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.)
I have now created an .svg file of some of the map symbols I did a few months ago. There's nothing here particularly new, except that I've done the symbols with both blue and red roofs as requested, but people who care to use Inkscape: www.inkscape.org (or any other vector graphics program that can import .svg files) can now fiddle with and use these symbols and/or export them from Inkscape et al in different formats if they wish to use them on their non-Inkscape produced maps.
The blog will not unfortunately let me upload the .svg file so, if anyone wants it, please leave a message in the comments with your email address (suitably disguised to avoid spammers) and I'll email it to you. (The image here merely shows what is in the Inkscape file.)
I hope to find time to do some more map symbols soon - perhaps when the 48 hour day comes into force. ;-)
David.
P.S. Update 29.10.09: I noticed that the .svg file has done funny things to the windmill - basically the arms have been filled when they should be open so the detail is obscured. I've now fixed this so if anyone wants the upadted file rather than doing it for themselves then let me know and I'll email the updated file to them.
Württemberg Roeder (or Röder) Dragoons first raised 1758 as the Dragonerregiment von Degenfeld. Inhabers: 1758 Colonel Christoph August Count von Degenfeld; 1759 Major-General August Gottlieb Reinhard von Röder; 1762 Major-General Wolfgang Heinrich von Rothkirch. Von Degenfeld also commanded the regiment from 1758-9. Composition: 4 squadrons.
2 squadrons served in Saxony in 1760.
I've chosen to depict the regiment in 1760 when it was the Roeder (or Röder) Dragoons as we have a good contemporary illustration of the regiment by Johann Christian Becher (Stiftung Weimarer Klassik) (the New York Public Library website has a much larger and clearer version of this than the one on the Kronoskaf site (which is under "Degenfeld Dragoons")). This does not, as far as I can see, show a black collar (see, by contrast, Pengel and Hurt, and Kronoskaf) but probably a white one, if it shows a collar at all (the image is unclear). The buttons are also curious as those on the coat look as if they are tin, contrasting with brass buttons on the waistcoat. Without seeing the original or a very good reproduction this is speculative. Consequently I've shown them all as brass. The lace on the hat may be gold but I suspect is more likely to have been yellow. It is clear from the Becher illustration that there were at least 8 buttons on the lapels and possibly more.
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.
Raised 1761. Commander 1761-3: Rittmeister Johann-Georg von Schill, an ex-Austrian officer from Bohemia, born a commoner and ennobled for his services to Austria and Saxony. He was the father of the Prussian officer von Schill who led an unsuccessful revolt against Napoleon in 1809 in which the younger von Schill was killed. Unit only about 40 strong (a very weak squadron) and it probably formed the bodyguard of Prinz Xaver, Comte de Lusace, the Saxon commander, although Kronoskaf says the unit also included mounted and foot jägers (citing Schirmer).
There were two uniforms and this is the earlier one; the later one may not actually have been worn during the SYW. We do not know what the horse furniture of the earlier uniform was so I have left this as a blank shabraque on the coloured version but using the pattern of the later version.
