Sunday 2 May 2010

Hesse Kassel Artilleryman

Hesse-Kassel contributed a substantial force to the Allied army, including a fairly powerful artillery arm. The artillery were dressed in a sober uniform of blue and crimson/red. More to follow on the Hessians...

There seems to be considerable disagreement on the details of the Hessian uniforms of the SYW, at least in part because the uniforms do seem to have changed and evolved throughout the war. This is the version of Schirmer via Pengel and Hurt. I shall next post the version of Rudolf Witzel in  his recent book (2007) on the Hessian army of 1762. Kronoskaf's version, based on many sources, is different again.

Update 12.05.2010 - I'm currently working on various Hessen-Kassel uniforms but finding it difficult to find definitive information on the uniforms, as every secondary source seems to disagree on the details. I should shortly receive a copy of Rudolf Witzel's book on the HK army of 1762 (only parts of the book are viewable on Google Books) and I know that that book, useful though it will be in many ways, will only add to the confusion about uniform details. This is getting as bad as French SYW uniforms...