Friday 7 April 2023

The Reichsarmee: Flags Of Palatinate Regiment Pfalz-Zweibrücken

Properly the Oberreinisches Kreisregiment Pfalz-Zweibrücken

This was a Palatinate regiment of two battalions, consisting of 18 fusilier companies but no grenadier company.



In 1757 the regiment was with the Reichsarmee in Thuringia and Saxony. After the Reichsarmee had combined with the French in August 1757, Soubise, the French commander assessed the quality of the Reichsarmee units and rated Pfalz-Zweibrücken as "Bad". The regiment was made up from 33 separate contingents. (Nominal strength was 1,708 but in May 1758, for instance, there were 1,243 in the 2 battalions and each battalion had 2 3 pounder cannon.) Duffy in his book Prussia's Glory recounts how the Reichsarmee and French, who were holding Weissenfels and its important bridge, were caught napping on the 31st October and it was more by luck than judgement that they were able to burn the bridge before the Prussians could take it. Duffy records that Pfalz-Zweibrücken lost 440 men in the action. The regiment missed Rossbach as it had been sent to Freiburg before the battle. It was with the Prince of Pfalz-Zweibrücken in the campaign in Franconia and Saxony in 1758 and again in 1759. On September 21st that year it was probably at the combat of Korbitz in Stolberg's Division. (It was also under his command in 1758.) In 1761 it was again in Saxony.

And this was the uniform in 1756: