Yeah, I'd forgotten about the cockade as a decoration pure and simple to entice the gullible to join up. Goes along with the King's shilling the poor sod found in the bottom of his beer mug.

Meanwhile back at the Napoleonic Wars - A "Chosen Man" was the name given in the then newly formed 95th Rifle Regiment to a rifleman who had proved to be suitable as a low ranked nco - the equivalent of lance-corporal or corporal. The 95th, then the other rifle regiments as they were formed, were trained to act as skirmishers and operate independently usually well in front of the line infantry. Their purpose was to pick off enemy officers, sergeants, colour parties, gunners etc, who would be a distinct threst to the line. Because of this completely new role - in the British army at least - the existing system of ranks etc was altered to reflect the need for trust in such a situation, where the rifleman had to work intelligently as a small team or separately.

PS - Sharpe fans should know this and be going on about "fixing swords" etc - The 95th were armed with the Baker rifle, a flintlock muzzle-loaded rifle as opposed to the standard smooth-bore 0.753 inch musket. The rate of fire was lower, but the accuracy - for its' time - quite frightening. BUT - and here we Scots can stand up and take a bow - the first rifle issued to British troops was the Ferguson rifle, a breech-loading flintlock issued to the light company of a Highland regiment for trial during the American War of Independence. It was a very promising weapon, but as its' inventor, Captain Ferguson, was killed in action, the whole experiment was dropped.