Wednesday 3 June 2009

Trooper of Bavarian Preysing Dragoons

Impoverished by years of war during the War of the Austrian Succession, Bavaria had to make severe cutbacks and the army was reorganised in the 1750s. The 4 cavalry regiments, 2 regiments of cuirassiers and 2 of dragoons, were below strength - at the beginning of the SYW there were 1190 men and only 270 horses all told. The cavalry took no part in the SYW.

Preysing Dragoons, like the other regiments, had a theoretical strength of 9 companies with 38 men each, organised in 3 squadrons in wartime. From 1758 Preysing became la Rosée
. Little seems to be known of the regiment's history or that of the other 3 regiments.*

So why, given the total lack of involvement in the SYW, have I drawn a template of one of them? Well, I liked it; it's simple and elegant and red-coated, and I like its obscurity. Who can resist an elegant redcoat uniform? Not me...

*If anyone has detailed regimental histories, please let me know! Thanks.

3 comments:

  1. I agree simple, elegant, obscure who could ask for more!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agreed! Why, I can see this uniform working very nicely on about 30 of the old Spencer Smith charging dragoon figures thanks to its relative simplicity.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

    P.S.

    Very pretty Saxon hussar below by the way!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Bill and Stokes. :-)

    David.

    ReplyDelete

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