Saxon Karabiniergarde

This is the last cavalry regiment stuck in Poland at the start of the SYW. Oddly it's a Guard cuirassier unit so I'm not sure why it was stationed there. Also Kronoskaf has a number of uniform contradictions and I've made my own interpretation - they show white hat lace with white buttons but yellow lace on the shabraque. But the illustrated officer has gold lace and the description says yellow hat lace. I've gone with yellow hat lace and yellow buttons. Furthermore this may be a cuirassier regiment but it wore the cuirasse under the coat so I've used a dragoon figure and painted a black wedge where the cuirasse would have been, if worn at all.

Next week, back to Austrians and then there will be a pause as I will be in France.

Prinz Albrecht Chevauxlegers

The penultimate of the Saxon cavalry units which missed the debacle at Pirna because they started the war in Poland, this one had a spirited reputation.

An interesting question (which I cannot answer definitively) is whether these units in Poland were mounted on smaller (and cheaper) Polish horses. My guess would be that the Uhlanen were but that these Chevauxlegers were not - despite their title of 'light horse'. In wargaming I would rate these as classy dragoons!

Graf Brühl Chevauxlegers

Here we continue to show those cavalry regiment stuck in Poland and the start of the SYW. After the capitulation of the Saxon army at Pirna, these units served mostly with Austrian armies.

This units wears the caps that it is famous for but Franco Saudelli's fantastic illustration show a ranker in a tricorne which probably replaced the cap in 1756. Still the cap is rather cool so the unit wears them!

Prinz Karl Chevauxlegers

I had not realized that I was to paint an extra 6 Saxon cavalry regiments - for some reason I thought it was just two. So here goes with three Chevauleger regiments plus one cuirassier. The choice of facing colour was determined by the beautiful drawing by Franco Saudelli. This shows a rasberry red facing which I thought made an interesting change.

The figures are actually Saxon Cavalry from Eureka (most unusual - I'm painting figures as the designer intended them to be) and they are fabulous figures.

Graf Rudnicki Uhlanen

I left the picture with the hand in it deliberately as it gives a sense of scale and size.

You have seen the earlier Uhlanen I posted here the other day – with red facings. This is their sister unit and had blue facings.

The Pulk was created early in 1745 from a unit of Tatar Guards of the Principality of Kiev. The two units appear to have always operated together and those campaign details I posted for Renard apply equally to this this unit.

The figures are from Eureka and closely model the Bosniak regiment in Prussian service. Those Bosniaks were recruited in Poland as well.

Graf Renard Uhlanen

I thought I had finished the Saxon SYW army but two small units escaped my notice so here they are and they are beautiful figures from Eureka. This is Uhlanen Renard.

The Uhlanen were maintained by the Polish Commonwealth and hired into Saxon service. They participated in all campaigns from 1757 onwards. Initially with the Austrian armies, later on with the Reichsarmee in Saxony. After the death of King August III, they were returned to Poland. Two Pulks were kept on Warsaw's provisions budget in March 1757. Each Pulk had 6 Hoffahnen (court-banners), 1 banner counting 75 men. They were especially recruited in Lithuania and from Tartars. It seems that their tactical role was to scout and skirmish in support of the Saxon Chevaulegers.

On May 17 1745, the unit counted 8 Hoffahnen when it entered Silesia with the Austro-Saxon Army. On December 15, it was present at the Battle of Kesseldorf, together with the Belwedowsky, Rudnicki and Bertuszewski regiments under the command of von Sybilsky. In 1746, after the Treaty of Dresden (December 25 1745), the unit returned to Poland.

By 1757, the unit counted 603 men and 575 horses.

During the Seven Years' War, the regiment was commanded by Renard and then in 1759 by Schiebel

Of note during the SYW, in 1758, the unit was with Daun's army at the relief of the siege of Olmütz. On June 17, along with the Löwenstein Chevauxlegers and Dessewffy Hussars, under the command of the Count de Stainville, they routed the Bayreuth Dragoons near Gross-Wisternitz. Also, in 1760, the unit was attached to the Lacy Corps. On July 20, during the relief of the siege of Dresden, along with the Esterhazy Hussars under Brentano, they evicted the Mohring Hussars from Leuben, coming close to the capture of Frederick the Great at the nearby headquarters on the Grune Wiese.

In 1764, the unit was transferred to the Polish Army and renamed "5th Pulk Przedniej Straży (5th Pulk of the Forward Guard).

In 1792, the unit was involved in the Russo-Polish War and in the Kościuszko Insurection, taking part in the battles of Mir, Zelwa, Maciejowice and Praga.

SYW Late Saxon Cavalry

There is very little known about late cavalry raised by the Saxons. This would appear to be the only regiment and it is an amalgamation of two former regiments. This unit completes the Saxon project.
Figures are from Eureka.

Saxons SYW: Infantry Massed band.

Massed band of musicians from every regiment! Not designed to fight but to just stand at the back and play jaunty musical ditties while their colleagues get slaughtered.

This concludes the infantry part of this project.

Saxons SYW: Prinz August Grenadiers

Grenadiers of the early and late parts of the SYW. This was a yellow faced regiment with yellow buttons. This creates a painting problem with the drummer – they wore reversed colours so had yellow coats laced in yellow!

Saxons SYW: Late Kurprincessen Grenadiers

The Saxons system was to use a particular facing colour for two regiments and to give one regiment yellow buttons and the other one white. But in the case of the facing colour, pale blue, three regiments used this. In the early period this did not matter as Kurprincessen was a grenadier regiment and all its ranks wore the mitre (white buttons) and it was easily distinguishable from

Prinz Gotha Regiment, which also had white buttons, but whose rankers all wore the tricorne.

But between 1757 and 1761 Kurprincessen all were forced to wear the tricorne (the mitres had been lost at Pirna), and then later in 1761 they were all given lapels on their coats and bearskins. This created a problem distinguishing grenadiers of Kurpincessen with those of Prinz Gotha. The Saxon solution (in 1761) was to give the grenadiers of Kurpincessen medium blue lapels and waistcoat while retaining pale blue cuffs and turnbacks. Confused, I'm not surprised!

Saxons SYW: Rochow Fusiliers

At first sight this regiment does not look Saxon at all but it was raised as a Fusilier regiment and by that original description it's job was to protect the artillery. By the SYW it was just another line regiment and had lost it's previous specific role. But if you look at the uniform of the Saxon artillery you will see that this regiment had essentially the same uniform with the exception that the artillery had gold/brass buttons and Rochow probably had silver/pewter ones.

There is confusion about the button colour but I stick to the theory that this regiment had white buttons to distinguish it from the artillery.

Saxons SYW: Grenadier Garde

These pictures show the Saxon Grenadier Garde in their early and late headgear. Interestingly, during the WAS they appear to have had yellow coats with red facings and this appears to have been reversed by the SYW.

Saxons SYW: Lubomirsky Regiment

Here is Regiment Lubomirsky, one of two Saxon regiments with yellow facings. We are approaching the end of this project soon.

SYW Saxons: Bruhl Regiment

Regiment Bruhl was slightly unusual as throughout the war it appears to have had lapels. I have shown it with a dark red although this is conjectural. Note the late-war Grenadiers in bearskins. Also yellow buttons so yellow flag bordering and yellow drummer's lace.

SYW Saxons: Queen's Regiment

This is the first Battalion of the Queen's Regiment with it's pre-Pirna Grenadiers in mitres. Note that the bordering of the flags should always match the button colour. Kronoskaf is not always consistent in this matter.

SYW Saxons: Prinz Maximilian Regiment

You have to like those Saxon uniforms - so colourful!
Figures from Eureka of course

SYW Saxons: Prinz Gotha Infantry

Here is another Saxon Infantry Regiment, although I'm only showing you the first battalion. Note the minor uniform change from early war to late war in the second picture - the early war grenadiers wear the mitre and the uniform had no lapels. By the war's end the mitre had been replaced by the bearskin and lapels had been added to the coat. Such is the minutiae of uniforms that is my minor addiction.

Sorry about the absence of posts for a while - I've been on holiday in Thailand. I lived in Bangkok as a child 50 years ago and there have been a few changes since then.

More Saxon Infantry

Here we have more Saxons from the excellent SYW Eureka range. The top two pictures show the regiment Minckwitz. This regiment was the second in the Saxon Army with dark blue facings. The battalion is accompanied by late-war grenadiers and the eagle-eyed amongst you might notice that lapels have been added to the coat. Upon their capture at Pirna the army surrendered their military accoutrements (mitres, flags etc) and were re-uniformed by the Prussian. So when the army was reconstituted later on in the war, and in service with the French, it was with Austrian style uniform details, like bearskins.

The bottom picture shows both early and late grenadiers of the regiment Prinz Xaver. The regiment has been painted before and these are now ready to join their companions.