Württemberg Infantry Regiment Spiznass

This regiment pairs up with the one I painted last week. The only difference between this regiment and Prinz Louis is the pompom colour and this regiment has yellow hat lace. A good tip for painting yellow hat lace is not to use yellow at all – it is far too bright – but to use sand, as I have done here.

The third picture shows the battalion of converged grenadiers that was the product of these two regiments. It was commanded in 1757 by Major Berthold Dominik von Plessen.

Sadly, Wurttemberg seems to have had uniform flags for all regiments and they were not that exciting either.

Württemberg Infantry Regiment Prince Louis

Here is the two battalion regiment with it's grenadiers - the latter will be detached to be converged with the grenadiers of another regiment.

When the Leibregiment was subdivided in 1744, its second battalion became the Infanterieregiment Prinz Louis. This new regiment remained in the service of the Holy Roman Empire, as part of the troops of the Swabian District, until 1748. In 1752, the second battalion of this regiment was used to establish another regiment Infanterieregiment von Spitznas. The regiment was organized in 2 battalions with 5 musketeer and 1 grenadier companies per battalion. Each company counted some 100 men for a total book strength of 1,219 men including staff. Furthermore, each battalion had a 3-pdrs gun.

Throughout the Seven Years' War, the regimental inhaber was Prince Louis Eugen von Württemberg.

I have a problem with some of the details in Kronoskaf concerning button colour. Next week I will be painting Infanterieregiment von Spitznas and you will see that it has the same colouration. This regiment had white tricorne lace and Spitznas had yellow. Kronoskaf says that this regiment had white buttons despite the mitre plate being brass, the officers having gold lace and an image (much later, admittedly) that shows yellow buttons. I believe that Prince Louis regiment had yellow buttons and have painted accordingly. I believe that Spitznas had yellow buttons as well so that the main uniform difference was in the tricorne lace.

Degenfeld Dragoons

This Wurttemberg dragoon regiment was raised in 1758 and seems to have survived the entire SYW as a dragoon regiment without major change.

The colour scheme is most unusual – black facings on a white coat. There was another much older (raised 1683) Wurttemberg dragoon regiment but this was a Kreis regiment and part of the Swabian circle. I’ll be painting it in due course.

I’ve given this unit an imaginary flag as none were issued.

Next week I’ll be starting on the long haul through the rest of the infantry – somewhere around 16 battalions.

Phull Cuirassiers

Here is the only Wurttemberg Cuirassier regiment until the Gens d’armes were raised in 1760. This regiment had a somewhat short career too – it was raised in 1758 with a strength of four squadrons and lasted in this form until it was converted to a dragoon regiment in 1761.

It has a very Prussian look and one of the main differences is the scalloped gold lace that all rankers wore. The figures are Foundry 28mm Cuirassiers and, sadly, they have sabretaches whereas this regiment did not. Still it’s a small technical fault for an otherwise splendid looking force. Whether it will ever perform well on the wargames table is a mystery. This entire Wurttemberg army performed poorly when in service with the French and slightly better when in service with the Austrians.

Württemberg Leib Grenadier Regiment

This is a complicated regiment as it it did not exist for very long. In 1758, the Garde zu Fuß was twice reorganised. During the second reorganisation, late in 1758, the Garde zu Fuß retained two battalions while its other battalion gave birth to this regiment -the Leibgrenadierregiment which recruited other troops to bring its total force to 3 battalions.

In 1762 and 1763, two battalions were detached from the regiment to form independent grenadier battalions designated Hausgrenadierbataillon and Herzogsgrenadierbataillon. The Leibgrenadierregiment now counting a single battalion was renamed Leibgrenadierbataillon.

So what we see here is the two battalion regiment sometime between 1758-1762.

Another thing that is strange is that Kronoskaf, where these organizational details came from, says that the officers had gold button colour whereas the rank and file had silver despite their brass fronted mitres. Mitre colour always matches button colour so I think the button colour should be brass for all.

Freihusaren von Glasenapp

In 1759, von Glasenapp, who had been in Prussian service, offered his services to the duke of Württemberg who was trying to hire light troops. On February 27, 1760, they came to an agreement and he then raised a squadron of 158 hussars on his estate at Holtmuhl. The unit was disbanded on February 7 1761 when the duke of Württemberg retired from the war. Soon afterward, the entire unit entered Prussian service as Glasenapp light dragoons.

The flag is fictional as is the regularity of their uniforms. Kronoskaf says they were badly equipped and they don’t appear to have performed brilliantly in the war

Gorcy Hussars

This Wurttemberg Hussar regiment was first raised in 1735 with a one squadron strength and was known as the Leibhusarenschwadron. Then in 1758 a further three squadrons were raised and the new regiment was renamed Hussars von Gorcy under it’s new French Colonel Johan Baptist Gorcy de la Martiniere. Wurttemberg was getting large subsidies from France to increase it’s army so it’s not unreasonable to guess that Gorcy (who hailed from a village of the same name in Lorraine close to the Luxembourg border and probably spoke both French and German) raised these extra three squadrons from both Frenchmen and Wurttembergers.

I think the colour scheme of green and red makes this a very attractive looking unit. Also, I wanted to comment on painting cavalry as this is a harder job than it might look at first glance. I always try to put different horses on each base and also different poses of cavalrymen. So no two combinations are the same. This involves no small amount of planning so that also no two horse colours are next to each other! This applies to hussars and dragoons – with cuirassiers I don’t mind so much as I like them all on black horses and, preferably, standing poses.

Lastly, the flag is a fictional creation. These Hussars were never issued flags.