Well, sort of. The 5th Northumberland Regt. certainly claimed they wore a white feather as a memento of St Lucia in 1778 but the earliest evidence of them wearing one comes from ca 1790 and it may simply have been an embellishment of the facts to avoid having to wear the same regulation feather as everyone else when it was imposed -with difficulty- between 1797 & 1802. It's an inconvenient truth but there's strong doubt that the French infantry didn't wear white feathers at that time. The first hint of the 5th's claim comes from drafts of the regulations that finally succeeded in imposing uniformity when the shako replaced the cocked hat in 1800-1802. The earliest version of the actual story comes from an old officer wheeled out when Horse Guards finally called the Regt's bluff in 1824 and were trumped by the story of St Lucia. Permission to retain the distinction (entirely self-awarded) was duly granted.

If by 'Helmets' you mean bearskin caps, until they wore out these trophies from Wilhemstahl were occasionly worn on parade by the 5th to the fury of senior officers. The Duke of Northumberland, who was their colonel desperately wanted the Regt to be granted the honorific title of 'Fusiliers' and so encouraged this entirely non-regulation item to which the 5th were not entitled. The practice had died out by 1800. The white feather appeared during the American War of Independence when the expensive and impractical fur grenadier and fusilier caps tended to be kept for 'best' and plain hats were worn instead. The feathers were worn in the hats as an emblem to denote elite status. When circa 1830 the white feather was briefly ordered for _all_ infantry except and light infantry rifles, while the Grenadier Guards, Line grenadiers and other Fusilier regiments appear to have meekly accepted the loss of their distinguishing emblem, the 5th argued their case and were granted a red tip to maintain their 'honour'. Five years later, remarkably, they were finally granted official 'Fusilier' status and became the 5th Northumberland Regiment of Fusiliers. It had taken sixty years. Lord Percy would have been beaming from heaven.

The story of the red feather of Paoli is almost certainly folk lore. The earliest version of the story appears in 1851 and the distinction was claimed by just one regiment, the 46th. It was allowed without any other evidence. There s no evidence of them wearing red feather before 1833. In the following years, the red flash spread to a few other regts. who had been involved in the 1777 attack at Paoli Tavern. A similar story was told of a short-lived Highland regiment, associated with similar events in America. There may be a grain of truth to that version.

Curiously, one of the other regiments present at Paoli, the Black Watch, did not date their celebrated 'red hackle' from that action but from an obscure skirmish in 1795 against the French in Holland. Again, this story appeared suddenly to surface mid-19th century, in the memoirs of two old soldiers. It's now been discredited and the Black Watch feather seems, ironically, to date from the American War of Independence after all, although not as a battle honour but, according to another old soldier's recollection, as some kind of 'tactical recognition' emblem (The story isn't quite clear). Years later King George III had given his blessing but the Regiment forgot to have it recorded officially. The CO at the time was over-fond of the bottle and George III had his own problems. We know this because, as with the 5th and 46th, Horse Guards found it necessary in 1822 to ask the Black Watch to explain as to "from what period and by what authority" they wore their non-regulation 'red feather' and the Regiment was unable to say. They turned to the oldest surviving officer of the Regt for an answer but then failed once again to have his answer recorded and the General's letter was lost until the 1960s (True to form, Horse Guards let them continue wearing the red feather anyway). The Regt. still took forty years to acknowledge the discovery of the letter- probably because the truth wasn't nearly as good a story as the legend.

Nearly all these traditions are presented as some kind of honour but turn out to have more mundane origins, which have become embellished over the years, usually as a way of resisting uniformity. They are, of course, a rich part of the folk tradition.

(Oh, and cockades in 18th century armies were symbols of national loyalty, usually associated with the ruling dynasty,if there was one- Hapsburg, Bourbon, Orange etc. and of course Jacobite. They were often the only piece of uniform common to all regiments and branches of service. Until about 1815, I think, the Brits wore the black cockade of Hanover.)

Glad that's off my chest.