BJ-011 -- 4th Regiment of Foot (Barrell’s), British Sergeant

Barrell’s Regiment , the 4th Regiment of Foot, were to bear the brunt of the Jacobite attack on Cumberland’s left flank at Culloden.

Sergeants in all regiments wore plain white lace, and wore a crimson sash around the waist, with a thin stripe of the facing colour.

The halberd was one of the polearms sometimes carried by lower-ranking officers in European infantry units in the 16th through 18th centuries. In the British army, sergeants continued to carry halberds until 1793, when they were replaced by pikes with cross bars.

The 18th century halberd had, however, become simply a symbol of rank with no sharpened edge and insufficient strength to be used as a weapon. It was used however to ensure that infantrymen drawn up in ranks stood correctly aligned with each other.