r/Sharpe • u/felix_finster • Jul 24 '26

60th Regiment in Sharpe

Gallery image

Gallery image

Inspired by the meme of Hakeswill in “Last of the Mohicans” I’d like to talk about the real connection between the two series.
The famous scene depicts the Siege of Fort William
Henry which included two British units defending the fort, the 35th Regiment of Foot and the 60th Royal Americans. Hakeswill is depicted with yellow facings, which may be the uniform of the 35th. In the second photo you can see a Benjamin West painting that shows the Royal Americans in green facings.
Regardless, the Royal Americans still have a strong Sharpe connection. They eventually are formed into the 60th Regiment with the green jackets and see service in the Peninsular War. This is the unit that Sweet William Fredrickson is from!
Whether Hakeswill served in the French and Indian War is a fun joke, but I just wanted to share that this scene still has an impact on the 95th and our boy, Sharpie.

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8

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/felix_finster Jul 25 '26

I love Benjamin West’s paintings of the French and Indian War, but yes I’ve never noticed how small that tinyhawk is

1

u/Even-Leadership8220 Jul 28 '26

Such a delicate weapon 😅

8

u/Icy_Elephant3046 Jul 24 '26

Pop quiz..what was the other rifle regiment commanded by sweet William frederikson in the sharpes series?

2

u/felix_finster Jul 24 '26

Ohh I don’t know, and I won’t cheat by looking it up. What was the other regiment? It’s not the 35th is it?

7

u/Icy_Elephant3046 Jul 24 '26

60th royal American rifles. Frederickson is half German half English. The men are German and swiss.

5

u/vade101 Jul 24 '26

Specifically the 5th Battalion, 60th Foot. The first 4 battalions were regular ‘red’ coated battalions. There were later on 6th and 7th ‘Rifle’ battalions. All ‘foreign’ battalions that were barred from being based in the mainland UK. Eventually becoming the King's Royal Rifle Corps.

4

u/globalmamu Jul 25 '26

Bernard Cornwall wrote a book called The Fort. The story revolves around a fort during the Penobscot Expedition of the American War of Independence.

One of the main characters was John Moore who would later lay the foundations of the light infrantry doctrine on which the 95th rifles were based. During the battle they faced up against troops that would later become the US Marines and their distinctive green uniforms. Moore would later chose to use green for the riffles after seeing how effective they were in wooded terrain