I consider myself a very well read man about western warfare from 1776 to 1871 and have many bookshelves full to bursting with books and magazines about the above era. However in all my reading I have never seen any reference to an American equivalent of European grenadiers (Napoleon's old guard, the famed British Grenadiers) and I've never seen an explanation why. I understand they did not actually carry grenades anymore and they were more of a heavier, elite, line infantry at this point but still. Does anyone have any information on this (excluding a few state/city militia units)? So far the only explanation I've been able to gather is with such a small army America never had the men/interest in forming grenadier troops, or the leading politicians considered grenadiers to close to monarchy. If anyone can help me out it would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
They actually did have grenadier regiments (I'm on mobile so I can't look up their names) that fought in the Revolution and in 1792 congress even passed an act that actually made all Infantry Battalions have at least one regiment of Grenadiers or Light Infantry. The reason none of these regiments became famous as the Old Guard or The British Grenadiers did is because the US only fought two conventional wars after the revolution (The War of 1812 and The Mexican-American War) and so the regiments rarely had time to shine. Also by The Mexican American War there really was no distinction between Grenadier and Infantry and by 1850 even the Europeans started phasing out the Grenadiers in all but name.