Sunday 12 February 2023

Flags and uniform of Prussian Ex-Saxon Regiment IR 57

Formerly Saxon Regiment Prinz Xaver Infantry, after the surrender at Pirna in October 1756 this regiment became Prussian IR57, and was made  the garrisons of Krossen and Kotbus.

Its commander was Major-General Karl Duke of Braunschweig-Bevern (aka Jung Bevern).

On March 28th 1757 the 2nd battalion threw off its new forced allegiance and escaped to Poland, followed by the 1st battalion on the 30th March. (Presumably this involved the process described in Duffy Army of Frederick the Great which I recounted in my previous post about IRs 55 and 56: "Over the course of the following months the Saxon troops defected by entire battalions at a time. "Most of the battalions in question, after they had chased their commanders away or shot them, withdrew with full military formalities. They took with them their bread and ammunition carts, their regimental chests and all the other items of their baggage, and they either marched to Poland or broke through to the French".

 The regiment was reraised with new men but on November 12th the new 1st battalion surrendered at Schweidnitz and the 2nd battalion was lost on the retreat from Breslau. The regiment was not raised again.

[Again the short account is taken from details in Kronoskaf.]

Once again here are two versions of the flags, the ones below with the new improved eagle.



And this was the uniform in 1756:




4 comments:

  1. Blue and yellow flags like this always make me think of Sweden. Another one to add to the collection as and when I get around to painting my 18thC figures...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed, Steve. That somewhat greyey-blue does seem very Swedish, along with the yellow. Look forward to seeing some of these flags in action with your SYW figures sometime :-)

      All the best,

      David.

      Delete
  2. The flags are coming thick and fast this week, excellent stuff David.


    Willz.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Willz. :-) They are! It helps that the text to go with them is so short. ;-)

      All the best,

      David.

      Delete

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