Mecklenburg-Schwerin: 7th Regiment, Confederation of the Rhine

    Although Napoleon's defeat of the Hapsburgs in 1805 set the stage for the subsequent disolution of the Holy Roman Empire, even following the defeat of the Prussians in 1806-1807, there remained quite a few small and very small German states within his newly formed Confederation of the Rhine, or Rhinebund. According to John Gill's excellent book, With Eagles to Glory (pub 1992), in 1809 there were still "close to thirty states with a population of less than 30,000" within the structure of the Confederation. In order to use the manpower of the smaller states, the Rhinebund regiments were organized. in 1809 (this list, again, from Gill), these were:

1st Regiment      Nassau (2nd Nassau regt)
2nd Regiment    Nassau (1st Nassau regt)
3rd Regiment    Wurzburg
4th Regiment    Saxon Duchies
5th Regiment    Anhalt and Lippe
6th Regiment    Reuss, Waldeck, and Schwarzburg
7th Regiment    Mecklenburg-Schwerin

    The 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th regiments participated in the 1809 campaign in central Germany as part of Rouyer's Division. Many Rhinebund units also participated in the war in Spain as well, a very unpopular assignment as might be imagined! The 7th Rhinebund or Mecklenburg-Schwerin regiment participated in the Battle of Borodino, which we will be be running as a game using Filed of Battle 2nd edition rules at Historicon this July. This lead to the need to field this relatively obscure unit for the battle.

    The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was located on the Baltic coast of North Germany, bordering Hoilstein (Danish) and Swedish Pomerania. It was one of the last states to join the Confederation of the Rhine, as a result of a treaty signed in March, 1808. It was also one of the first to leave the Rhinebund in 1813; doubtless Napoleon's offer of the Duchy to the New Crown Prince of Sweden, former French Marshal Bernadotte, in 1812 as an inducement to join the alliance against Russia did little to endear the French to its ruler, Duke Frederick Francis I. Mecklenburg troops thus fought against the French in 1813 and 1814. It didn't get much more respect form Russia and Prussia, who then proceeded to offer the Duchy to Denmark! Ultimately, however, the Duchy survived intact, however. It was said to be relatively poor. The population according to the census in 1819 was roughly 388,000 people.

    There is surprisingly complete information on the organization and uniforms of the 7th Rhinebund regiment here on the Histofig site. By 1809, the regiment followed the general French organizational pattern, with 4 Fusilier, 1 Grenadier, and 1 Voltigeur company per battalion, and French style company distinctions. The uniform still showed fairly heavy Prussian influence (Brandenburg lay just to the South), the troops wearing a double breasted dark blue coat without lapels, red cuffs and turnbacks, and grey pants. The color of the collar originally varied by battalion., the 1st having yellow, the 2nd white, the 3rd red, and the 4th peach. This was soon changed to the same boring red for all battalions - a shame, that, for us painters!

    My "mate", Gavin, from Australia was planning on attending Historicon for the second time this year, but unfortunately had to cancel those plans for personal reasons. Never the less, he resolved to send a contingent to fight at Borodino on his behalf, and they have just completed their long journey to New England. After adding a flag, (from Napflag - the first battalion had a white one, the others the same design with a medium blue background instead), and changing the flag staff to red, which is the correct color for this unit, here they are for your viewing pleasure:

Gavin had these lovely large 28mm  Front Rank figures painted by his friend, Phil, and a very nice job he did indeed! Each battalion has 24 figures, the first rank in firing position and with the Grenadiers in red plumes, cords, and epaulets, and the Voltigeurs with green. Fusilier company pom-poms the same as in French units.

The drummer has red wings, and in full dress would have red/blue/yellow lace decorating the wings and facings; the same pattern of colors is on the drum rims. The cockade for Meckelenburg is seen on the front of the shakos - red within blue within yellow. the brass plate on the front of the shako bore the ducal arms.

This rear view shows even better what a nice job Phil did painting these units. The white flag bears the arms of Mecklenburg, a state dating back to about 1300 AD, although by this time the original territory had been split into Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz.  - I particularly like the Bull, which is one of the supporters of the arms!

A final, close up view of the 1st battalion, 7th Rhinebund regiment. The mix of French and Prussian influences can be clearly seen in this unit!

Map of  the area Germany containing the Rhine Confederation states in 1812 (from wikipedia). Mecklenburg-Schwerin is on the Baltic ("Ostsee"), in grey.

As I unpacked these weary travelers (after all, they went from England to Australia to the US and will have to return to Oz again after the battle) and set them out for their first parade-ground inspection, I could swear I heard the little guys singing. To me, it sounded something like this:


We've come from the Land Down Under...
Where the slow match glows and men plunder!
Can't you hear our muskets belch thunder -
You better run, you better take cover!


We'll see if anyone else hears them at our playtest game next weekend, or at Historicon. I imagine it may depend upon the the listener's alcohol consumption, perhaps not too unlike 'ol Feldmarschal Vorwarts himself, Blucher! In any event, now I'm thinking I may need to add a Rhinebund unit to my own collection as well... maybe Wurzburg or Frankfurt? :-)

Wargamer Rabbit (aka Michael) had a nice post on the Rhinebund regiments on his own blog ("the Warren") a few months ago; check it out if you missed it then and are interested in some of the other Rhinebund units yourself!

Peter