‘All The Emperor’s Men’ (Part 5): The Mainz ‘Lamberg’ Regiment

Generalmajor Raimund Casimir Graf von Lamberg

Just a short post today.  I painted this unit back in the summer and promptly forgot about it until just now!

In 1756 the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz was contracted to provide Austria with an auxiliary infantry regiment, consisting of a single garrison battalion of four companies, two field battalions of six companies apiece and two grenadier companies.  This regiment was known variously as the ‘Mainz’ Infantry Regiment or as the ‘Lamberg’ or ‘Mainz-Lamberg’ Infantry Regiment, for its Inhaber (Colonel-Proprietor), Generalmajor Raimund Casimir, Graf von Lamberg, who also served as its commanding officer in the field.

Mainz ‘Lamberg’ Regiment

The Austrian Army included a number of other foreign auxiliary regiments: The Würzburg ‘Red’ Regiment, the Würzburg ‘Blue’ Regiment, the Italian ‘Toscana’ Regiment and the Anhalt-Zerbst Battalion, in addition to larger Auxiliary Corps provided by Württemberg and Bavaria.  As discussed in Part 4, Austria also contracted Pfalz to provide the Reichsarmee with a couple of extra units to take up the slack for the Upper Saxon Kreis, which was struggling to recruit due to Prussian operations.  Although not raised as a ‘Kreis’ Regiment, the Würzburg ‘Blue’ Regiment was immediately assigned to the Reichsarmee as part of Austria’s contribution and in 1760 the Würzburg ‘Red’ Regiment and the Mainz ‘Lamberg’ Regiment were also placed under Reichsarmee command, followed in 1762 by the Anhalt-Zerbst Battalion.  Only the ‘Toscana’ Regiment remained under Austrian command for the duration of the war.

In addition to the ‘Lamberg’ Regiment, the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz also raised the Kreis Infantry Regiment ‘Kurmainz’, consisting of four battalions and two grenadier companies, for service with the Electoral Rhine (Kurrhein) contingent of the Reichsarmee, as discussed in Part 2.  The two Mainz regiments therefore become somewhat confused in accounts and orders of battle.

Kreis-Regiment ‘Kurmainz’

The Mainz ‘Lamberg’ Regiment was initially assigned in 1756 to the garrison of Prague.  However, in 1757 the two field battalions and the grenadier companies were heavily engaged at the Battle of Prague, suffering heavy casualties.  Leaving the rest of the regiment to lick their wounds at Prague, a single field battalion plus grenadiers then took to the field with the Austrians, being engaged at the Combat of Moys/Görlitz, the Siege of Schweidnitz and the Battle of Breslau.  Being then assigned to the garrison of Breslau, the battalion managed to avoid the disaster at Leuthen, but soon passed into captivity anyway, when Breslau surrendered.

Although the captured elements were subsequently exchanged, only a single battalion took to the field in 1758, again leaving the rest of the regiment at Prague.  As part of Rosenberg’s column, the regiment somehow managed to avoid being too heavily engaged in the nightmarish Battle of Hochkirch.

Reconstituted at last to two full field battalions in 1759, the regiment again took to the field with the Austrian army, being present at the decisive defeat of Finck’s Prussian army at Maxen.

In 1760 the regiment was sent, along with the Würzburg ‘Red’ Regiment to serve under the command of the Reichsarmee and remained with the Reichsarmee for the rest of the war, fighting Strehla in 1760 and at Freiburg in 1762.

Evidence for the uniforms worn by the two Mainz regiments is extremely scant, being limited to just two 19th Century German cigarette cards painted by Richard Knötel (shown above); one showing a musketeer of the ‘Lamberg’ Regiment in blue facings and the other showing a grenadier of the ‘Kurmainz’ Regiment in green facings.  There is also a Richard Knötel print showing various uniforms of the Reichsarmee, again showing a grenadier of the ‘Kurmainz’ Regiment.  However, we simply don’t know what Knōtel’s sources were.  Kronoskaf speculates that the facing colour for the ‘Lamberg’ Regiment may alternatively have been red, but the successor regiment in 1776 definitely wore blue.

According to the cigarette card painting, the regiment’s coats were white, with lapels, cuffs and linings and in dark blue with white metal buttons and without lace.  The buttons were grouped in pairs on the lapels and the Swedish cuffs each had three buttons.  Waistcoats were dark blue and breeches were straw.  Neck-stocks and gaiters were black.  Belts were white.  Hats had white lace edging with blue-over-white pompoms.

Grenadiers presumably followed the usual Austrian style as shown in the depiction of the ‘Kurmainz’ grenadier, having a bearskin cap with button-coloured front-plate and facing-coloured bag with piping and tassel in the button colour, as well as a brass match-case on the cross-belt and a black belly-box with grenade badge in the button-colour.  I’ll paint the grenadiers at a later date.

It’s anyone’s guess what the dress was for officers and drummers, but I’ve given the officers metallic hat-lace and Austrian-style yellow sashes, while the drummers have white coats with blue lace.  The drummers could just as easily have worn reversed colours, the personal livery of General Lamberg or the Archbishop, or something else entirely.

The flags are entirely speculative and were found on Warflag.  It’s entirely possible that the regiment just carried Austrian-style colours.

I’ve used Eureka Miniatures 18mm Austrian infantry for this regiment.

Anyway, Andy and I have lately been playing the excellent SYW boardgame ‘The Great Crisis of Frederick II’.  It’s a superb game that really does give Frederick all the strategic headaches he was presented with during the SYW… As demonstrated by the fact that I’ve now lost four times in a row playing Fred… Again, I wonder if this is perhaps the hobby for me…?