Rossbach Prussian Flags Project - Flags of Prussian Infantry Regiment 9 on Wickeradt

Here's the next set of flags in the ongoing Prussian Rossbach flags project; IR 9 von Wickeradt:

First raised 1679 in Lippstadt (with links to troops raised by 1646) this Westphalian regiment was at Lobositz in 1756 where Frederick placed them on the Lobosch hill to fight the Austrian pandours; Frederick said of them "The Westphalians are rather crude... but they are good soldiers and will defend themselves." The regimental chef Lieutenant General Johann Christian Rulemann, Baron Quadt von Wickeradt (who sounds rather like a music-hall German) was killed by artillery fire. The new chef was Major General Friedrich Ludwig von Kleist. At Prague on May 6th 1757 the regiment lost 20 officers and 550 men, half its number, in the attack along the Rokenitz Brook. At Rossbach it was in the centre of the main Prussian infantry line. Its new chef von Kleist was killed at Breslau on the 22nd November 1757. The grenadiers were knocked about at Kolin on June 18th 1757. In 1758 the regiment was with the Saxon Corps under Prince Henry, the grenadiers elsewhere in Upper Silesia. In 1759 IR 9 was in the defeat at Kay July 23rd against the Russians and there lost its commander Colonel Johann Gottfried von Kikol. At Kunersdorf 12th August it was luckier than many units, losing only about 20%; its new chef Major General Friedrich August von Schenckendorff led the advance guard. On November 21st 1759 it was captured at the disastrous (for the Prussians!) Finckenfang of Maxen, where a whole detached corps of the Prussian army was captured by the Austrians. Unlike many of the units captured there, which Frederick held in contempt thereafter, IR 9 fought hard and well and so was forgiven. Consequently there was only one battalion in 1759-60; Westphalia was occupied by the French and replacements were impossible. Only the grenadiers were at Torgau in 1760. For the rest of the war the regiment was mostly involved in moving hither and thither and not in any major actions, although the grenadiers were at Freiberg on October 29th 1762.


And this is the uniform of a musketeer of IR 9 in the Seven Years War:

(I had planned and started the unusual flags of IR19 but have had all sorts of problems with them, and wasted vast amounts of time and effort on them, so will have to start them again. Sometimes the gremlins just seem to run riot...)