Musings on Sepoy uniforms (or otherwise)

It seems that there is next to no evidence of what British sepoys were wearing in the SYW and only very conjectural and imaginative reconstructions exist. What I have seen so far of those doesn't clearly show me a side and rear view so I can't be sure of the (imagined) pocket flap pattern or the nature of the coat tails. And then it appears that most of the 10,000 French sepoys wore native dress, not uniform, and I don't have a really detailed all-round view of what that was like either. Not a good start, all in all! So unless someone can point me at or provide me with good material on either or both, I think I may have to duck this one and stick to the dress of Europeans in India.

Oh to return to the relatively straightforward mess of European uniform regulations. ;-)

French in India 2 - Infantry of Kerjean's Volunteers, Bussy's Army

This is a slightly pre-SYW uniform, around 1751, but similar uniforms in different colours were worn in the succeeding years up to the end of the war. These infantry had red coat and breeches, green lapels and cuffs, red cap with a green turned-up rim, white fleur de lis with the motto Pericula Ludus ["Peril is my amusement"!] on a scroll below and a white or silver tassel, and white gaiters.

French in India 1 - Grenadier of Kerjean's Volunteers, Bussy's Army

General Bussy's army operated in Central India and had grenadiers, volunteers, dragoons, horse grenadiers and artillery, raised locally.The fur cap had a blue bag with white lace, the coat was light to mid-blue (my sources vary) with red lapels and cuffs, the breeches were also blue and the buttons were pewter. The gaiters were white.

Swedish Infantry - Musketeer

Before launching into the 6 or so SYW in India templates I've planned I thought I'd do something nicely simple and a bit different.

The Swedish army wore a rather old fashioned, very standardised uniform in this period. The basic uniform for the majority of infantry units was dark blue with collar, swedish cuffs, waistcoat, breeches and turnbacks in yellow. White stockings were still worn, although black gaiters were slowly being introduced. The button holes had a very narrow strip of yellow lace. Buttons were tin. The black tricorne was laced white.

8th Reichsarmee Template - Dragoon of the Württemberg Dragoons (Swabian Circle)

And here is the last of the Reichsarmee Templates for now. This regiment put up a surprisingly tough fight against the Prussian cavalry attack at Rossbach, despite being attacked by Austrian hussars on their own side when they were mistaken for Prussian dragoons (their uniform was very similar to that of the Prussians, being mid-blue with black facings).

The shabraque and the lace on the uniform were very fiddly to draw, as I thought. The lace at this scale is only an approximation of the real detail, which was very like the pattern on the shabraque.

Coming shortly

Next, during the coming week, will be the last Reichsarmee template for the moment, a dragoon of the Württemberg Dragoon Regiment which, despite being composed of 22 separate contingents, managed to distinguish itself at Rossbach. The shabraque on this one promises to be fiddly and time-consuming, as it has one of those irritating wavy patterns on the border rather like those of the Prussian heavy cavalry. Ah well...

After that I'll do a few of the SYW in India templates, possibly followed by some Swedes. I'd also like to do a Bosniak and some hussars (even though no-one else seems very keen on them! ;-)). [Sorry - that should be very few people as a few people did vote for the hussar in previous polls, so I do owe them a hussar anyway. As I want one myself, that will be a definite hussar coming soon; but of which nation, I haven't yet decided.]

If anyone has a desperate need or desire for a particular template, leave a comment and I'll see what can be done.

Watch this space!