‘Hannover Siegt, Der Franzmann Liegt’: My 15mm SYW Hanoverian & German Allied Army (Part 2)

As discussed last time, I’m booked to put on a 10mm American Civil War game at Warfare 2021 in November, so I’ll have to put my 15mm Seven Years War project on hold for the moment while I paint a load more Blue & Grey and build the scenery. However, I did this week manage to finish off all the Hanoverian infantry in my lead-pile before moving on to the ACW. Once Warfare is out of the way I’ll come back to this army to do the cavalry, artillery and generals and with luck I’ll be able to play a French v Allied SYW game in early 2022.

In Part 1 of this series, I mentioned that I’m building a ‘Western Allied’ army for the Seven Years War. This British-funded army was mainly Hanoverian, though also included contingents from Great Britain, Brunswick, Hessen-Kassel, Schaumburg-Lippe and Prussia. I’m using the order of battle for the Battle of Minden as my immediate ‘to do’ list and have already completed the British infantry contingent for that battle (i.e. Von Spörcken’s 3rd Column, shown above), as well as the Hanoverian Foot Guards, the Sachsen-Gotha Regiment and Von Scheele’s Hanoverian Brigade from the Prince of Anhalt’s 4th Column.

Above: I’ve now completed the three battalions of Wissembach’s Brigade, which formed the second line of the Prince of Anhalt’s 4th Column at Minden, so here’s the whole formation in all its glory. Scheele’s Brigade (which I covered in Part 1) forms the first line, while Wissembach’s Brigade forms the second line.

Above: Prince Carl Leopold of Anhalt-Bernburg is commonly referred to as the ‘Prince of Anhalt’ in most English language accounts, which leads to all sorts of confusion, as there were seemingly dozens of princes of various branches of the Anhalt family (the House of Ascania), including one who at Minden was commanding a brigade on the French side! Prince Carl Leopold of Anhalt was also known by his family name of von Bährnfeld.

On the eve of the Battle of Minden, Prince Carl Leopold was commanding the 4th Column of the Allied army, consisting of the brigades of Scheele and Wissembach. However, the Prince proved to be derelict in his duty as General of the Day, when he failed to adequately establish a picquet-line in front of the Allied army. Consequently, the French were able to form up completely unobserved in the early hours of the morning and even a warning from a group of French deserters failed to stir the Prince into action until it was too late!

The Commanding General, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, later alleged that the Prince of Anhalt had failed to execute his orders to attack. However, in the Prince of Anhalt’s defence it would seem that no such orders were ever issued by Prince Ferdinand. Nevertheless, Carl Leopold undoubtedly failed to act on his own initiative and allowed the French to occupy key terrain. In exasperation at Carl Leopold’s inaction, Ferdinand eventually ordered General Scheele to take command of the Prince of Anhalt’s division and it was therefore Scheele, not the Prince of Anhalt who led the counter-attack to relieve Spörcken’s beleaguered command.

Above: Prince Carl Leopold of Anhalt-Bernburg held a commission in the Army of Hessen-Kassel and was Chef of the Hessen-Kassel ‘Prinz von Anhalt’ Infantry Regiment. There was no prescribed uniform for Hessian general officers, so he wears the uniform of his regiment, namely a dark blue coat with red facings and silver lace edging to the lapels, cuffs, cuff-flaps and hat. As in the Prussian Army, general officers probably had white ostritch feathers along the upper edge of the hat.

This is a 15mm Prussian general officer figure by Blue Moon (Old Glory).

Above: Wissembach’s Brigade. This consisted of three single-battalion infantry regiments; the Hanoverian ‘Stolzenberg’ Regiment, the Hanoverian ‘Estorff’ Regiment and the Hessen-Kassel ‘Erbprinz‘ Regiment.

Above: The Hanoverian ‘Stolzenberg’ Regiment changed hands several times over the course of the Seven Years War. From 1756 to 1759 the inhaber was Friedrich Ludwig von Stolzenberg, though shortly after the Battle of Minden, Stolzenberg retired and the title passed to Carl Detlev von Marschalk. However, Marschalk died in October 1760 and the title changed again to Georg Christian von Craushaar. Some time after the Seven Years War the regiment was given the designation 4-B. As discussed last time, many histories of the Seven Years War refer to these post-war regimental numbers (as well as the post-war Prussian and Austrian regimental numbers), even though they were not in use at the time, as it enables the reader to more easily keep track of regiments whose titles kept changing.

Above: The ‘Stolzenberg’ Regiment had black facings (lapels and cuffs) with white buttons and lace (silver for officers). However, like the other black-faced regiments of the Hanoverian Army (such as the ‘Reden’ Regiment discussed last time), the waistcoat, coat-linings and flags were of a different colour, which in this case was straw. Hat pom-poms were red-over-black.

These are Eureka Miniatures 18mm British infantry figures. I discussed the generic details of Hanoverian infantry uniforms and the differences with British uniforms in part 1. The flags are by Maverick Models.

Above: The ‘Stolzenberg’ Regiment had three lace buttonholes on each tail-pocket. The Regimental Colour was straw-coloured, matching the colour of the regiment’s waistcoats and coat-linings, which are here visible as tail-turnbacks. The Colour had an intricately-painted scene, showing the seated Greek goddess Athena offering a laurel wreath to an armoured knight on foot, all contained within a large blue laurel-wreath.

Above: The ‘Stolzenberg’ Regiment’s grenadiers had the usual mitre caps, though these differed slightly from the normal pattern, in that the ‘face’ of the cap was red, rather than the the facing colour (black). Instead the false ‘flap’ was coloured black and was decorated with the ‘GR’ cypher in white, along with other white lace decoration. The face of the cap was decorated with more white lace and a large electoral crest badge in white metal. This was all topped off with a white tuft.

Above: The rear of the ‘Stolzenberg’ Regiment’s grenadier caps were also non-standard, having a red band instead of the usual facing-coloured band. This was however, decorated in the standard manner, with white piping and a white metal grenade badge.

Above: The Hanoverian ‘Estorff’ Regiment actually started the war as the ‘Brunck’ Regiment, having Heinrich Joachim von Brunck as its inhaber. However, he retired in 1759 and the title passed to Ludolph von Estorff. The regiment was later assigned the number 12-B.

Above: The ‘Estorff’ Regiment had grass green as its facing colour and the regiment’s waistcoats and coat-linings were coloured the same, as was the Regimental Colour. Buttons and lace were white (silver for officers).

These again are Eureka Miniatures 18mm British infantry figures and the flags are again by Maverick Models. Note that Maverick Models usually refer to the initial name of the regiment, so this one is listed as ‘Brunck’.

Above: The ‘Estorff Regiment’ had two lace buttonholes decorating each tail pocket. The Regimental Colour was again decorated with an elaborate painted scene, showing a rocky island in a blue sea, being struck by bolts of lightning coming from grey clouds in an otherwise white sky. This was then surrounded by a green palm wreath and topped with a blue scroll and crown. The corners were decorated with crowned ‘GR’ cyphers.

Above: The grenadiers of the ‘Estorff’ Regiment had mitre caps with the front face, ‘flap’ and headband in the facing colour. The face was decorated with a large white metal electoral crest, while the flap featured the running horse of Hanover; probably embroidered in white. The back of the cap was red with white piping and the whole lot was topped off with a white-over-red tuft.

Above: The Hessen-Kassel ‘Erbprinz‘ Regiment. The regimental Chef was Prince Frederick, the Hereditary Prince (Erbprinz) of Hessen-Kassel. In 1760 the Prince succeeded his father Landgraf William VIII of Hessen-Kassel to become Landgraf Frederick II and the regimental title was changed to the 4th Guard (Vierte Garde) Regiment.

Landgraf Frederick II of Hessen-Kassel

Hessian infantry regiments were initially single large battalions, each of ten companies totaling 950 men at full strength. This therefore translates as a large unit of 16 figures for ‘Shako/Tricorn’ (like the Hanoverians). Each company included a corps of eight grenadiers, which on campaign would be formed into a detached grenadier company of 80 men and grouped with other such companies to form ad hoc grenadier battalions of variable strength.

However, in 1760 the new Landgraf Frederick II (who also happened to be a serving Prussian general) reorganised the army along Prussian lines, splitting each infantry regiment into two small battalions of five companies apiece. The grenadier component was expanded to two full companies. In wartime the two grenadier companies would now be paired at the start of a campaign with the grenadiers from another regiment, forming one of six permanent, Prussian-style grenadier battalions.

In theory the infantry regiments were each expanded in 1760 by an additional 200 men, but in reality this strength-increase was totally absorbed by the massively-expanded grenadier component and the infantry battalions remained weak. There was therefore absolutely no tactical advantage gained from splitting the regiments into two battalions and Ferdinand of Brunswick actually commented that it made absolutely no difference if the Hessian regiments fielded one or two battalions. In wargame terms, I’m therefore happy fielding the pre-1760 16-figure battalions to represent Hessian regiments right through the whole war and don’t plan to paint a separate late-war Hessian army. I will however, need to add extra grenadiers for the post-1760 army (though I haven’t yet painted any Hessian grenadiers).

Above: The ‘Erbprinz‘ Regiment initially had dark blue coats with lemon yellow lapels, cuffs, collar, turnbacks and hat pom-poms, with white metal buttons and white lace edging around the lapels, collar and hat. There were also three pairs of lace buttonholes on each lapel, three buttonholes below each lapel, four buttonholes on each sleeve, three buttonholes on each tail-pocket and two buttonholes wither side of the small of the back. Waistcoats were lemon yellow, neck-stocks were red and belts were white. In common with other Hessian regiments, breeches were initially dark blue with white stockings visible above the gaiters (which were black on campaign and white on parade). At some point during the late 1750s, the breeches changed to lemon yellow, though I’m going with the dark blue ‘look’ for all my Hessian regiments.

These are Eureka Miniatures 18mm Prussian infantry figures and the flags are again by Maverick Models. Not much is known about Hessian flags of the period, but they didn’t adopt the ‘Prussian’ style (carried during the American War of Independence) until well after the 1760 reorganisations and in most cases, probably not until well after the end of the Seven Years War. Maverick’s reconstruction of the flags features the cypher of Landgraf William VIII.

Above: A rear view of the ‘Erbprinz’ Regiment. Some sources suggest that the turnbacks may have been red rather than yellow. Hessian drummers are known to have worn reversed colours during the 1740s and early 1750s, but by the time of the Seven Years War had changed to the standard blue regimental coat, with the addition of red and white lace.

With the reorganisation of 1760, the regiment adopted a new uniform to go with the new title. The facing colour was changed from yellow to rose-pink, the lace edging was removed from the collar and lapels and the number of lace buttonholes was reduced (three pairs on each lapel, a pair below each lapel, a pair on each sleeve and one either side of the back). The waistcoat and breeches became white.

Ab0ve: Wersabé’s Hanoverian Grenadier Battalion (shown on the right) forms up alongside Maxwell’s British Grenadier Battalion (shown on the left). As discussed in my article on the British Army, the Allied grenadiers at Minden were all massed into a single brigade as part of Wangenheim’s Corps and the Hanoverian grenadiers were all massed in a single battalion under the command of one Lt Col Wersabé. I’ve not found any information on the composition of this battalion, but it was known to be an ad hoc unit, simply formed from whatever grenadier companies were present, apart from those of the Fuβgarde, who were always used as headquarters guards.

Above: Hanoverian Grenadier Battalion ‘Wersabé’. As mentioned previously, Hanoverian grenadiers battalions of the first half of the war were ad hoc affairs, formed from whatever was available on a given day. They were therefore of extremely variable strength and composition and this is therefore a conjectural wargames unit, comprising a figure from each of the six line regiments painted thus far, plus another six selected at random from the nine other regiments present at Minden. It’s possible that all fifteen regiments were represented and a large 16-figure unit might therefore be more appropriate, but I’ve kept it as a conservative 12-figure unit.

Above: Hanoverian Grenadier Battalion ‘Wersabé’. From 1759, the Hanoverians formed three permanent Grenadier Battalions at the start of each campaign, though these proved to be rather weak (roughly half the strength of a line infantry battalion), so in 1760 the strength was fixed at 500 men per battalion. In 1762 a massive increase in the strength of each regiment’s grenadier company enabled an increase to six grenadier battalions.

Above: A rear view of Hanoverian Grenadier Battalion ‘Wersabé’.

Above: The military-minded Count William of Schaumburg-Lippe was nobody’s fool and knew that if his tiny country were to go to war, it would always be as part of a coalition and there was therefore no point in building a balanced army of all arms. The core of the Army of Schaumburg-Lippe was therefore built around a small though excellent Artillery Corps, serving guns designed by the Count himself.

Count William of Schaumburg-Lippe

Supporting the guns was a single battalion-sized infantry regiment, titled the ‘Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg’ Infantry Regiment. This regiment consisted of seven companies, with a theoretical full strength of 800 men, though in reality fielding 675 men (this discrepancy may be due to infantrymen being detached to serve the guns). At Minden the regiment was tasked as artillery guards, though it fought as infantry in the line of battle at a number of other engagements.

Some sources state that the regiment included two companies of grenadiers, wearing Prussian-style Füsilier caps. While the Grenadiers certainly existed, they were actually completely separate units, being deployed as headquarters guards and in support of the Schaumburg-Lippe Carabiniercorps engaged in the petit guerre.

Above: The Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Regiment had a relatively simple uniform consisting of an unlaced dark blue coat with red Swedish cuffs, turnbacks and collar and white metal buttons. The hat had white lace edging and red-over-white pompoms with a black cockade (silver lace for officers). Neck-stocks were red, smallclothes and belts were white and gaiters were black.

These are Eureka Miniatures 18mm Prussian infantry figures.

Above: By sheer luck, just as I was painting the Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Regiment, two gentlemen, Boris Brink and Volker Scholz posted their reconstruction of the regiment’s flags on the excellent Kronsokaf website and I was able to adapt their superb drawings into a set of flags that I could print on my laser-printer… Then they changed their designs, so I printed them off again and stuck them on my figures… And now they’ve changed the design again, in line with their latest research! 🙂