A Portuguese Artillery Regiment had ten companies: seven were gun companies, one was a Miners & Sappers, one was a pontoon company, and the other one was called Bombeiros.
Does anyone know what "Bombeiros" were? It translates as firemen. If that is a correct translation, what would be their job?
Thanks!
Probably.
Undoubtedly so. Basically, it would be any artillery piece with a separate chamber in the bore. I was only thinking about field artillery, but should have thought of that as before the British reorganization of the Portuguese army, including their artillery arm, their artillery was mostly employed as garrison artillery, not field artillery.
It could be Portuguese for 'bombardier' or might be the equivalent of a 'feuerwerker' in German.
If that is the case, then it was a company of artillery specialists, probably employed with howitzers.
Just an (uneducated) guess as I am not that familiar with the Portuguese language.
As an addition to the above, I just took a look at Rene Chartrand's Osprey, The Portuguese Army of the Napoleonic Wars (3) which covers the Portuguese artillery. As of 20 October 1809 the Portuguese artillery regiment had ten companies, seven of gunners, one of pontonniers, one of miners, and one of bombardiers. In addition, the bombardier company had 6 artificiers. As of 12 October 1812 both the miners and pontonniers were transferred to the Battalion of Artificiers and two additional companies of gunners were added to the regiment to replace them.(page 5).
The Portuguese Army had four regiments of artillery during the period.
Although an Osprey, I have found that those by Rene Chartrand are far above the average Osprey in scholarship and depth of research.