"In addition to red coated Irish Picquets Lord John Drummond, the commander of the French Troops, also brought some 400 men of his own regiment, the Royal Ecossois. This was a Scottish unit raised in 1744, for which Drummond was given permission to raise a second battalion in Scotland. A couple of officers and some men can certainly be identified as having joined the regiment after its arrival in Scotland, but the projected second battalion never materialised. Unlike the Irish regiments there was no polite fiction that these Scots soldiers were merely 'on loan' from the British Army and consequently, instead of the full-skirted red coats worn by the Irish, the Royal Ecossois had a rather dashing blue uniform." - Stuart Reid, 'Like Hungry Wolves'

A nineteenth century depiction of the Royal Ecossais. On examination this appears to be the uniform worn by the regiment post 1752, when a standardisation of all French Uniforms took place. Hence change to long coats and white facings.

UK re-enactors who portray the Royal Ecossais...

Fusiliers, Regiment Royal Ecossais

"This Scottish regiment in the French service initially stood in the second line at Culloden, and later some fought a desperate rearguard action against the British cavalry before being forced to surrender. Others, however, led by Major Hale, succeeded in escaping to Ruthven Barracks and did not surrender until 19 April. Originally it had comprised only a single battalion, but Lord John Drummond had been authorised to recruit a second, and appears to have picked up quite a number of recruits after landing in Scotland. Some of these recruits later had great difficulty in being accepted as prisoners of war rather than as rebels.

One of them was Lieutenant Charles Oliphant, a customs officer from Aberdeen, and his unusual uniform was described by one of the witnesses at his trial in 1747 (he was found guilty, but pardoned on condition of emigrating to America): 'Prisoner wore the uniform of Lord John Drummond's officers, viz; short blue coats, red vests laced with bonnets and white cockades.' A drover named John Gray also described Drummond himself wearing the same uniform, although he helpfully added that the coat itself was also laced. This style was of course very Scottish, and the grenadier company even went as far as to wear kilts in place of the white breeches depicted here. By 1752, however, the battalion or fusilier companies were more conventionally dressed in full skirted coats, and tricorne hats with white lace. The French infantry of the period seem to have worn white gaiters with all orders of dress; and wemay presume that this regular unit may have been equipped with the Modele 1728 musket".- Stuart Reid, 'Like Hungry Wolves'

The above description of the uniform contradicts the depiction of a fusilier in the Osprey Campaign Series: Culloden 1746. In that illustration the soldier has a long skirted coat and the presumtion is that this is a later uniform either interim dress before the move to long skirted coats in 1752 or a confusion with that change.

"The other significant component arrived only after the [Jacobite] army was well established. This was the rather speculative contribution of the French government and comprised a number of detachments, or 'picquets', from the various Irish infantry regiments of the French army, together with a single Scottish regiment, the Royal Ecossais. A regiment of cavalry, Fitzjames's Horse, was also sent. Unfortunately, not all of these troops actually arrived as planned; a significant proportion were captured on route to Scotland by the Royal Navy. Only about a squadron of Fitzjames's Horse reached Scotland and even they had had to be mounted at the expense of Scottish units; the French, being regular troops, were given a higher priority for the use of the army's limited resources. Despite being regular troops, the French contingents' lack of eventual numbers ensured their presence had little influence over the final fate of the Jacobite Army. Ironically, it was their professional discipline that allowed them their principal contribution to the Rebellion when they covered the Jacobite rear during the final stages of the Battle of Culloden." - Allan L. Carswell "'The Most Despicable Enemy That Are' - The Jacobite Army of the '45" essay from '1745 - Charles Edward Stuart and the Jacobites', edited by Robert C. Woosnam-Savage.