EC,
Thanks - the second organisation (ie the cavalry with the red LD uniform) was the one I was thinking of. The Mounted Guides seem to have been a fairly independent unit - I was really just wondering if any British generals (including in Portuguese service) had a sizeable escort when moving about, on or off the battlefield. I've never come across any evidence of such, but then apart from one very good book on the Rifles, I've not read very much of the new stuff that's been published on the Peninsula campaigns in the past decade or so.
