Flag of the French Volontaires de Wurmser 1762

Shock horror update! The previous flag was wrong, basically, as pointed out by Frédéric Aubert when I posted in Seven Years War Wargaming on Facebook; I had misread Pierre Charrié's text and, as Kronoskaf following Mouillard got it wrong the same way, assumed I had it right. It does not help not being a native French speaker! Lesson learned; always double check the French in Charrié... Correct flag now posted.

 

Volontaires de Wurmser first raised by decree January 1762, mostly from men of Alsace and with 1 grenadier company, 8 fusilier companies and 8 dragoon companies; total strength was 735.

Commanded in the Seven Years War by Dagobert Sigmund, Comte de Wurmser.

 

The Comte de Wurmser was informed in December 1762 that the Austrians wanted to take the regiment into their service and the unit was disbanded in March 1763, with most of the men joining the Austrian service.

In the Seven Years War the unit was initially attached to Soubise's Army of the Lower Rhine and was present at Wilhelmstahl in June that year. In August, in combat with Luckner's Freikorps, it lost 200 men and 5 officers and a cannon. On August 30th it fought in the combat of Nauheim, where it got something of its own back as it defended Freiberg and repelled an attack by Luckner Hussars. It was one of the units which Louis XV's instructions of November that year decided should remain in Germany until the army was finally evacuated.

[Details of the regiment's history and origins from Kronoskaf.]

And this is the hussar-style uniform for both infantry and cavalry depicted in Alfred de Marbot's Costumes militaires français depuis 1439 jusqu'en 1789: