Today I have replaced the following French infantry flags on the blog with lighter shaded versions:
Beauvoisis
Diesbach
Provence
Rohan-Montbazon
Being a uniform and flag design service to wargamers and to the imaginary crowned heads of 17th and 18th Century Europe, especially of the Seven Years War period - now By Appointment to the Court of Saxe-Bearstein! (But please note that the uniforms and flags presented here are not fictional - they are genuine 17th and 18th Century uniforms and flags that are as authentic as I can make them from my sources.)
Today I have replaced the following French infantry flags on the blog with lighter shaded versions:
Beauvoisis
Diesbach
Provence
Rohan-Montbazon
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Friday, September 29, 2023
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La Couronne first raised 1643 in Louis XIV's minority by the Queen Mother. Took the name La Couronne after the siege of Maastricht in 1673. 2 battalions. Ranked 28th in 1756.
The motto Dedit hanc Mastreka coronam - Maastricht won this crown was probably placed on the flags only late in the 18th century; it does not appear on the 1757 MS illustration nor is it mentioned in the 1753 État Générale entry. However, I have included a version with the motto as people like to use it in the SYW despite its probably being anachronistic!
Flags carried in this pattern from 1693-1791.
The regiment was very active in almost all French army campaigns from 1643 onwards and a list of actions in which it was involved would be too long for this account. Kronoskaf gives a more detailed history and Susane Volume 5 the source from which I believe much of the Kronoskaf account is extracted.
Text below is my translation from Susane of the regiment's activity in the SYW (as always, a very pro-French account which can sometimes be taken with a pinch of salt!):
La Couronne took part in the camp assembled at Mezières in 1753. It was employed for the two following years in work on the canal at the junction of the Lys and the Aa. In 1756 the Seven Years War began where the regiment acquired new laurels. Of all the important actions of this unlucky war, but not without glory for the troops, the battle of Bergen is the only one where it was not involved.
On the 24th July 1757 the regiment contributed to the victory at Hastenbeck; lieutenant of grenadiers Miguet was killed there. [Susane claims the regiment was at Rossbach 5th November but Kronoskaf and other sources do not appear to agree.]
At the beginning of 1758 it was ordered along with other corps to protect the Dutch frontier from Xanten up to the fort of Skencke. On the 23rd of June, at the battle of Krefeld, it endured the fire of six enemy battalions without breaking. It contributed on the 23rd July to the success of Sandershausen. Detache don the 5th October from the army of Contades, it joined the army of Soubise on the 8th and fought on the 10th at Lutterberg with the greatest courage. It then rejoined the main army on the 23rd. After the capitulation of Kaiserswerth it was once again charged with observing the Dutch frontier.
[Susane's claim that the regiment was at Minden on the 1st of August 1759 is not supported by Kronoskaf.]
In 1760 the regiment was part of the corps commanded by the Count of St Germain. On the 10th July this corps was responsible for the greatest contribution to the fight at Corbach, and La Couronne was distinguished above all the regiments that surrounded it. At the affair ofWarburg on the 31st July it was posted on the heights with Regiments Bourbonnais and Jenner [Swiss]. Furiously attacked by the enemy, these regiments charged them five times and caused them to give way. La Couronne lost on the field of battle half its officers, amongst them the colonel-lieutenant, the Count de Montbarrey who had performed prodigies of bravery and who had been struck by a cannon ball and two musket balls. The soldiers, encouraged by the example of their leaders, fought with extraordinary persistence. One saw men who had fired off all their cartridges picking up stones to throw at the enemy; others, finding these means unsatisfactory, fought hand to hand with the Allies. The regiment was so shattered after Warburg, that during the rest of the campaign it could put in the field only a feeble battalion. It was still able to distinguish itself at Clostercamps on the 16th October, seconding the efforts of Regiments Auvergne and Alsace.
It was sent to recoup itself at Dunkirk and then rejoined the army in June 1761. On the 30th of August the regiment distinguished itself in the combat of Roxel near Münster against the troops of General Kielmansegge. The companies of grenadiers and chasseurs attacked the enemy in the village where they were entrenched, chased them out of it and followed them until they were in range of the cannon of Münster itself, taking 400 prisoners. This splendid combat, specific to the regiment, was its pinnacle of glory and was also its last action of the war.
At the peace the regiment went into garrison at Quesnoy.
And this was the uniform in 1756:
Posted by
David
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Friday, September 22, 2023
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Here is my new flag sheet for the infantry of the Légion Britannique. This says "Hanoverian" far more clearly than the last version, I think, but is still true to the British-style of flag design as carried by the Légion:
I shall not change the dragoon guidons as I think the design says "Hanoverian" very clearly anyway, with its use of the running white horse.
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David
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Wednesday, September 20, 2023
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First raised 1635 and became Commissaire-Général Cavalerie in 1654. 2 squadrons in 1756. Ranked 3rd in the cavalry.
The standards shown here were probably carried from at least the 1730s to 1770. The shield shows the arms of Bissy; M de Bissy was Mestre de Camp of the regiment from 1736-1748.
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David
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Monday, September 18, 2023
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I published my speculative flags of the Légion Britannique some time ago and a few people have used them and posted pictures. The latest posting of these troops with my flags here: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/2023/09/12/hannover-siegt-der-franzmann-liegt-my-15mm-syw-hanoverian-german-allied-army-part-5-legion-britannique/ points out that the regimental flag of the third battalion should be orange. I had misread the rather deceptive plate I had used for the battalion and saw the uniform facings as red, not orange. So this is the corrected flag in glorious technicolour orange at last:
I shall eventually revise the whole sheet and add this flag to it but for now this supplementary sheet will have to do.
Posted by
David
at
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
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Today I have replaced the following French infantry flags on the blog with lighter versions (listed in the order I uploaded them, not alphabetically!):
Vastan
Enghien
Aquitaine
La Marche Prince
Tournaisis
St Chamont (St Chamond)
Cossé Brissac
More to follow!
Posted by
David
at
Saturday, September 09, 2023
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Today I have replaced the following French infantry flags on the blog with lighter versions (listed in the order I uploaded them, not alphabetically!):
Rouergue, Touraine, Talaru/d'Aumont, Belzunce, Picardie, Auvergne and La Marche
More to follow!
This image shows a snapshot of the new versions:
Posted by
David
at
Wednesday, September 06, 2023
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I am just dipping my toes into the somewhat messy world that is Hanoverian flags of the Seven Years War here; all those very different flags, often with complex allegorical images, are a nightmare to create! But the militia carried simpler flags and this is my interpretation of the militia flags from the description in Niemeyer and Ortenburg's work on the Hanoverian Army in the Seven Years War.
They spent the war garrisoning Celle and neighbourhood so there is nothing exciting to relate about their wartime activities - but wargamers can often find useful roles for militia; it is all fantasy based on reality, after all! ;-)
And this was the uniform in 1756:
Posted by
David
at
Wednesday, September 06, 2023
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I have been asked to lighten the shading of some of my earlier flags, especially French flags. I am inclined to agree that the shading of the Colonels' white flags is often too dark so will be working on producing lighter versions. So far I have replaced the flags of French Regiment Condé; see here: https://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/2013/05/minden-french-flags-project-regiment.html I shall post notices of which flags are changed in future as I post them.
Here is the older version of Condé:
And here is the new lighter version:
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David
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Monday, September 04, 2023
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The Mainz Kreis regiment was created from companies taken from Mainz infantry regiments Wildenstein and Riedt in 1756, by an agreement between the Archbishop of Mainz and Austria. It was organised on the Austrian pattern, and consisted of 2 battalions with 6 companies each and 2 companies of grenadiers, plus a garrison battalion. The regiment was disbanded at the end of the war in 1763. Although not a part of the Reichsarmee proper, it saw a lot of action serving with the Austrian Corps which fought alongside the Reichsarmee for much of the war.
These are my very speculative flags for the regiment; we know nothing of the appearance of the real flags, if any were carried.
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David
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Friday, September 01, 2023
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First raised 1st March 1674, by Louis du Faure de Satilieu, Marquis de Saint-Sylvestre.
2 squadrons strong and ranked 38th in 1756.
This is my reconstruction of the cavalry standard, with its pomegranate tree in flower, which seems to have been carried from at least the 1730s to 1761. I have seen only verbal descriptions. (The French name for pomegranate "grenadier" presumably comes from the pomegranate fruit looking remarkably like a grenade in shape.) One major frustration with French cavalry standards of the period is that we often do not know what the emblems were; in Pierre Charrié's book the words "motif inconnu" occur with tedious regularity!
And this was the uniform in 1756:
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David
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Friday, August 25, 2023
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Hessen-Darmstadt IR or Prinz Georg Infantry: Upper Rhenish Kreis
On 3rd May 1758 the battalion had a strength of 752 musketeers and 105 grenadiers, a total of 860, with 2 attached 3 pounder cannon.
This small single battalion regiment was reckoned to be the best infantry unit in the Reichsarmee; Soubise called it "excellent" (Duffy, Prussia's Glory), the only regiment he reviewed to be called so. Prince Georg of Hessen-Darmstadt was also reputedly the best general in the Reichsarmee; a former Prussian officer, he had left the Prussian service and joined the Reichsarmee at the command of his father Landgraf Ludwig VIII. For a sympathetic and detailed account of the travails of the Reichsarmee and the doings of the estimable Prince Georg in the 1757 campaign leading up to Rossbach, see Duffy's wonderfully readable Prussia's Glory.
Duffy says that in the Circle of the Upper Rhine (Oberrheinische Creis) "here the lead was taken by the Landgraf Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt who was a Protestant, but dedicated to the ideal of the Reich. His single-battalion regiment was the best that the Reichsarmee proper had to show, and represented something of a sacrifice on the part of Ludwig, for he could have hired it out on very favourable terms to a foreign prince. "You can imagine nothing more splendid than the sight of the Darmstadt Grenadiers when they come on guard. They are picked, tall and fine-looking men who put the French to shame"." Despite its high quality the regiment was not immune from the bane of all armies of the period. Duffy later says: "The regiment of Hesse-Darmstadt was the best of the Reichsarmee, yet the secretary of its Prince Georg was happy to record that by 29 July it had lost "only" 116 men from desertion."
At Rossbach on 5th November 1757 the regiment was one of the few to perform well and honourably during the rout of much of the Reichsarmee; it was one of the four regiments which were able to "retreat in closed-up formation under continuous fire" which seem to have been Blue Würzburg, "the disciplined and intact battalion of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Swiss regiment of Wittemer and Diesbach which not only retained all their colours, but retrieved a colour of one of the regiments which had fled." (All quotations from Duffy, Prussia's Glory.)
Later in the war at 1st Torgau (Zinna) on the 8th September 1759 the regiment once again proved its quality: "with the exception of the battalion of Hessen-Darmstadt, the entire Reichs infantry fled in panic." (Duffy, By Force of Arms.) The Reischsarmee force was three times the size of the Prussian force that routed it!
And this was the uniform in 1757:
Posted by
David
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Friday, August 18, 2023
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Here are two Austrian cavalry standards of unknown regiments as depicted in the MS Triomphes de Louis XV:
Earlier depictions of Austrian cavalry standards do suggest some were as plain as this, although most of the surviving later 18th century standards in the Austrian Army Museum in Vienna have astonishing amounts of elaborate gold and silver embroidery.
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David
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Friday, August 11, 2023
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First raised 1756 as the Volontaires de Nassau-Saarbruck and 2 squadrons strong. In April 1758 it was renamed Volontaires Royaux de Nassau and then in June that year became the Royal Nassau Regiment and ranked 56th in the cavalry (but becoming 55th in 1760, 38th in 1761 and 34th in 1762). Then it was 600 strong made up of 4 squadrons. It was recruited in Strasbourg and principally in the area of Landau, in the Palatinate, on the frontiers of the Sarre and in the County of Saarwarden. The colonel was the Prince of Nassau-Saarbruck.
The regiment seems to have had a lively war; as Kronoskaf gives a detailed account there is no point in my repeating it here. I have no independent account of my own so I recommend that anyone wishing to know the regiment's exploits in detail should look there: https://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Royal-Nassau_Hussards
This image of the uniform is from the New York Public Library website https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-3e47-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99:
Posted by
David
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Friday, July 28, 2023
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First raised 1752 from the canton of Zurich. 12 companies of 120 men each. Colonel from the beginning was the Baron de Lochmann (to 1777). Ranked 114th in 1753.
I present two sets of flags of the pattern carried from 1752-1771; the État Générale of 1753 gives a different colour spread from that suggested by more recent authorities like Pierre Charrié, Rigo, etc.. So you can choose which to use!
My translation of the text from Susane volume 7 of the regiment's activities in the Seven Years War:
The regiment took part in 1755 in the camp of Richemont and then was attached in 1757 to the Army of Germany. It first saw action at the battle of Hastenbeck and took part in the occupation of Hanover. At the beginning of 1758 it was employed guarding the banks of the Rhine and it was one of the four regiments engaged on the 23rd June at the battle of Krefeld. It acquired much glory in the campaign of 1760, notably at Korbach and Warburg. In the last action, which took place on the 31st July, it fought with admirable vigour and foiled, with Jenner, all the efforts of the enemy. It thus gave the time for the rest of the army to retreat. At the end of the action, Colonel Lochmann was wounded and fell into the hands of the enemy. The regiment served also in the campaigns in Germany in 1761 and 1762, and spent the winter at Gueldres. On its return to France the regiment took up residence at Mezières and then went to Thionville in May 1763.
And this was the uniform in 1756:
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Sunday, July 23, 2023
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The emblem is the famous perron or column of Liège.
Brief service history:
1757: With the Army of Saxony; Rossbach Campaign
1758: With Broglie's Army to July then with Soubise
1758: July 23rd Battle of Sandershausen; heavily engaged
1758: October 10th Battle of Lutterberg; not heavily engaged
1759: April 13th Battle of Bergen
1759: From June with the main army under Contades
1759: August 1st Battle of Minden
1760: September 7th Two companies of the regiment captured with their standards
From
then to the end of the war I cannot find any significant actions in
which the regiment was involved. The regiment was disbanded at the end
of the war.
And this was the uniform in 1758:
Image courtesy of NYPL: https://iiif-prod.nypl.org/index.php?id=1236204&t=v
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Saturday, July 15, 2023
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It's some time since I focussed on a specific battle and its French flags. Warburg offers a variety of new infantry flags including some attractive Swiss flags. Once I complete the flags for Warburg there will be well over 100 French flag sets on the blog.
The battle of Warburg took place on the 31st July 1760 and was a French defeat. A detailed account of the battle can be found on Kronoskaf here:
http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=1760-07-31_-_Battle_of_Warburg
Jenner Infantry:
First raised 1672 as Erlach Infantry. It was always recruited from inhabitants of Berne. Became Manuel 1694, Villars-Chandieu 1701, May 1728, Bettens 1739, Jenner 1751, Erlach de Riggisberg 1762, Ernest 1782
At the start of the Seven Years War Jenner ranked 49th and had 3 battalions
Flags 1751-1762:
Summary of Service before the Seven Years War:
Franco-Dutch War 1672-1678
1672: Siege of Nijmegen
1673: Siege of Maastricht
1674: Battle of Seneffe
1675: Siege and capture of Bellegarde
1676: Garrison of Bellegarde
1677: Combat of Espouilles
1678: Siege of Puigcerda and return to France
1684: Siege of Luxembourg
Nine Years War 1688-1697:
1689: Siege and then defence of Campredon
1691: Storming of Seu d'Urgell
1693: Capture of Rosas
1694: Battle of Torroella; sieges of Palamos, Girona, Ostalrich and Castelfollit
1697: Siege of Barcelona
War of the Spanish Succession 1701-1713:
1701: To the Army of Flanders
1702: Combat of Nijmegen
1703: Battle of Ekeren
1704: Campaign between Rhine and Moselle
1706: Battle of Ramillies
1708: Battle of Oudenarde and defence of Lille
1709: Battle of Malplaquet
1712: Defence of Arras, battle of Denain, and sieges of Douai, Le Quesnoy and Bouchain
1713: Siege of landau
1715: Reduced from 3 to 2 battalions
War of the Polish Succession 1733-1735:
1733: 3 battalions again and joined the Army of the Rhine
1735: Combat of Klausen
1737: Reduced to 2 battalions again
War of the Austrian Succession 1740-1748:
1742: At Dunkirk then to Douai
1743: At Douai Up to 3 battalions again
1744: To Courtrai then Menin and Ypres
1745: 2 battalions to the siege of Tournai and then at the battle of Fontenoy. Then at the sieges of Oudenarde, Ostend, Nieuport and Ath
1746: Sieges of Bruxelles, Antwerp and Namur and the battle of Rocoux
1747: Battle of Lauffeldt and the conquest of the Dutch Flanders
Sent back to Normandy after heavy losses
1748: On the coast of Brittany
This is my translation of the account from Susane Vol.6 of the regiment's history in the Seven Years War:
The regiment took the name of Jenner in 1751 and took part in the camp of Gray in 1753. It was reduced to two battalions on the 1st of April 1756 and was one of the twenty battalions promised by Louis XV to help Maria Theresa; but France found herself also involved in the Seven Years War and Jenner was sent to the Army of the Lower Rhine. It took part in 1757 in the victory of Hastenbeck and the conquest of the Electorate of Hanover, and then in the battle of Krefeld in 1758. In 1759 it was at the siege of Münster where Colonel Jenner was wounded and Lieutenant Colonel De La Chennelas was killed. In 1760, the regiment fought at Korbach under the command of the Comte de St Germain; it then came under the command of the Chevalier de Muy and covered itself in glory at Warburg, where, with Regiments Bourbonnais, La Couronne and Lochmann, it withstood the enemy attack and enabled the retreat of the army; Colonel Jenner was once again wounded. In 1761 it was at the affair of Villingshausen and was part of the detachment which pushed forward into the Electorate of Hanover. Returning from this expedition it took up winter quarters in Gueldres and in 1762, when the peace was signed, it was sent to Strasbourg. By then it was called Erlach. In 1763 it was sent successively to Phalsbourg, Metz and Longwy.
And this was the uniform in 1756:
Posted by
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Friday, July 14, 2023
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As my Légion Britannique flags have been popping up here and there (used by people who have had the sheets emailed to them by me) and there has consequently been more interest I thought I'd make the infantry flags more easily available here on the blog. We know that the Légion used British style flags but have no images of them so I created my version based on British flag regulations of the Seven Years War. There is also a sheet of dragoon guidons, but it is too big a file to be put on the blog, so if anyone wants that they will still have to contact me so I can email it to them.
The Légion Britannique was raised for service in the Hanoverian Army in
1760. It was paid for by the British government and carried
flags of British pattern, although its officers were Hanoverian. It
consisted of 5 battalions, each of 4 infantry companies and a dragoon
squadron; the strength of each battalion was intended to be 500 infantry
and 101 dragoons.
As the Légion was raised from deserters,
foreigners and sometimes prisoners of war, its quality can be imagined,
and losses from desertion and capture were many. Despite its
inauspicious make up, units of the Légion were capable of distinguished
service, as with the 3rd battalion which fought well in the defence of
Hamm in 1761 and the 2nd battalion which was overcome at the defence of
Meppen only after a fierce resistance. French prisoners taken at Warburg
in July 1760 were later enlisted in the Légion's light companies. Near the end of the war the Légion was taken into Prussian service, which cannot have pleased many of its troops!
And here is the dragoon guidon sheet, in very low resolution; the actual sheet is nearly 4 MBs and too big to post here. If anyone would like a copy, please let me have an email address via the Contact Form (don't put your email address in the comments as you really don't want it to be picked up by bots and to be spammed!).
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Wednesday, July 05, 2023
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Captured Jacobite flag - regiment unknown but possibly of Lord Kilmarnock's Foot Guards or Earl of Perth's Regiment. Attribution is very speculative.
No.7 on the list of captured Jacobite flags says: "On a staff a white silk colours with the Stewart's Arms, God Save King". Any reconstruction based on that very short description is bound to be somewhat imaginative!
I have done two slightly different versions. Version one is based on Angus McBride's illustration in the Military Illustrated article on the Jacobite Army from July 1991 by Stuart Reid. At that time Reid suggested the flag perhaps belonged to Kilmarnock's Footguards. Version two with the different motto is based on the description in Stuart Reid's new book Like Troops of Hungry Wolves; The Battle of Culloden 16 April 1746 (this is a bit unfair to wolves but no doubt these are the mythical variety, not real wolves). In the new volume Reid suggests the flag may have belonged to the Duke of Perth's regiment; both attributions are highly speculative but we currently have nothing better.
Lord Kilmarnock's Footguards began as his Horseguards, when they were raised after Prestonpans by William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock. Cavalry were always in low numbers in the Jacobite army and during the invasion of England the Horseguards temporarily incorporated Strathallan's Horse. In February 1746 the Horseguards' horses were given to the newly arrived Fitzjames Horse (one squadron of which, about 130 strong but without their horses, had evaded the English fleet and arrived in Scotland. The rest of the regiment had been captured) and Kilmarnock's men became Footguards. Recruiting was always difficult, it seems. At Culloden the Footguards, by then only about 50 strong at the most, were involved towards the end of the fight - they were originally in the second line near the right flank - and Kilmarnock surrendered to the English. (Reid, in his account from 1991, claims that the Footguards did not live up to their name and fled without firing a shot. Kilmarnock was subsequently executed on Tower Hill.) In his most recent book Reid questions the likelihood of such an elaborate flag being made as late as February or early March 1746 and suggests that instead the flag may have been made for the Duke of Perth's regiment. See below.
The Duke of Perth's regiment was assembled by James Drummond, 3rd Earl of Perth. The first 160 men fought very well at Prestonpans. After that battle they took in many redcoats but most of them signed up only to desert afterwards. Many of the Duke of Perth's men were not volunteers and coercion was common; Christopher Duffy tells a tale of four under-gardeners at Drummond Castle who were told that if they did not sign up "they were to be turned out of the Duke's service". When they refused they were inveigled by a stratagem into joining the regiment against their will. For the invasion of England the regiment incorporated part of the Strathbogie regiment and made up to an impressive 750 men. At the time of the battle of Falkirk the regiment was involved in the abortive siege of Stirling Castle but subsequently served at Culloden where it held the far left of the front line, having originally been in the second line. By then they were probably only around 200 strong.
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Sunday, July 02, 2023
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First raised March 1674 according to Pajol, Les guerres sous Louis XV (the État Général of 1753 says 1666). 2 squadrons strong in 1756.
This standard was carried from 1674-1762 by Dauphin Étranger, according to Charrié, and he also says that Dauphin Cavalry adopted the same standards when it absorbed Dauphin Étranger in 1762.
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Wednesday, June 28, 2023
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The regiment was raised in the Fraser lands in October 1745 after much "shilly shally stuff" (as Christopher Duffy calls it) by its notorious chief Simon Fraser of Lovat. It was 500 strong (with the Chisholms) at Falkirk and 400 strong at Culloden, where it was stationed on the right centre of the front line. The acting commander Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Fraser the Younger of Inverallochy was possibly killed at Culloden - and possibly not (according again to Christopher Duffy).
The arms are those of Charles Fraser of Inverallochy, not the Lovat arms; this is taken from the reconstruction by Stuart Reid, based on the short description of a flag captured at Culloden and included in the list of captured flags of Hu Wentworth. There were three regiments of Frasers; the other two were commanded by the Master of Lovat and James Fraser of Foyers.
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Saturday, June 24, 2023
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Here is another missing regiment from my Rossbach project.
First raised in 1677 as Regiment Stuppa. It subsequently had many name changes: Surbeck 1692, Hemel 1714, Bezenwald 1729, La Cour Au Chantre 1738, Grand-Villars 1748, Balthazard 1749, Planta 1754, D'Arbonier 1760, Jenner 1763
In 1756 the regiment ranked 63rd and was of two battalions.
The flags of this regiment in the SYW are disputed; I have taken the Ordonnance flag design from the 1757 MS. Charrié also describes this flag as I have here depicted it.
My translation from Susane on Planta in the SYW:
In 1757 it was part of the Army of Germany; it marched to the Weser and found itself on 5th November at the battle of Rossbach where it suffered greatly. Lieutenant Colonel d'Arbonnier was wounded there and taken prisoner, as well as battalion commanders Jossaud and Arder, aide major Wielandt, captains Grenut, Affleger, Turtin, Gallatin, Bertenschalz, Bouscard, Faller and six lieutenants.
[Christopher Duffy says little of the conduct of Planta at the battle of Rossbach in his book Prussia's Glory; but there is a legend associated with them and Diesbach: "The two Swiss regiments [Diesbach and Planta] were like rocks in the swirling sea of fugitives and Prussians as they steadily carried out a fighting retreat. Frederick is said to have remarked, "What is that red brick wall that my artillery cannot manage to bring down?", and, being told it was the French Swiss infantry, he silently saluted them by doffing his hat as they marched off the field with colours flying and drums beating." Osprey Campaign 113 Rossbach and Leuthen 1757 by Simon Millar, page 35. There is no definitive evidence for this story but it is an attractive one!]
In 1758 the regiment, which had retreated to Dusseldorf, came under the command of the Comte de Clermont and on the 23rd June was at the battle of Krefeld. On the 13th April 1759 it was at the battle of Bergen where, placed in the orchards of the village, it received the first attack of the Allies. On the 1st of August, it fought also at Minden, where Captain Vespyel lost an arm. On the 31st July 1760 both Planta and the regiment of Touraine vied with each other in their courageous conduct at the affair of Warburg, and covered the retreat of the army with admirable order and intrepidity. After that battle it became d'Arbonnier and continued to serve in Germany up to the peace, always brilliantly upholding the honour of its flags. On returning to France the regiment went into garrison at Metz.
And this was the uniform in 1756:
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Thursday, June 22, 2023
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This is a stray set from my Rossbach French Flags Project.
First raised for the French service in 1672 as De Salis-Zizers. Served in the War of the Polish Succession and the War of the Austrian Succession. Was of two battalions and in 1756 ranked 51st in the French army.
It had many name changes: Porlier 1690, De Reynold 1692, De Castellas 1702, De Bettens 1722, Monnin 1739, Reding 1756-1763, Pfiffer (or Pfyffer) 1763 and De Sonnenberg 1768.
And this was the uniform in 1756:
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Thursday, June 15, 2023
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There are quite a number of Jacobite flags whose regiments have not been identified. Here are a selection, all based on traditional Scottish saltire designs.
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Saturday, June 10, 2023
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The regiment was called Lenck from 1714-1734 then Appelgrehn 1734-1742; the earlier flags were carried by both. From 1760 the more elaborate flags were carried by Royal Suedois to 1791. There is some disagreement about the Colonel's flag of the early version; the 1721 MS shows it without fleur de lys as I have depicted it. The 1757 MS shows the pattern of blue and white stripes on the post-1760 flag differently from most modern versions, and I have followed that depiction for my version. These things are often disputed!
Uniform plate to follow.
Posted by
David
at
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
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