matter in his reports for quite some time and what benefits had been lost.
It is interesting to note though how quickly Ochsenbein was able to resign his Swiss Army service with the federal government during a European war! But then, Napoleon III had been his Battery Commander at the Artillery school in Thun in younger years.
The French Swiss Legion did not develop very well and there was talk of handing over the remnants to the British at the end of 1855. Ochsenbein seems to have vetoed this though.
So Gordon was still on the look out for a charismatic figure for his legion.
Oberst Carl Bontems, seemed willing but being too cautious asked Federal President Furrer for his opinion on the matter. The president later told Gordon privately, he couldnt encourage his own staff officers to resign for Foreign Service. At least Gordon came away from the talk with the impression that the Swiss President personally wasnt against the formation of the Legion as there was still the capitulations of Naples, the recruitment would have to be done in secret though and in a way which didnt compromise the government.
On March 27th the British Government sent the former Prussian Colonel Baron von Stutterheim accompanied by an officer with recruiting powers to the continent and ordered Gordon to support them if need be.
Stutterheim recruited a British German Legion. A flood of former soldiers from the Baden Revolution Army and the unlucky Schleswig Holstein Army gave the Legion a typical German character. It managed to raise 3500 men and was a rival to the British Swiss Legion, who later against British wishes and protests by Baron Stutterheim started to take Germans in to it’s ranks also, as there was not enough Swiss. (In the end the BSL had 22% non-Swiss. 25% had been agreed on by Baumgartner, Colonel Dickson and Gordon.)
The ancient animosity between the Swiss soldier and German Landsknechts still lived.
The Recruitment commission
The British Agent for the Swiss Legion was sent to Bern with recommendations to Gordon at the end of March 1855.
His name was Charles Sheffield Dickson, reputedly the son of a sailor and on any occasion more agent than officer, befitting his mission and constant threat of imprisonment.
To add some weight, Dickson was hastily promoted to Colonel.
Based on a Letter of service and in close cooperation with Gordon, Dickson went about forming a Swiss Recruitment committee of which he took presidency himself.
Next to Captain Baumgartner, who had risen to the rank of British Major, this committee also included artillery instructor Oberstleutnant (Lt-Col) Eduard Funk and infantry instructor Oberst Johannes Sulzberger. Sulzberger had a good reputation as an instructor in eastern Switzerland. Gordon finally believed to have found his charismatic leader figure in him.
He enforced with his superiors in London that Sulzberger would receive a pension three times his annual income on discharge. The government conceded under the provision that the agreement be kept secret. This was not to be though.
The members of the organization committee singed the so called convention particuliare on May 19th which laid out rights and requirements among the members.
Gordon gave a helping hand in the editorship.
The commission then went about setting up a capitulation.
Time was of the essence and Baumgartner being the youngest and most active member seems to have drafted it himself, based on the Lord Panmures Letter of Service.
After a quick examination by the other committee members it was published in Schlettstadt, where the central depot for the Legion was being set up.
Interestingly the publication, signed by the three Swiss members carried the title Excerpt from the military convention of the British Swiss Legion.
A complete convention never seems to have been drafted or legally signed though.
Even the Excerpt wasn't based on a document with official signatures and differed in some points from the war ministries conditions. It painted a rather more enticing picture than Lord Panmures Letter of Service.
This recruitment paper was circulated in large numbers in Switzerland with considerable help from the embassy and was a major step in kicking off the recruitment drive.
The recruitment
A net of agents and under-agents spanned the land, including well known names like Hauptmann Ludwig Haslimann who was supposed to have recruited thousands of men for the papal troops over the years and who took on the recruitment in central Switzerland for the Legion. The depots where outside the Swiss borders, mainly in France.
Next to the central depot at Schlettstadt there was depots in Jougne, north of Vallorbe, Blamont next to Pruntrut and Hueningen. The planned depots in Loerrach, Konstanz, Feldkirch and Bregenz could not be opened as they where not permitted by Baden and Austria.
Austria managed to have the depot Vaduz in Liechtenstein closed.
The allied Sardinian government though allowed depots in Domodossola and Evian. The depot in Domodossola had to be moved to Novara after the Swiss Legion and the Italian Legion that was being raised at the same place, got in to fights.
The recruitment wasn't that harmless either and agents where apprehended and fined. In Bern the recruitment officer Lt. Kruessi referred to his exterritorial status as an employee of the British embassy!
The report of the Basel police chief stated that: One things for sure and we've convinced our self to our full satisfaction on this, that the British recruitment is being undertaken with such shamelessness like we never believed possible.
The government consoled itself with the fact that once the contracts with Naples ran out thered be a clear situation and stated that the situation would be even worse if it was not for the prohibition.
At the beginning of June, 7 officers and 430 men had been recruited.
Gordon was hoping to reach the planned number of 5000 in a couple weeks and toying with the idea of 10000 within a few months and maybe 20000 within the year.
Baumgartner also mentioned the number 20000 in his convention draft. The act of Parliament though had clearly stated a limit of 10000 men for the Foreign Legion.
Gordon was thrilled and reported home that the sympathies of the Swiss for the allied cause had been light and he was very pleased with the recruitment commission.
He still grieved for a man of Stuerlers caliber though and never gave up on trying to find a charismatic figure like him.
The Mutiny
End of June there was a setback to the recruitment effort. Reports of scandalous conditions in Dover where leaking through. The single reports melted in to a passionate accusation against the organization committee and even the British Embassy.
On June 9th the first contingent of 5 officers and 247 men had arrived at the training depot in Dover, where they found nothing prepared for their arrival, much to their dismay they also had to find out that the printed recruitment terms where partly incorrect.
The soldiers where expected to give halve of their 150 Swiss Francs pay for equipment.
This had never been printed anywhere. Major von Wattenwyl and Captain von Steiger, both former Naples officers, took up the cause of their men.
The British Camp Commander Lt.-Colonel Pashal was amazed at the Excerpt from the military convention of the British Swiss Legion, that didnt correspond with the service terms laid out for the Foreign Legion by the government and sent an example to the Inspector General of the Foreign Legion, Colonel Kinlock, asking for directions.
He later resigned on health reasons when he saw that things where not as clear as they should have been and was replaced by Lt.-Col Raines. In the meantime Colonel Dickson and Sulzberger had arrived in Dover. Sulzberger immediately planted himself in front of the mutinous men and gave them such an intimidating free and frank in his thundering instructors voice that the men dropped their complaint and agreed on a deduction of 50 Francs, which Sulzberger was able to report to Pashal.
Von Wattenwyl and Steiger though, got in to a heated dispute with Sulzberger and consequently where relieved of their duties and sent home by Dickson. The men traveled back to Switzerland and from July 27th onwards published a series of reports in the press over the goings on in Dover.
The scandal didnt provoke any clear reaction from the organization committee.
Colonel Dickson only sent a copy of the act of Parliament and 13 corresponding capitulation articles to the press for publication.
The fault for the discrepancies in the Excerpt where put on Baumgartner, who had no intention of resigning over it and continued to be the heart and soul of the recruiting operation.
Gordon did bring up the idea of Baumgartners exclusion to pacify public opinion, but the other commission members would not hear of it, possibly because Baumgartner was the workhorse of the group and most likely, as Dickson mentioned to Gordon, because they feared the enmity of the agent.
NCOs and Soldiers on enlistment had to sign a declaration from now on at the depot, excluding the disputed articles of the old Excerpt, which continued be the only paper they ever held in their hands.
Sulzberger himself later explained Lt.-Col Raines that a clear statement about the validity of the 13 articles published by Dickson was also never made.
The Dover Mutiny found its way in to the summer session of Swiss parliament and caused heated discussions on foreign recruitment in all its forms and consequences.
The national assembly passed a bill by which the federal government was to take on full responsibility of the recruitment prohibition and its enforcement on cantonal levels also.
Major von Wattenwyl handed a petition to the Federal assembly inviting the government to take action against the members of the recruitment committee.
The Swiss officers in Dover though would have none of that and supported their honorable Instructor Sulzberger.
Gordon was very disappointed about the turn of events and again started looking for a figure that would restore the glamour of the Legion.
He negotiated with Oberst von Reding and Oberst von Barman. Both declined. One because his high demands where not met by the British Government and the other out of consideration to his position in Switzerland.
Stuerler appeared on the scene again and in an open letter to the Berner Zeitung July 13th 1855 distanced himself from the British recruitment operation in all form and brought up accusations against Baumgartner and his consorts. Gordon let himself be drawn in to a heated correspondence with Stuerler and had to awake on the morning of August 12th to see his confidential letters published in the Oberlaender Anzeiger and Journal de Geneve.
This exposure got Gordon a major rebuke from the Foreign Office, but he had the conciliation of his eagerness and efforts being recognized in London.
Even if Dickson and Gordon seem compromised with the unclear business of the convention paper, it would seem that the Foreign Office and War Ministry had no part in it.
The correspondence of the military authorities clearly shows that Dickson was never left in doubt that the Letter of Service by Lord Panmure was the only basis for any payment agreements.
Dickson was repeatedly asked for an explanation and cancellation of the inaccurate convention.
It would seem strange Dickson never was made to take responsibility for it all though.
The Legion
The Swiss Legion had an establishment of 3300 men. It was organized as an infantry brigade with 2 regiments, of 2 battalions each.
Additionally there was a Sharpshooter company and originally Artillery had been planned also, made up of one field battery of 6 guns and a heavy battery of four 12pdr guns and two 4pdr guns.
Baumgartner sent a recommendation from Schlettstadt that the Swiss gun layers where especially talented. But the batterys where not formed.
The legions uniform was made up of a red coat with black collars and facings and white passepoiles and two rows of gold buttons with Swiss crosses and the circular title British Swiss Legion. The trousers where dark gray, with red passepoiles, white leather accoutrements, a Shako with dark green pompom and brass star with the legions title.
The epaulets also carried the letters B.S.L..
The Sharpshooters where supposed to have had dark green coats.
The battalion colours had the Swiss cross on red field with the legions title on one side and the Queens Crown on the Union Jack on the other.
Colonel Dickson commanded the battalion.
Lt.-Col Jakob von Blarer from Basel commanded the 1. Regiment. The 2. Regiment was lead by Lt.-Col Balthasar a Bundi from canton Grischon.
Battalion commanders where Maj Karl Haefeli from Aarau, Maj Theodore Fornaro from Rapperswil, Maj Friedrich Ginsberg from Zurich (who had lead a Zurich Battalion with distinction at the Gisikon in the Sonderbundskrieg) and Maj Ernst Martignoni from St. Gallen.
Another officer to be mentioned was Captain Theodore de Valliere, the uncle of the historian Paul de Valliere, who had already served in Algeria under General Changarnier, he later became Colonel at the Swiss artillery school in Biere.
Garrison Life
The Brigade and Regimental diaries in the Federal Archive give us a glimpse in to the monotonous life in the Dover Garrison. The men where quartered in the castle itself and in the barracks at Westernhights.
The diaries mention nearly each type of military misconduct ever recorded. Untidiness, weapons and equipment not maintained, late at parade, drinking, a nightly shooting incident, chasing local women and absence of the company commanders at barrack inspection.
The commanders where advised at one stage to devote more time to their units instead of their immoral behavior!
Some soldiers made a small business of selling their issue boots.
According to Lt. Romang duty was very strenuous. From 6.00-11.00 and from 14.00-17.30 the troops where drilled. For an inactive unit and taking in to account the monotonous training curriculum, these daily 8,5 hours where very trying to say the least.
Colonel Sulzberger commanded instruction, putting a lot of weight on parade drill. Lt. Romang did not think too highly of him though.
The British declared his methods unsuitable for oriental warfare.
The recruits where a stock of solid and efficient young men, who where attracted by the favourable conditions of service with the British and where marked out as not appearing shabby and cut throat like the German Legion.
A small break in the garrison routine was brought about by honour guards that had to be mounted for people of rank travelling through Dover.
Once it was the Prince of Prussia, the next time the Belgian King, a Prince from Baden or the Duke of Cambridge. A guard of honour had to be mounted on each occasion with a Captain, 2 subalterns, 3 sergeants and 100 men.
Only for the King of Sardinia the whole off-duty Legion was mustered.
The legionnaires didnt always appreciate this pomp and ceremony though, a soldier from Berne complaining in a letter home, that the Belgian King hadnt even paid them a beer for their troubles!
On August 9th 1855 Queen Victoria inspected the foreign troops at Shorncliff. On the right stood a German Jaeger Regiment, in the center two German Line Regiments and on the left wing the Swiss Legion. The Queen drove down the line with four of her lady companions. The Prince Regent Albert and the Duke of Cambridge accompanied the coach on horseback followed by a squadron of Horse Guards.
The regimental bands played God save the Queen, the onlookers where jubilant and the Legionnaires roared a hurrah.
In this roaring competition the Germans seemed to cut a better figure than the more subtle Swiss, which annoyed the chronicler Lt. Romang. He was convinced that: The Swiss troops would have marched to their deaths with more loyalty and devotion than those yellowed 48 revolutionists screaming their heads off!?
After this the troops where marched past the Queen, the Germans in the slow British parade step and the Swiss in their own quick step. The Queen was satisfied with the Swiss and this was stated in the next days orders by the commander in chief, calling the Swiss troops: A trained body of men, ready for any service.
A letter dated 10.8.1855 from Lord Clarendon to Gordon reveals, that this order was issued with the distinct intent to take the wind out of the sails of the campaign against the Legion back home in Switzerland.
Smyrna
The 1. Regiment was shipped out to the orient on November 17th from Portsmouth. British Bands played, accompanying the troops to the harbor and the crowds cheered the marching men. The British press was full of praise for the troops, the Morning Post writing: The men where much admired for their youthful, strong and healthy looks and their soldierly attitude.
On December 4th the 1450 men of the Regiment reached Smyrna. On the 11th, Colonel Dickson and Pascha Suleiman of Smyrna and a colourful oriental entourage took their parade.
Colonel von Blarer took over the training of the Regiment with circumspection and a lot of energy. It only came to trouble when Dickson tried to have his say, exhibiting incompetence in different matters.
Strenuous marches where made, in expectation of going in to action very soon.
On the 1st march the 1.Battalion of the 2.Regiment arrived under Major Ginsberger. This Battalion had a considerable amount of Savoys and Italians, that Baumgartner had recruited to make up the numbers.
Two traditional Swiss events took place in Smyrna, a gymnastic and wrestling festival on Easter Monday 1856 and a shooting competition with prizes on 2nd and 3rd of June.
In the mean time on March 30th 1856, the Paris peace accord had been signed.
There was to be no action for the British Foreign Legion.
March 17th, had already seen the depot commander of Schlettstadt, Col Halkett, order the stop of recruitment.
The troops reshipped end of June, beginning of July.
The returning Battalions came back to Shorncliff, where the 2. Battalion of the 2. Regiment, the Sharpshooter company and fresh recruits where stationed. The ones left behind had nothing of interest to report to the comrades returning, except the firing of a Feu de joie on May 27th 1856, Queen Victorias 47. Birthday and that Captain Alexander Dorschatz from Sitten had disappeared with the payroll.
Dismissal
The Legion was not kept, like originally intended, for a year after the cessation of hostilities, but dismissed during the autumn.
Most of the men returned home. A Lt.-Col Scharter, making use of this convenient opportunity in Dover, recruited 240 men into Dutch services.
400 men took advantage of an offered free passage to Canada. 80 did the same to the Cape Colony.
Some of the best men though, where recruited by Dragoons stationed at Shorncliff.
The mainstream of men where dismissed at Strasbourg by Colonel Halkett.
The dismissal brought on the second big conflict arising out of the false convention.
The officers, who hadnt signed the waver the troops had, persisted on the promised resignation fee of 15 months pay, instead of the shabby 3 months pay the ministry had permitted Dickson to pay out.
It seemed that the whole officer corps was going to sign a petition to the British government on the matter. Lt.-Col Raines managed to dissuade Battalion commander Major Martignoni and the officers front of unity was split.
The officers contented themselves with the assurance that the acceptance of the three months pay would not infringe their claim rights at a future date and left the Major at Dover to represent their interests.
The affair would still be a subject in the British and Swiss Governments in 1864-65. In the end the officers didn’t get their way. Gordon being recalled from Switzerland, may well be linked to the payment affair.
The recruitment commission also had a hard time with the British government when stopping the recruitment.
The three Swiss members made a point of demanding 5 pounds bounty for each man they still intended to recruit to make up the agreed number of 5000 men.
Indeed the convention particuliere of May 19th 1855 stated in article 3, that the members of the commission would get 5 pounds for the first 5000 men and 4,5 pounds for each additional man. But it wasnt in writing that the maximum number had to be reached.
The British government didnt respond to the claim.
Major Baumgartner had already been suspended from the commission on April 15th 1856 after for unknown reasons making a scene with his superior, the depot commander Colonel Halkett.
The Colonel had Baumgartner arrested and requested his immediate dismissal by the war ministry.
Baumgartner hung around Schlettstadt employing himself, in his own words, with the liquidation of the Legion, even after the recruitment commission had been disbanded September 4th.
For this he demanded in a kind but still threatening letter to Dickson, dated October 16th 1856, wages for his services rendered between April and December.
The legions liquidation was very haphazard. Even Lt.-Col. Funk had to demand his 3 months resignation fee from Paris as late as October 14th.
This concluded the story of the British Swiss Legion and the last Swiss mercenary adventure.
British Swiss Legion Officers Uniform
British Swiss Legion Officers Uniform
Colonel James Freiherr von Halkett (1822-1870)
James Freiherr von Halkett of the Coldstream Guards, served as Aide-de-Camp to Governor and Commander-in-Chief in India and Assistant Quatermaster General in Ireland. Served his regiment in the East and was present at the siege of Sevastopol, and the battles of Balaclva and Inkerman at which he was severly wounded. (Halkett James Lieutenant Colonel 1st Bn. Coldstream Guards, Severe Wound, Second Battle of Inkermann, 05 November 1854) Promoted to Lt. Colonel in 1854 and to full Colonel and President of the Recruiting Comittee of the British Swiss Legion as of 7. March 1856. He left the army in 1860. He was the recipient of the Knight of Legion of Honor, the Medjidie, and the St. Stanislaus of Russia.
