Saturday, April 10, 2021

Grenadier bearskins of the Dutch army 1793-1795

INFANTRY

 And while we are on the subject of the grenadiers, lets have a better look at the bearskins of the Dutch grenadiers in the FR period (1793-1795).

The grenadiers of the Dutch army in this period all wore the bearskin although grenadier officers also had the tricorne as they sometimes had to be on duty with musketeers; they then had according to the reglement to wear the tricorne.

Also one remarkable thing is, that the grenadiers had to wear their hairque underneath their bearskin unlike musketeers. Most pictures show this although there are exeptions.

In the mid 1750s both the Prussian style metallic plate fronted grenadiers mitre as the more southern style bearskin was worn by grenadiers but the mitre died out and only the bearskin cap remainded worn.
Up to the 1770s a lot of regiments had a bearskin with a smaller metal front plate as the Hollandse garde is wearing in the picture underneath (picture of the Rijksmuseum of around 1770 by Tethart Philp Christian Haag).


Some pictures of the front plated bearskin:

Dutch guard (Hollandse garde) 1768

   Wallon infant


Swiss Guard; red facings but always shown with blue bag.    

 Hollandse garde with red facings and red bag 

offficers of Hollandse garde

Grenadier drummer of the Hollandse garde 
















On the left Regiment Oranje Nassau I or II with red facings and red bag; on the right Garde Groningen again with red facings and red bag. The Garde Groningen was just one company strong and just ceremonial and not ment to go into the field.


Regiment Oranje Nassau III although later named Regiment Erfprins with orange facings and orange bag.

















Again the regiment Erfprins (on the left) but on the right the regiment Walen (Walons-from 1790 regimental name Nassau-usingen) with white facings but blue grenadier bag.


Regiment infantry nr 24 Dundas in 1784 after changing their red coat into the normal blue coat. Facings are light blue but the bag is red.
In 1789 this became the regiment nr 24 Bentinck but the kept the same facing colour. Probably they kept their bag colour.










Regiment infantry nr 21 Westerloo (mariniers) with yellow facing and yellow bag












On the left a greandier and musketier of the Hollandse Garde (see above), the third figure is a grenadier of the regiment infantry nr 12 van Bylandt with red facings but blue grenadierbag (this regiment became in 1789 Bedaulx but kept its red facings and probably its bag colour)
On the right the 5th battalion Waldeck used as light infantry.







On the left again the Swiss guard (facings red, bag blue) and on the right the Swiss regiment of May with red facings and red bag.












This picture is of the Scots regiment nr 3 (Stuart) . When the uniform changed from red to blue in 1783 (and it received the regimental nr 23 but kept the name of Stuart) it kept its facing colour.
It is of course possible that it also kept its red grenadier bag.













Conclusion regarding the bag colour: mostly the bag was coloured the same as the facing colour but exceptions found were:
Swiss Guard: facing red, bag blue
reg inf nr 12 Bijlandt/Bedaulx: red facing, blue bag
reg inf nr 24 Bentinck: light blue facing, red bag
reg inf nr 23 Stuart: yellow facing, red bag
reg Wallon/Nassau Usingen: facing white, bag blue 


 CAVALRY
Regarding grenadiers it should be mentioned that the first (or Lijf) company of the guard dragoon regiment consisted of grenadiers which wore the bearskin.
Some pictures of the dragoon grenadiers are underneath but it should be mentioned that mostly a red bag is pictured but the last one show a blue bag. Probably a mistake or a change of colour?

 






pictures from the Dutch Army Museum (NMM)

Thursday, April 8, 2021

OOB Dutch grenadiers

In the last post two 28mm Dutch grenadier battalions were presented.

So to give more background and to have room for more OOB's, we have made an extra page were OOB's of the French Revolution are presented. 

These will be mainly Dutch of the 1792-1795 period as these are mostly unknown.

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

The first Dutch French Revolutionary units

Here we present you our first French revolutionary Dutch units. As a slow painter there are always more units on the painting table then are ready but here it goes (with some information about the source of the paintings: 

Dutch unit  Huzaren van der Hoop (1787-1794) which was renamed for the rest of the revolutionary period as the Huzaren van Timmermans. They had 2 squadrons in the field although some say 3 sq.

Figures are Forgotten Glorious which sadly aren't with us anymore (afaik).



Picture of a colonel of the Huzaren van der Hoop/Timmermans


Light infantery unit of the jagers van Löwenstein-Wertheim. This unit was hired by the Dutch in 1794 and the unit went into British pay in April1795.

They are portrayed in the earlier Bavarian Rumford helmet. They are also depicted in a kind of Austrian jäger Korsehut in the Osprey MAA nr 328.
Figures are by Bicorne/Connoisseur and are in fact early Würtemberg figures.

Some pictures of the unit. The third picture is from the "Jassenboekje" which is a great source for the Dutch army of the FR period.


Following are the first two painted Dutch combined grenadier battalions.
The first one is the batallion of Van Buseck consisting, from left to right of the grenadiercompanies of  Van Brakel (reg nr 10) in yellow, Van Dopf (reg nr 3) in green, van Quadt (reg nr 13) in yellow and Nassau-Usingen (regiment Walloon) in white facings. 


The second battalion De Larrey consists (again from left to right) of the grenadiers of the regiments Erfprins (in orange), Oranje Nassau nr 1 (red), Orange Nassau nr 2 (red) and Markgraaf van Baden (in red and the only regiment portrayed in the Jassenboekje in grey trousers). 


Figures by Emperor Toad. These are great figures and my painting doens't do them justice.

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Incorperating the content of Ca-ira blog

The last blogpost was about French Revolutionary books.
The reason is, that the content of the Ca-Ira blog will be incorporated into this blog so the coming week(s) more French Revolutionary pictures, descriptions etc will appear.

We hope also to have more other info added, so please stay tuned. 

les Batailles oubliées-French revolution

 Historic'one Editions has a serie called "Les Batailles oubliées" in which three French Revolution titles has appeared some time back.


Although in French, imho they are very good and give information about battles of 1793/1794 period.
For those, who like the Napoleon campaign in the east, there are two titles.
Historic'one has also other titles in eg Medieval, Renaissance, Napoleonic and 1870 period; take a look. 

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Field bakery

I came across a picture of Dirk Langendijk which is known as a reliable source for depiction uniforms of the late 18th century period (including the FR period).
As I was looking for a theme for the Crisis show of November 2020 (now sadly cancelled) I thought this would be a good new addition to our FR wargame and a nice model to make.
The first picture is the plate by Langendijk, the second a bigger pic of the mobile ovens, the third a bigger pic of the tents with bakers.



I tried to model three mobile ovens and found suitable figures for it made by Black Hussar Miniatures. Although these are ment for the 7YW, I think they are suitable for my little Dutch FR project as the Dutch wore some older looking unifoms and I think a bakers outfit of the 7YW would not be out of place in the FR period.











Oh, and because we are Dutch, a bicycle appeares in some of the pictures; just a gimmick. Some like such additions, some not.