‘Hannover Siegt, Der Franzmann Liegt’ (Part 8: Hanoverian Cavalry)

Having shocked the surviving readers of this blog last week by publicly playing with Gareth’s nobori and having caused palpitations by making people read Japanese names, I thought I’d better post the blog equivalent of Mogadon to calm everyone down.  So here are some SYW Hanoverian cavalry regiments.   The figures are all 18mm British Dragoons by Eureka Miniatures and the standards are by Maverick Models.

These are particularly bland; all with white coats and most don’t even have lapels… I can sense some of you starting to snore already, so pull up a pillow…

Above:  Dragoon Regiment ‘Breidenbach’ was one of four Hanoverian dragoon regiments.  It actually started the Seven Years War with the title ‘Heimburg’ for its inhaber (i.e. Colonel-Proprietor, alternatively Chef) Friedrich von Heimburg.  However, by the time of the regiment’s first engagement at the Battle of Hastenbeck on 26th July 1757, the title had passed to Johann Christian von Breidenbach, so I’ll therefore refer to them as the ‘Breidenbach’ Dragoons below.  However, Breidenbach died in September 1759 and regiment was then known as ‘Reden’ for Ernst Friedrich von Reden.  Following Reden’s death in action at Grunberg in March 1761, the title transferred to Georg von Walthausen.

Following the Seven Years War the regiment was given the regimental number 6, being the 6th cavalry regiment in order of seniority (the eight small regiments of horse were paired up to become regiments 1 to 4 and the dragoon regiments were numbered 5 to 8).  As with other nations’ armies, Hanoverian regiments in the Seven Years War are sometimes referred to in histories by their anachronistic post-war regimental numbers, as it makes it easier to keep track of regiments with constantly-changing titles.

Above:  Dragoon Regiment ‘Breidenbach’.  As in the Hessian and French armies, Hanoverian dragoon regiments were roughly double the strength of the line cavalry regiments, having four squadrons instead of two.  Each squadron had two companies, each of 87 men.  However, as an added complication, eight men from each company would then be detached to the Horse Grenadier Company, which had its own permanent staff of five men (1 lieutenant, 2 NCOs and 2 drummers), so in the field, the regiment would have nine companies, for a total of 712 men at full strength.

Aside from the red-coated Garde du Corps and the Grenadiers à Cheval, all Hanoverian line regiments of dragoons and horse wore white coats.  The dragoon regiments were distinguished by the fact that they had lapels on the breast, an aiguillette on the right shoulder and buttonhole lace on lapels and cuffs.  They also had the aforementioned Horse Grenadier Company standing on the right flank, wearing grenadier mitre caps.

Above:  Dragoon Regiment ‘Breidenbach’.  The regiment’s coats had light blue lapels, cuffs, aiguillette and tail-turnbacks, with white metal buttons and white shoulder-strap and buttonhole lace.  Neck-stocks were red and the aiguillette had red tips to the cords.  Small-clothes, belts, gauntlets and cartridge-pouches were light buff, with light blue lace edging to the waistcoat.  Hats had white lace, black cockades and were often adorned with a sprig of oakleaves or other greenery.  Scabbards were black with iron fittings and swords had iron hilts.

Officers had silver lace and yellow sashes, worn ‘British-style’ over the shoulder, though there is some evidence to suggest that they may have worn them over the right shoulder, like British infantry officers.  A British infantry officer figure might therefore be better than the dragoon officer used here.

As for musicians, I made a mistake here and included a trumpeter.  Dragoon regiments only had drummers and oboists!  They wore heavily-laced livery-coats in reversed colours and headgear was the same as the rest of the company (mitre caps for the Horse Grenadiers and hats for the rest).  Eureka Miniatures don’t do a British dragoon drummer (or oboist) in hat (they have mitre caps), but their French dragoon musician figures would be perfect for the job, so I’ll use those next time.

Above:  Dragoon Regiment ‘Breidenbach’.  The regiment’s Horse Grenadiers wore a mitre cap with a white bag with light blue piping and a red-over-light blue pompom.  The front-piece and headband were light blue.  The front-piece was decorated with the crowned Badge of Hanover, flanked by white foliage.  Below that was a red false-flap, decorated with a white or silver grenade badge.  There was another grenade badge worn centrally on the rear of the headband.

Horse furniture was light blue, edged with white lace, shot through with narrow red stripes.  I’ve simplified this to a single red stripe (as did the artist who painted the picture shown above).  The holster-caps and rear corners of the shabraque were further decorated with a wreathed and crowned Badge of Hanover, though I haven’t painted these (as mentioned before, I tend not to paint too much shabraque decoration, as it obscures the ground colour of the shabraque).  Cloaks were white and when not worn, were rolled at the rear of the saddle, with the facing-coloured lining showing outermost.

Hanoverian dragoon standards were square, like those of the regiments of horse.  The 1st Squadron carried the white Leibstandarte, while the other squadrons each carried a blue Eskadronstandarte.  These were fringed in gold and carried a different design for each squadron.  All depictions of the Eskadronstandarten show a darker, deeper blue than the facing colour, but this may be just a matter of interpretation and it may have been the same colour.

A note about horses; Hanoverian dragoons may well have ridden darker breeds, as shown in the picture above.  It is certainly recorded that they would put the larger, darker horses in the front rank.  However, given the similarity of their uniforms with those of the regiments of heavy horse, I decided to use the ‘Prussian approach’ and mount the dragoons on browns and chestnuts, keeping the darker colours for the heavy horse.

Above:  The ‘Dachenhausen’ Regiment of Horse (left) and ‘Gilten’ Regiment of Horse (right).

The ‘Dachenhausen’ Horse were named for their inhaber Carl Gustav von Dachenhausen.  However, in 1758 the title changed to ‘Bremer’ for their new inhaber, Christian Friedrich Bremer.  In 1761 the regiment became known as ‘Alt-Bremer’, to set it apart from the newly-titled ‘Jung-Bremer’ Regiment.  In the post-war numbering scheme, the ‘Alt-Bremer’ Regiment was given the designation 2A (being one half of the new 2nd Cavalry Regiment).

A Trooper of the ‘Pöllnitz’ Regiment of Horse, circa 1749 by David Morier.

The ‘Gilten’ Horse were actually titled ‘Pöllnitz’ at the start of the Seven Years War, but in 1757 changed to ‘Gilten’ (for Wilhelm August von Gilten’) before their first engagement at the Battle of Hastenbeck.  The regiment then went through multiple changes of inhaber and title, becoming ‘Breidenbach’ for Georg Carl von Breidenbach in 1758, ‘Veltheim’ for Adrian Dietrich von Veltheim in 1758 and then remaining ‘Veltheim’ in 1761 for Carl August von Veltheim.  In the post-war numbering scheme it was given the designation 4B (being one half of the new 4th Cavalry Regiment).

Hanoverian regiments of horse were small units, consisting of only two squadrons, each of three companies, for a total of 358 men per regiment at full strength.  I therefore pair them up to make a viable unit for Tricorn, in the same manner as my British and Hessian cavalry.  Oddly enough, this is exactly what the Hanoverian Army did immediately following the Seven Years War; combine each small unit into a viable unit of four squadrons.

Above:  The ‘Dachenhausen’ Regiment of Horse (left) and ‘Gilten’ Regiment of Horse (right).  All Hanoverian regiments of horse wore white coats without lapels or aiguillette.  I’ve therefore used yet more British dragoon figures by Eureka Miniatures and have filed off the aiguillettes.  The coat had three pairs of buttons down each side of the breast and three buttons on each cuff.  The cuffs and tail-turnbacks were in the regimental facing colour.  Shoulder-straps were white.  Small-clothes were buff, with the waistcoat being edged in the facing colour.  Hats were edged in the button colour and had a black cockade, being often adorned with a sprig of oakleaves or other greenery.  Horse furniture was in the facing colour and was edged and decorated with often quite elaborate embroidered designs.  Cloaks were white, lined in the facing colour and rolled behind the saddle with the facing colour outermost.  Belts were buff, though should be flat at the front (I’ve mistakenly painted on the front belt-buckles modelled on the British dragoon figures).

The ‘Dachenhausen’ Horse had apple green as its facing colour and had white metal buttons and black neck-stocks.  The horse furniture was decorated with the crowned Badge of Hanover and was edged with a complicated pattern of red, blue, yellow and white leaves.

The ‘Gilten’ Horse had medium blue as its facing colour and also had white metal buttons and black neck-stocks.  The horse furniture was decorated with crowned ‘GR’ cyphers and was edged in wide yellow lace, edged red and superimposed with a wide, wavy lace band of lace in a complex pattern.

Above:  The ‘Gilten’ Regiment of Horse (left) and ‘Dachenhausen’ Regiment of Horse (right).  Officers of horse had metallic lace edging to cuffs, collar, hat and horse furniture, as well as a silver gorget worn at the throat and a yellow sash worn over the shoulder.

Regimental musicians consisted of trumpeters and a single kettle-drummer.  These all wore a livery-coat in the regimental facing colour, heavily decorated with lace.  Headgear was a cocked hat.

Standards were square, as for the dragoons.  The Leibstandarte was carried by each regiment’s 1st Squadron and was white for both regiments, fringed and embroidered in silver.  The 2nd Squadron in each regiment carried an Eskadronstandarte (called a Regimentstandarte in some sources) in the facing colour, again fringed and embroidered with silver.  Each side of each standard had a different motif, as detailed on the Kronoskaf site.  As these are such small regiments, I’ve only shown the Eskadronstandarte for each regiment.

Above:  The ‘Zepelin’ Regiment of Horse (left) and the ‘Reden’ Regiment of Horse (right).

The ‘Zepelin’ Horse started the Seven Years War with Johann Friedrich von Zepelin as inhaber.  In 1757 the regimental title changed to ‘Skölln’ with the accession of Gerlach Friedrich von Skölln, though it isn’t clear if this took place before or after the Battle of Hastenbeck.  Note that in some sources the regiment is listed as ‘Scholien’, which seems to be a spelling-mistake or mis-transcription.  In any case, Skölln died in April 1758 and the title became ‘Heise’ when the regiment passed to Otto Wilhelm von Heise.  The title changed again in 1761 to ‘Estorff’ for Emmerich Otto August von Estorff.  In the post-war numbering system the regiment was given the designation of 1B (being half of the new 1st Cavalry Regiment).

The ‘Reden’ Horse actually started the war as the ‘Bothe’ Horse (for Johann Arnold Bothe), but by the time of the Battle of Hastenbeck in 1757 had been re-titled ‘Reden’ for their new inhaber, Ernst Friedrich von Reden.  After the Battle of Minden in 1759, the regiment was re-titled ‘Walthausen’ for Georg von Walthausen and changed title a final time in 1761 to ‘Behr’ or ‘Alt-Behr’ for Johann Friedrich von Behr.  In the post-war numbering system, the regiment was given the designation 4A (being half of the new 4th Cavalry Regiment).

Above:  The ‘Zepelin’ Regiment of Horse (left) and the ‘Reden’ Regiment of Horse (right).

The ‘Zepelin’ Horse started the war with orange as its facing colour and yellow as its ‘metal’ colour.  Neck-stocks were red and hat-lace was yellow.  Horse furniture was orange, decorated with the crowned Badge of Hanover and edged with a double band of lace in a complex patter of green, yellow and orange (for simplicity’s sake, I’ve just used green).  However, in 1760 the colourings changed dramatically, with cuffs and neck-stocks becoming black and the tail-turnbacks becoming white.  The horse-furniture also became white and was now edged in a double band of plain yellow lace (with badges as before).  The cloak-roll changed to black.

The ‘Reden’ Horse had dark blue facings and yellow ‘metal’.  Neck-stocks were black and hat-lace was yellow.  Horse furniture was also dark blue, being decorated with the crowned Badge of Hanover and edged in a strip of yellow & white lace, with an interior edge of green, white and crimson leaves.

Above:  The ‘Reden’ Regiment of Horse (left) and the ‘Zepelin’ Regiment of Horse (right) again dressed their musicians in livery-coats matching the facing colour and heavily decorated with lace.

The ‘Reden’ Horse followed the usual pattern of a Leibstandarte in white and Eskadronstanrate matching the facing colour, both fringed with the button colour (gold).  However, the ‘Zepelin’ Horse differed somewhat in that its white Leibstandarte was fringed with silver, while the Eskadronstandarte was yellow, fringed in gold.  Note that again, I’ve given both these units an Eskadronstandarte.

Anyway, that’s enough from me for now.  I’ve just got back from enduring the execrable Napoleon film, so now need a stiff drink and a lie down…

Don’t.

Just. Don’t.

More anon…