Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Croatian Portal Insurrectio, 1809

Commenting on one of my very old posts on The Landwehr Collection, it was recently suggested to me that I should consider raising a unit of the Croatian Insurrectio. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but I had yet another of the "300 Austrians" to raise as Grenzer, and with my last unit, I now have 7 of them. Did I really need 8 Grenzer units?  Probably not! 


The vaguely described uniform of the Croatian Insurrectio seemed close enough to use the figures for such a unit, as seen above!


Here's what Dave Hollins has to say on the subject in Osprey Men at Arms 299, "Austrian Auxiliary Troops 1792 - 1816". Ten Croat battalions were mustered. The Personal Insurrection of the Komitates had 1,042men, the Portal Insurrection of the Komitates had 10,000 men, the Littoral (coast) Insurrection 2,,450 troops. Volunteers numbered 29, the Banderial Insurrection totalled1,644 men, plus 5 Slavonian battalions (5,000 men).  Banderial troops wore black shakos with rank rings for NCO's, a brown gunjac (Croatian laced jacket), an infantry style light blue waistcoat with small brass buttons, and Croatian cut light blue trousers with light blue knots. A grey greatcoat and black Hungarian shoes, an infantry saber or handschar dagger, and red or natural leather work completed the uniform, which was otherwise as the Hungarians. The Personal and Portal Insurrection was equipped as the Banderial, with the exception of madder red shakos..."


Enrico Acerbi provides a detailed description of the raising of these troops in his book, "the Austrian Army 1805 - 1809, vol. 2), but no uniform information at all. A related article on the Napoleon series gives similar information, with one illustration each of an officer and a soldier of the Croatian insurrection without any further comment or description. 


With that limited information at hand, this unit is how I interpreted all of that. Of course, I HAD to have a unit with the madder red shakos, right?!


Hollins says of the flags "most were adorned with the provincial emblem on the reverse, and a local or religious emblem on the obverse", and that they were "roughly the same size as the Line flags". Also " A Croatian flag from 1797 is made of damask, and displays the Croat red/white checkerboard as the background; on the reverse are the Warasdin arms and above them the inscription "Vexilum Comitatus Varadinensis, Occaissione Generalis Nobilium Insurrections Contra Gallum Finibis Regni" and below " Et Comitatus Aproximanten Indictae in Ano 1797 Erectum", and on the obverse the Madonna and child.  Obviously, I went with a much simpler generic design for my flag - the red and white "checkerboard" emblem of Croatia on a light blue field, with red/white flames around the border. 


So there you have it - a fairly unique looking unity likely to have even the most dyed in the wool Napoleonic grognard scratching their head and saying, "Who the heck  ARE those guys?!" 

34 comments:

  1. Well, you will certainly pick out these guys on the table! NIce hats.

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    1. Yes, those madder red shakos are subtle, aren't they? :-)

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  2. Very colorful and unusual. In which battles did this unit fight?

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    1. Ascerbi says "This mass of soldiers did participate to the 1809 larger engagements (St. Michael, Graz, Raab and Wagram) only in a nominal part. Most of them were employed to defend the Bosnian borders against Turks and against Marmont and in repressive duties during the internal riots in their Homeland." He goes into a lot more detail in his book, but this largely applies to the Hungarian Insurrectio. The Croatian Insurrectio thus largely freed up the Grenzer, especially the 3rd and Reserve battalions, to fight elsewhere (especially Marmont advancing from Dalmatia - see the Battle of Gospic).

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  3. Interesting and colourful unit, looks splendid!

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  4. Superb colors, lovely Croatian unit!

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  5. Great that they've seen the light of day. They look fantastic and those madder-red shakos really stand out. I'll do some in 15mm one day . . .

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    1. Definitely not oneof the first 30 Austrian infantry units you'd do, but they're fun. I'll probably use them to stand in for additional Hungarian Insurrectio at Raab (I have 4 units of the actual Hungarians) , and/or for the 3rd and Reserve Grenzer battalions at Gospic, St Michael, Tarvis etc.

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  6. Unusual and eye catching, think I last saw them in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang :-)

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  7. A superb and interesting looking regiment

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  8. Wow what a great regiment to have! Might have to add a unit of those :)

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    1. Thanks, Mark - a definite change of pace for the Hapsburg forces!

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  9. Definitely unique, although there is a clue as to their nationality in the Croat red and white checkerboard.

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    1. Yes, I wanted the speculative flag to emphasize their nationality rather than a specific region or prelate. The flag is also reminiscent of the speculative flag I did for my Hungarian Insurrectio, and intentionally so.

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  10. That's a lovely looking unit, with the red shakos and the flag really making them stand out. A nice bit of history too:)

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    1. Thank you, Steve. When you add it all up, nearly 20,000 men were raised by the Croatian Insurrectio!

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  11. Wow! These look lovely - they look like toy soldiers!

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    1. They do look a bit like that, don't they? They probably fought about as well! :-)

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  12. These guys are fantastic! Breaks up the white Austrian mass.

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    1. Glad you like them, Tim. Definitely off the beaten path!

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  13. Great looking unit Peter - who could resist red shakos??!

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    1. Thanks! Once a blog reader brought them to my attention, obviously I could not! :-)

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  14. Splendid looking Croats! Love the red shakos,have you got plans to do some Croatian French units to even things up?
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Iain!
      Actually, I already have:
      https://blundersonthedanube.blogspot.com/2012/05/provisional-croatian-regiments.html
      They were painted back in 2012 for our Borodino project!

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  15. Splendid Peter. Love the crimson shakos.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks, James; once they were pointed out to me, it seemed logical to paint them, as opposed to yet another Grenzer unit. :-)

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