‘Hannover Siegt, Der Franzmann Liegt’ (Part 9: My First SYW Brunswickers)

As mentioned in the comments section of my last post, my old mate Jase is back in town!  🙂  He was long ago exiled from Wales to New Zealand for reasons we don’t like to talk about (it was never proved in a court of law and that sheep was sick in any case…).  In commemoration of his No Fit State Visit, I post the above painting; assumed by many to be of the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick, but which is in fact an artistic depiction of Jase in our great War of Jenkins’ Ear campaign of 1995-1997… 😉

Charles I, Prince of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg 1735-1780 (1750 portrait)

As nice as it is to see him again, the return of the Prodigal Son is something of a double-edged sword, as while here he might remember that I’ve still got some of his wargames armies in my possession…  As a consequence, I need to put on a game that doesn’t feature any of his models whatsoever (least of all the large Russian Napoleonic army that I busted a gut re-basing and re-flagging a couple of years ago)!  I think I’ve found the solution in my recently-published Corbach scenario, as that’ll feature none of Jase’s units, which can therefore stay locked securely in my secret army-vault.

However, Corbach does require a few more units to be added to my collection, including the first of my Brunswickers.  The army of the Duchy of Brunswick was a small one, at the start of the Seven Years War consisting of only four infantry regiments, four dragoon companies and a very small artillery and militia component.  This was expanded during the war by the addition of a fifth infantry regiment, a hussar regiment, a jäger corps and the conversion and expansion of the dragoons to a full carabinier (i.e. cuirassier) regiment.  My plan is to paint four infantry regiments, a pair of battalion guns, the carabiniers and the jäger corps.  As with the Hessians, I’m struggling to see the need to paint dedicated Brunswick grenadier battalions, when I’ve already got near-identical Prussian and Württemberg units.

Above:  Infanterie-Regiment ‘Imhoff’.  This regiment was originally raised as a single battalion in 1748, though by the time of the Seven Years War was organised as a two-battalion regiment, having been ‘Prussianised’ in 1754.  Each battalion consisted of four companies, each of 119 men, for a total of 476 men per battalion.  As usual with armies of this period, ‘men’ might just included enlisted ranks and it isn’t therefore clear if this number includes officers, NCOs, musicians and regimental staff.  The regimental chef throughout this period was Lieutenant General Philipp Ernst Freiherr von Imhoff.

The regiment was very well-travelled and hard-fighting, being engaged at Hastenbeck, Mehr, Minden, Fulda, Vellinghausen and Wilhelmsthal.

The regiment also included two grenadier companies, each of 141 men (same caveats as above), which were grouped with those of the Leib-Regiment to form Grenadier-Bataillon ‘Stammer’ (‘Warnstedt’ from 1761).  As with the similarly-organised Prussian grenadier battalions, this battalion was completely independent from its parent regiments and fought at Hastenbeck, Bergen, Minden and Warburg.

Above:  Infanterie-Regiment ‘Imhoff’, like all Brunswick troops, wore a very Prussian-style uniform, consisting of a blue coat with white lapels, turnbacks, Swedish-style cuffs and small-clothes, brass buttons, blue shoulder-strap, no collar and no lace.  The hat had white lace, a black cockade and three pompoms, coloured white over blue.  The regiment’s grenadiers had a Prussian-style grenadier cap with a blue bag, white band, white lace, a white-over-blue pompom and brass plate and grenade badges.  Neck stocks were black.  Belts were white, though musket slings appear to have been of red leather, in the same style as the Prussian army.

Officers had two ‘Brandenbourg’-style gold buttonholes below each lapel and had scalloped gold hat-lace and a silver sash, worked through with yellow or gold threads.  NCOs had straight gold hat-lace, as well as gold lace edging to lapels and cuffs.

Above:  A rear view of Infanterie-Regiment ‘Imhoff’.  Note that the coat turnbacks were white, rather than the Prussian-style red.  Cartridge-pouches were black with a brass plate and scabbards were black with brass fittings.

Sources are split over whether Brunswick drummers wore an elaborate yellow coat or a regimental coat with facing-coloured ‘swallow’s nests’ on the shoulders.  On balance, it would appear that the only regiment dressing its drummers in yellow coats was the Leib-Regiment, so I’ve done mine in blue with white swallow’s nests.  Drums were brass with hoops in blue/white diagonal stripes.

These are Eureka Miniatures 18mm Prussian infantry figures, with Maverick Models flags.  These Prussian-style flags were ordered in 1754, though it’s entirely likely that the Brunswickers were carrying an earlier pattern of flags during the Seven Years War, such as the pair of colours shown below.  I’d have preferred to have used this style, but I’ve not found anyone making them available for purchase or download and while I CAN paint such things (95% of my Prussian army has hand-painted flags), I’m basically too bone-idle.  [Edited to add that Christian Rogge makes the case for these flags on his superb blog – thanks to David Morfitt for finding the link that I’d lost]:

Generallieutenant Phillip Ernst Freiherr von Imhoff

Above:  Lieutenant General Philipp Ernst Freiherr von Imhoff was born in 1702 and at the age of 18 was commissioned into the Prince of Brunswick’s service as an ensign in the Duke of Bevern’s Infantry Regiment.  He fought during the War of Polish Succession of 1733-1735 and the Austro-Turkish War of 1737-1739 as part of the Imperial contingent.  The Duchy of Brunswick was a very late entrant into the War of Austrian Succession in 1748 and Imhoff was authorised to raise a new infantry regiment bearing his name.  However, as he was marching his regiment to the Netherlands, the Peace of Aachen was concluded and the Brunswickers never saw action.

At the start of what would become the Seven Years War, the Duchy of Brunswick was contracted by Great Britain to supply an auxiliary corps of 5,800 men (some sources say 4,800) in seven battalions to the Allied side and Imhoff was appointed as their General Officer Commanding, with the rank of Lieutenant General.  However, the ensuing Battle of Hastenbeck proved to be a disaster for the Allies and Imhoff’s Brunswick Corps was then bound by the Convention of Zeven Abbey to withdraw from the war.  King George II of Great Britain was incensed at the terms the Duke of Cumberland had agreed to and therefore considered the Convention of Zeven Abbey to be null and void.  Imhoff was now torn between the commitments made by the Duchy Brunswick to King George II, the terms of the Convention and his own sense of duty and honour.  He considered that honour came first and decided to march his corps back home.  However, the Brunswick Corps was intercepted by the Hanoverian General von Wangenheim and was ordered back to barracks, to prepare for the resumption of hostilities.  Imhoff himself was arrested and imprisoned until the following year.

Above:  Lieutenant General Philipp Ernst Freiherr von Imhoff was released from prison in May 1758, to find that the situation had changed rather dramatically.  Brunswick was now very much back in the war, with the new Allied commander-in-chief being none other than Prince Charles of Brunswick’s brother, Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick.  However, Imhoff had been relegated to second-in-command of the Brunswick contingent, as command had now passed to the Hereditary Prince (or Erbprinz) of Brunswick, Charles William Ferdinand.

Despite the ‘complicated’ start to Imhoff’s war, he proved to be a most able commander, winning a fine victory at Mehr on 5th August 1758 and being one of only two commanders singled out for praise by Ferdinand of Brunswick following the Battle of Minden on 1st August 1759.  However, he remained something of a prickly subordinate; he had a very bad relationship with Count William of Schaumburg-Lippe during the Siege of Münster in Oct-Nov 1759 and his failure to hold the line of the River Ohm in 1760 led to a catastrophic falling-out with Duke Ferdinand and his dismissal from the army!  Nevertheless, he retained the trust of Prince Charles, who placed Imhoff in command of the defence of Brunswick itself, which he successfully did against Prince Xaver’s Saxons in 1761.

My model of Imhoff is a 15mm Prussian general officer figure by Blue Moon.  As with most armies of the period, there was no regulation uniform for general officers of the Brunswick Army, so they would wear a variation on their own regimental uniform, typically with white ostrich feathers lining the edge of the hat.  Imhoff therefore wears the uniform of an officer of his own infantry regiment, as described above, with the addition of white feathers.  I’ve taken a guess that the regiment’s horse furniture was white with gold lace.

Above:  Brunswick’s Artillery Arm was very weak and simply just provided battalion guns to the infantry battalions in the field and gunners for the duchy’s fortresses.  There was no position artillery component.  The Brunswick artillery arm initially in 1757 had 272 men and a collection of 2pdr and 3pdr pieces (six of each) and a pair of howitzers.   In 1760 this increased to 320 men (equipment unknown).

Above:  The Brunswick Artillery Arm was uniformed very similarly to the Prussians, with a blue coat, red collar, turnbacks and Swedish-style cuffs, brass buttons and straw small-clothes.  Buttonhole lace took the form of elaborate golden ‘Brandenbourgs’, arranged 1, 2 and 3 from top to bottom on the breast, a pair on each cuff and a pair on each tail-pocket.  Hats had white lace, a black cockade and two black-over-white pompoms at the corners.  Officers had striking red small-clothes, gold ‘Brandenbourgs’ and gold scalloped hat-lace.  The colour of gun-carriages is simply unknown, though the general convention among wargamers is to give them light blue Prussian-style carriages with black ironwork (which they did have during the French Revolutionary Wars), so I’ve gone with that.

Above:  For my Brunswick Artillery, I’ve used 18mm Eureka Miniatures Prussian artillery figures.

Right, I’m off down to the club to catch up with Jase!  Nobody mention the armies…

This entry was posted in 15mm Figures, Eighteenth Century, Painted Units, Seven Years War & War of Austrian Succession, Seven Years War Minor German States, Tricorn (18th Century Shako Rules). Bookmark the permalink.

12 Responses to ‘Hannover Siegt, Der Franzmann Liegt’ (Part 9: My First SYW Brunswickers)

  1. Jason Evans says:

    Great write up and looking forward to the game. The Russians are in better care these days!

    J

  2. Interesting post, as always, and those Brusnwickers are splendid. 🙂 I have long been intending to do some of the older style Brunswick infantry flags and think your post might be the prompt I need to have a go soon. Do you have some evidence that the older style flags were actually carried in the SYW? Not being sure of that is one of the things that has held me back on producing some.

    Cheers, David.

  3. Donnie McGibbon says:

    Great looking regiment and a cracking read, full of great information, you don’t see enough Brunswickers on the table top, so well done for doing them.

    • jemima_fawr says:

      Thanks Donnie! Gotta catch ’em all! 😉

      I’m looking at doing the northern half of Vellinghausen as a game, for which I’ll need four Brunswick infantry regiments and the Carabinier Regiment. May as well do the Jaeger as well.

  4. Pingback: Jemima Fawr’s Review of 2024 | Jemima Fawr's Miniature Wargames Blog

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