Thursday, August 14, 2014

Prussian Landwehr, 1813 - 1815

The Prussian Landwehr, which saw extensive service from 1813 - 1815, was first established in East Prussia, which was occupied by General Yorck's former Prussian Auxiliary Corps and declared to be at war with France, on February 7, 1813. King Frederick Wilhelm II decreed the establishment of a militia or Landwehr throughout Prussia barely a month later, on March 17, 1813. Theoretically, the Landwehr were organized into Brigades (regiments) of 4 battalions each, each of four companies. The theoretical establishment of a Landwehr company was 150 - 200 men, including a Captain, 4 Lieutenants, 1 Sergeant Major and 2 drummers. Needless to say, few units achieved these theoretical goals, and there was severe wastage of men from disease, straggling, and enemy action over the course of the long 1813 Befreiungskreig. By the end of that year, though, the Landwehr that remained were considered virtually equal to the Line units.

The Landwehr uniform was to consist of a long, dark blue or black Litewka coat. the collar (and sometimes the cuffs or cuff piping) of which was in the Provincial color (see table below). The color metal of the buttons varied by province as well, and the jacket could be either single or double breasted. Many units had colored shoulder straps by battalion (see below) Pants were officially to be dark blue or white, but grey or brown were not uncommon either. .

A Schirmuetze cap was worn in dark blue or clack, with a band of the provincial color. Later (May 1814), piping around the top of the crown and chevrons on the sides (Stegen) were added to the regulations for the cap. The front of the cap was decorated with a white Landwehr Cross, bearing the inscription "mit Gott für König und Vaterland 1813"

The initial uniforms issued were very poor, and variations were widespread including Litewkas in brown or grey, grey or brown pants, and use of British and /or captured French equipment.

ADD 8/21/14:  Dr Stephen Summerfeld (who is the author of what iare now perhaps the definitive works on the subject, "Prussian Napoleonic Landwehr Infantry and Cavalry 1813-15: Landsturm, Volunteer Cavalry and Streifkorps" available through Partizan Press) kindly pointed out that the 1814 regulation for the Landwher called for a single breasted Kollet jacket to replace the Litweka. Doubtkless that transition was incomplete even by Waterloo, but likely many units would have made t\he transition by that time.


Prussian Landwehr Distinctions, 1813 - 1815
Province
Facings
Buttons
Regts Raised
East Prussia
Orange Red
White
5
West Prussia
Black #
White
3
Brandenburg
Brick Red
Yellow
10
Pomerania
White
Yellow
3
Silesia
Yellow
White
17
Elbe*
Light Blue
Yellow
4
Westphalia*
Green
White
8
Rhein*
Crab Red
Yellow
8
* Additional Provinces added 1814 - 1815
# The black facings didn't show well on the dark blue coats,. so it seems some units may have used the crimson facing color of the West Prussian Line units instead.
The exact shade for the East Prussians is unclear, probably somewhat redder than that shown above. 



Shoulder Strap Seniority Colors
Battalion #
Shoulder Straps
1
White
2
Red
3
Yellow
4
Light Blue



As I was painting other troops this winter, I discovered that I had enough leftovers to make a new Prussian Landwehr unit. It languished partially completed until after Historicon. I finished it off last week while on vacation. It is painted as the Erstes Westpreussisches Landwehr Regiment.  Flag is a free download from Warflag for the Landwehr of the Saganer Kreis (district). Technically that was a Silesian outfit, so purists will have to cringe a bit, but I wanted another, different design for the flag of this unit!


I find it a bit odd that the authorities chose Black as a facing color with dark blue uniforms; the Crimson used by the West Prussian Line regiments would have been both more logical and shown up much better. Maybe there was a shortage of red cloth?


To make the black facings more evident, I highlighted the outer edges of the collars with Hippo (dark) Grey, as well as the inner sleeve edge of the cuffs. I think that worked. The NCO (pointing in front rank) has Prussian rank indicator of white/black piping on the collar and cuff edges. 


The Drittes Ostpreussisches Landwehr Regiment (3rd East Prussian). I've used a fairly bright only faintly orange shade of red for the provincial color. the flag is more proper as a speculative variant for that carried by a Brandenburg unit (Kurmark and Neumark were both parts of the territory of the original Margravate of Brandenburg).


Aside from the Schirmuetze cap, the uniform of the officers of the Landwwehr was officially the same as that for Line officers, including the silver-mixed-with-black sash.  This outfit has dark blue pants. 


The cloth haversacks were characteristic of the Landwehr. For some reason these OG sculpts have short jackets more proper to the early Reserve regiments than the long, tail less Litewka usually worn  by the Landwehr. Eh, was kann man trun? Thankfully, Landwehr uniforms seldom conformed to the regs, and often varied even in the same battalion!


This is the Viertes Schlesisches Landwehr Regiment (4th Silesian). The Silesian Landwehr regiments in particular seem to have usually worn white pants.


The drummers (officially) had red (rather than provincially colored) wings with white lace ornamenting their jackets. Drums were more often wooden than brass, and usually had red rims with or without white triangle decorations. 


This time a correct (speculative) flag is in use appropriate to a Silesian regiment!


The Viertes Westpreussisches Landwher Regiment. Their district has substituted Crimson for the official regulation Black facings seen on the 1st Regiment.


I gave some of the officers and men grey hair, as the State was scraping the bottom of the barrel for troops and especially, officers!


The regiment carries what was probably one of the most common variants of the (officially prohibited) Landwehr flags, patterned on the Landwehr Cross. 


The Drittes Pommersches Landwehr Regiment (3rd Pomeranian).  The Pomeranians in particular often seemed to have dark grey or black coats, as seen here. I used Payne's Grey as the base paint color for their coats. 


Te white facings look good with the dark coats, and the combination also echoes the white/black colors of Prussia itself. 


They carry a "Landwehr Cross" inspired flag as well, but with the colors reversed from the earlier example.


All five Landwehr Regiments together.


Group shot!

Sources
Nash, David, The Prussian Army, 1808-1815 Almark publications, London, 1972.
(my copy is literally falling apart after heavy use for the past 40 years, but I wouldn't give it up for anything!)
HOfshroer, Peter, Prussian Reserve, Militia, & Irregular Troops 1806-1815. Osprey Publishing, london, 1987.
The Prussian section of the Uniform Evolution Site (an amazing online reference): LINK.



Our one year old Golden Retriever, Zoe, out for a boat ride on Bantam Lake this weekend. The yellow facing color on her life preserver suggests she is serving in a Silesian regiment.  :-)


Annie, my younger daughter's 8 month old "English Cream" Golden, was not intimidated by the boat or the lake at all. She jumped off the boat to swim along with us when we we did!


Zoe, Annie, the Empress and myself - group photo!

14 comments:

  1. Nice post and beautiful regments! Love the Viertes Westpreussisches one especially...

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    1. Thanks, Phil! Doubtless they are far too "uniform" in appearance compared with the actual; troops, but at the end of the day they are still toy soldiers! :-)

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  2. Great info as always didn't know the Pomeranian Regts had the darker coats

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    1. Certainly neither exclusve to the Pommeranians nor did all the Pommeranians wear black, but it seems more common for them than any other province. I suspect itr is partly echoing the black/white colors of Prussia, much like the somewhat surprising choice of black as the Provincial color for the West Prussians.

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  3. Wow, no sooner have you made the link to all of your past uniform descriptions than you produce another! Fabulous.
    As a fellow caninophile, I particularly loved the Silesian Retriever and her East Prussian friend!

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    1. As I am sure is true of yourself, I truly enjoy the study of Napoleonic uniforms. Getting to the knowledge level of a "Grognard" in the subject requires a lot of time and resources, both from books and magazines, etc., and on line. If I can make that easier for wargamers and also stimuklate interest in the subject, I will have achieved my goal.

      Glad you liked the Pups. I nearly made the West Prussian quip myself! :-)

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  4. A gold mine of information. I need hordes of Prussian Landwehr for my Leipzig Campaign!
    Thanks for sharing
    Rafa

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    1. You're welcome, Rafa! One thing about the Landwehr - even if you have them all in Litewka and caps, with 5 Provincial colors to chose from (8 if you include the later additions), a few units in non-dark blue coats, and some pants variation, even if you paint them uniformly like I do, no two units have to be the same. I enjoy that! They also apint up pretty quickly as the uniform is not complex.

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  5. A cracking lot of info and a cracking amount of troops! Lovely family pics to Peter!

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  6. Great information Peter, and I especially love the photos of the dogs. I too have a Golden Retriever called Louis who is more in the Zoe mould, albeit he is nine (the English Retrievers do look quite a bit different). They are great dogs, once you get them past the chewing stage, and seem to understand an amazing range of words.

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    1. Zoe is the fifth Golden Retriever in the family (out of six total, Annie being the youngest). Our first two have sadly passed on, but Piper and Rory are still with us at ages 5 and 10. All but tour first and last have come from the same breeder, who has become a good freind. He has circa 17 goldens at his place (crazy); we'll be going there this weekend for a birthday party for his partner. It's estimated that digs understand about the same size vocabulary as a 3 year old child - about 300 words. Zoe and Annie certainly understand "pool"; they both love to swim, and jump in from the side, especially Annie. We'll have some pictures of them here airborne eventually!

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    2. Apparently Golden Retrievers have been bred to enjoy water, but Louis now seems content to simply venture down to the second step in our pool and get no more than his paws and lower legs wet. Probably quite sensible, in actual fact.

      Looking forward to seeing more pictures of the dogs along the way. I am a huge Golden Retriever fan, but do think each one should be accompanied by a bag-less vacuum cleaner.

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    3. All of ours have loved the water, but hey are exposed from an early age. My wife walks them every day, usually in a mnearby nature preserve with a large pond they swim in, and they usually take a dip in several streams along the way as well m- even in the middle of winter! we also taerch them to swim in thje pool by the time they are 6 mopnths old, and often younger.

      LOL re: the vacuum cleaner; we use a Dyson, especially good for pet hair!

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