An Officer of the Guards in Full Dress, 1812

Aquatint by J C Stadler after Charles Hamilton Smith, 1812.

During the Napoleonic era Colours were carried into battle for identification and as a rallying point. They were thus a symbolic target for the enemy and their loss was seen as a great dishonour.

From Charles Hamilton Smith's 'Costumes of the Army of the British Empire, according to the last regulations 1812', published by Colnaghi and Company, 1812-1815.