Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Prussian Napoleonic Uhlans

Prior to the debacle of 1806-1807, there had been a single large (8 squadron) Uhlan regiment in the Prussian army. With the reorganization of the (much downsized) Prussian Army following the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, these troops formed the nucleus of the two new Uhlan regiments, the 1st and 2nd. Major von Schill's unauthorized and unsuccessful raid in 1809 lead to his regiment, the 2nd Brandenburg Hussars, being disbanded. In its place, a 3rd Uhlan unit, the Brandenburg Uhlans #3 was raised. Five more Uhlan regiments were raised for the 1815 campaign.

All the units wore essentially the same uniform, the regiments being distinguished only bu the color of their shoulder straps (and later, their buttons). Although a dark blue Litewka coat was an option for campaign dress, the Uhlans generally wore their "Kollet" jackets, which had red pointed cuffs, collar, and turnbacks, as well as a red stripe of lining showing on the outer edge of the reversible lapels (for parade wear, they were buttoned with the full red lapels showing). A blue and red lancer girdle was worn as well.



Prussian Uhlans 1809-1816


Regt
Name
Shoulder Straps
Buttons
1
West Prussian
White
Yellow
2
Silesian
Scarlet
Yellow
3
Brandenburg
Yellow
Yellow
4
Pomeranian*
Light Blue
Yellow
5
Westfalian*
White
White
6
2nd West Prussian*
Scarlet
White
7
1st Rheinish*
Yellow
White
8
3nd Rheinish*
Light Blue
White
*  units raised in 1815



This colorful unit is the Brandenburg Uhlan Regiment #3, with their yellow over blue lance pennons. The 1st regiment had white over blue pennons, and the second red over blue. In March, 1815, all regiments, including the new raised ones, were supposed to switch to white over black... Boring!


The trumpeters of all regiments had red shoulder wings with gold lace, but for some reason did not have the red plumes common to other Prussian musicians in full dress. These lovely castings are Perry figures.


As a regimental tradition, the officers of the Brandenburgisches Uhlanen Regiment bore white lances larger pennons than the men, in reversed colors (i.e., blue over yellow instead of yellow over blue), with the blue upper  half bearing a yellow son, and the bottom (yellow)half a black Prussian Eagle with the motto "Nec Soli Cedit" below it. This was the motto of Frederick I of Prussia, and translates roughly to "he yields not even to the sun", a reference to the Sun King, Louis XIV, who ruled France from 1638 - 1715. A rather peculiar anachronism. Perhaps it was a way expressing anti-French sentiments without being directly offensive to Napoleon or the Empire? In any event, the custom was abolished in 1812... at least officially. As this is too choice a bit of military "bling" to pass up, and the lancers didn't carry standards, I have depicted the officer with the offending special pennon, but without the white lance... presumably in an attempt to evade censure by the army regulation "police"!


If the shako was not worn with its oilskin cover, it had yellow cords and, for full dress, a tall black plume. Only the Leib squadron (which later became the Guard Uhlans) wore a czapska. Standard Prussian cavalry overalls, grey with a red stripe and buttons down the outside seams, were worn.


This spare Uhlan officer I have painted up for use as an infantry Brigade commander.


Evidently he must be a colonel of a Pomeranian regiment (white collar and cuffs), jumped up to fill a temporary command vacancy.


He wears the silver mixed with black sash common to all Prussian officers.



The Kongliche Preussusisches Freikorps von Lutzow, usually know as "Lutzow's Frekorps", was raised in February 1813. It included 3 battalions of infantry, each of 4 companies; 1 company of the 3rd battalion were Tyrolean Jagers!  There was one battery each of foot and horse artillery, and five squadrons of cavalry, ultimately 2 each of Husars and Uhlans, and one of Mounted Jagers.  These figures are part of a large group of old Minifigs that Joe passed along to me a number of years ago when I started my Prussian army with another set of Prussian Minifigs purchased nicely painted (and very unexpectedly) from Jamie W. at Historicon 2003.  They underwent modest rehabilitation to form a unit that can at least pass for the cavalry of the Lutzow Freikorps. They look a bit like Brunswicker wannabees, eh?


All but the Tyrolean Jager company of the Freikorps wore black coats and pants. The Uhlans had red piping on the collars and cuffs and down the outside seam of the pants. All belts were black, and the Uhlans reportedly wore black leather gauntlets as well! Black over red lance pennons were carried, as seen above. 

Mit Gott für König und Vaterland!

Peter

14 comments:

  1. Nice looking cavalry - love the Uhlans, and the guys in frock coats look cool too.

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  2. More most excellent Prussians which is most excellent !

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    1. Thanks for your "ausgezeichnet" comment, Garry! :-)

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  3. Another excellent article, thanks!

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  4. Than you, Mark. Glad you found it useful!

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  5. Once again, another useful painting reference. My Prussian contingent in 15mm is quite small at around 400 figures and been stuck at that total for many years. Just enough to field an allied contingent for the 1813-1815 campaigns.

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    1. Jon, I didn't paint ny first Prussian Napoleonic figures until ? 2004 (vs 1970 for French and Austrians and maybe 1972 for Russians).l Back in the day when I first got a group of gamers together in HS, one of the guy painted an entire Prussian army over the summer before entering the Air Force. Thus, for many years we just used his army whenever we need Preusisches. When that group finally dsperesed across the country circa 1995, I did very little gaming until roughly 1999. I probably might never have painted any Prussians until Jamie came up to me at Historicon 2002, and offered to sell me about 100 figures each of Prussians and British, all nicely painted inifigs, for $1/figure.; How could I refuse an ofer like that? I didn't. Joe also had a number of Minifigs from his old armies that I aquired form him and refurbished, in addition to getting doem new OG infantry. The 1813/Dreseden project last year called for an expansion, as do plans for 1815 for next year. Thus the Prussian rolling off the painting table (and display shelves) the past year and a half. They will probably top out at about 600 figures; this is still small compared to my French (1,373), Austrians (1,112) and Rusians (979), all three of which will still have a few more figures added over the next few years. The Prusians, depends on the final OOB for Ligny!

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  6. As usual Pete, you provide us with an interesting read, great figures and top photography. No wonder you are over 200 000 views!
    I'm so pleased that you went with the earlier pennon colours!

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    1. Hi James,
      Thanks! I actually wasn't all that happy with the Brandenburg pics; I had to do them inside at it was in the single digits (deg F = down to - 15 C) outside most of this month, and that always decreases the detail that can be seen.

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  7. BTW, pennon or pennant? I went to write the former, then took your lead, then looked it up. I guess that either are okay, depending on how traditional you want to be?! :)

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    1. As for the color choice, you klnow I can';t resist the more colorful one, plus the chance to have the quirky "Nedc Soli Cedit" in reverse colors. re linguistics, I think of pennons as long, usually swallow taild things, such as seen here on lances, and sometime flying from the masts or shrouds of ships. A pennant to me is more of a flag, such as one used by ships for signaling, or perhaps the larger "flag" carried by the Lancer officer. Probably few others will care, LOL!

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