For our recent refight of the 1809 Battle of Eggmühl, I needed more Bavarians to fill out Marshal Lefebvre’s VII (Bavarian) Corps. I already have a small Bavarian army (as featured in our Battle of Neumarkt refights here and here), but this consists mostly of increasingly-battered 1980s-vintage Battle Honours figures and in any case, wasn’t sufficient to the task. However, I did have a pile of unpainted AB Figures Bavarians, who had been languishing in the Lead Dungeon since 1999; all I had to do was paint them!
OK, I admit that I did make a small order for a couple of packs of the new(ish) Bavarian generals that were released by AB Figures a year or two back. But it was only a small order… I can handle it… Can’t I…?
If it pleases the court, I would like to confess that the AB Figures Wing of the Fawr Towers Lead Dungeon has now been whittled down to ‘only’ 1,641 foot, 613 horse and 67 guns. Having now largely cleared out the Austrian and Bavarian dormitories, the overwhelming majority of the remaining inmates are the Spaniards, 1807 Russians and 1806 Prussians that I hoovered up while Fighting 15s were having their clearance sale.
Anyway, the Bavarians… I’ll start with my new infantry regiments:
Above: 1. Linien-Infanterie-Leib-Regiment. At the start of the Napoleonic Wars, this regiment was Bavaria’s premier infantry regiment, as it had been since the 17th Century. In 1811 the Leib-Regiment was re-titled as the ‘König’ Regiment, but it maintained its status as the top dog in the army. However, in 1814 the top-slot was taken by the newly-raised Garde-Grenadier-Regiment.
As discussed before, I play Napoleon’s Battles, whereby each tactical unit on the table represents a whole brigade or large regiment. Instead of trying to show every different uniform within a brigade (which in my opinion just looks messy), I just paint one representative battalion (or cavalry regiment) to represent the brigade as a whole (Bavarian infantry brigades invariably consisted of five battalions; two infantry regiments and a light infantry battalion).
Above: 1. Linien-Infanterie-Leib-Regiment. Bavarian Line Infantry Regiments initially fielded two battalions apiece. Each battalion would take to the field with four companies; a grenadier company and three fusilier companies. From 1803 a fourth fusilier company was added to each battalion, though this would remain at home as a depot. Each company included a detachment of schützen (sharpshooters), who would often be grouped together in battle to form a de facto fifth (light) company. In 1809 each company numbered 185 men, including 20 schützen. The schützen element was increased in March 1809 to 36 (7 of whom were rifle-armed). It’s not clear to me if these additional 16 schützen were taken from or were in addition to the company total of 185.
Above: 1. Linien-Infanterie-Leib-Regiment. From 1811 each field battalion was increased to six companies; a grenadier company, four fusilier companies and a permanent schützen company. The schützen detachments in the other companies were now deleted. A third battalion was also now formed in each regiment; this would act as the regimental depot and consisted of four fusilier companies (absorbing the previous battalion depot companies). I should confess at this point that although I’ve been ostensibly trying to fill the orbats for 1809, my Bavarian infantry are actually organised according to the 1811 regulations, with six company-bases per battalion.
Deroi
Above: 1. Linien-Infanterie-Leib-Regiment. Aside from a brief dalliance with dark blue coats during the Seven Years War and white ‘Rumford’ coats during the 1790s, all Bavarian line infantry regiments from 1799 until well after 1815 wore the distinctive cornflower blue, square-lapelled ‘Spencer’ coat. The exact shade of blue has generated millions of pixels and arguments on wargame fora over the years, but I’ve tried to go with the deep mid-blue shade shown in various historical depictions, such as the painting of Napoleon with Bavarian officers at Abensburg in 1809 (at the top of this article), a portrait of General Deroi (right) and a painting of ‘Bavarian Man-Love Thursday’ (below).
Above: 1. Linien-Infanterie-Leib-Regiment. When the new uniform was introduced in 1799, the Leib-Regiment initially had black facings with white metal buttons and white buttonhole lace (silver for officers), which had been their regimental distinctions for much of the previous century. There were seven buttons and lace buttonholes on each lapel (the top one arranged diagonally in the corner of the lapel), four on each cuff-flap and one at each side of the rear waist. This arrangement of buttons was the same for all regiments, though only the 1st & 2nd Regiments had buttonhole lace. The facing colour changed in 1802 to red, though the buttonhole lace remained unchanged. If you’re interested, the 2nd ‘Kronprinz’ Regiment followed suit with black and then red facings, though had yellow/gold buttons and lace.
Above: 5. Linien-Infanterie-Regiment ‘Preysing’. When they received this style of uniform in 1799, this regiment was titled ‘Gaugreben’. In 1800 the title changed to ‘Preysing’ and remained so until the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
Above: 5. Linien-Infanterie-Regiment ‘Preysing’. This regiment was mainly distinguished by its rose-pink facings, being the only Bavarian regiment to wear this colour. The facings were edged with red piping, though after painting the piping on a couple of figures, I quickly realised that the colour-contrast was so poor that the red piping was essentially invisible, so on the remainder I only painted the red piping on the edge of the cuff-flaps, as that’s the only place where it’s actually visible. Tail-turnbacks were red for all regiments. Buttons were white metal.
Above: 5. Linien-Infanterie-Regiment ‘Preysing’. All Bavarian regiments wore the same pattern of tall, crested leather helmet or raupenhelm. This always had brass ornamentation, regardless of the regimental button-colour. Note that officers and SNCOs had extra brass edging around the visor and often had additional brass strips running over the crown (all ranks in the dragoon and chevauléger regiments had the extra brass decoration). Unlike the Austrians, Württembergers and Badeners, the Bavarians kept the raupenhelm right through the Napoleonic Wars and didn’t convert to the much cheaper and more comfortable shako, making them possibly unique as the only army whose basic uniform remained largely unchanged throughout the entire period.
Above: The crest or raupe was a woollen sausage for junior ranks with SNCOs having a larger, bushier example and officers having theirs made of high-quality fur. However, the raupe seem to have become steadily bigger and bushier for all ranks as time went on, as shown in this sketch from 1816. Note that Tony Barton seems to have modelled his lovely AB Figures Bavarian infantry on these chaps. The little details, such as the mixture of breeches and campaign trousers, the frying-pan, the drawstring-bag for the greatcoat and the helmet-badge actually being in front of the raupe, are all captured in Tony’s sculpting.
Above: 5. Linien-Infanterie-Regiment ‘Preysing’. The raupenhelm was additionally decorated with a circular national cockade in white and cornflower blue on the left side. From this sprouted a red plume for grenadiers and a green plume for schützen (note that the schützen seem to have worn the green plume as a mark of their status long before the creation of schützen companies in 1811, though not all sources agree). The grenadier and schützen companies of 2nd Battalions had a white base to the plume.
The fusilier companies were identified by a small coloured woollen tuft secured behind the left-hand brass boss for the chin-strap, just below the cockade. After 1811 the fusilier company tuft colours were 1st – white, 2nd – white-over-yellow, 3rd – green, 4th – green-over-yellow, 5th – red, 6th – red-over-yellow, 7th – blue and 8th – blue-over-yellow (the 5th to 8th fusilier companies were in the 2nd Battalion).
Above: 9. Linien-Infanterie-Regiment ‘Graf von Ysenburg’. This regiment kept the title ‘Graf von Ysenburg’ right through the period from 1799 to 1815.
Above: 9. Linien-Infanterie-Regiment ‘Graf von Ysenburg’. This regiment initially had scarlet facings with yellow buttons, but by 1806 the colourings had changed to a red collar with yellow cuffs and lapels, piped red, with red tail-turnbacks. Buttons were yellow metal. The 4th Regiment also had yellow facings from the outset (with white metal buttons and a yellow collar) and also added red piping at some point, while the 10th Regiment (initially with crimson facings) also adopted the same uniform as the 9th, though with white metal buttons (it’s probably the 10th who are depicted in the picture below).
In 1814 all infantry regiments changed to a standard uniform with red facings and yellow metal buttons with the regimental number stamped on them. The 1st and 2nd Regiments lost their buttonhole lace at this point.
Above: 9. Linien-Infanterie-Regiment ‘Graf von Ysenburg’. Bavarian infantry officers were initially identified only by their silver sashes, shot through with light blue, matching sword-knots and their canes. After 1802, junior officers wore one (2Lt), two (Lt) or three (Capt) bars of button-coloured lace on each side of the collar to identify their rank. Field officers used the same system for Major, Lt Col and Col, with the addition of button-coloured lace edging to the collar. Bavarian officers did not wear epaulettes. In 1811 the sashes were replaced by silver gorgets with gold decoration. Officers’ horse furniture was initially facing-coloured, edged in the button colour, but from 1810 became red with silver edging for all regiments. NCOs wore one, two or three collar bars in the non-metallic button colour and carried canes. They also had spontoons until 1804.
Above: 9. Linien-Infanterie-Regiment ‘Graf von Ysenburg’. Drummers for all regiments wore the same uniform as the rank-and-file, with the addition of facing-coloured shoulder-wings, decorated with the electoral/royal arms. The collar and lapels and wings were then edged with broad yellow or white lace, according to the button colour. The sleeves were also edged in lace and were decorated with four upward-pointing chevrons. Drums were brass, edged with white and light blue diagonal stripes.
Above: 1. Leichte-Infanterie-Bataillon ‘Habermann’. This unit was created in 1801, being initially titled ‘Metzen’. In 1807 the title changed to ‘Habermann’, changing in 1809 (following the conclusion of the war) to ‘Gedoni’. In 1811 the unit changed title twice; first to ‘Hertling’ and then to ‘Fick’, which remained the title until 1815, when it changed again to ‘Fortis’. Unlike the line infantry regiments, who were named for an inhaber, the light infantry battalions were named after their commanding officer (as were artillery batteries), hence the rapid turnover of names.
Light infantry battalions were organised exactly the same as the line infantry battalions, with the only real differences being in terminology. The elite company was called carabiniers instead of grenadiers and instead of fusiliers, the battalions had four ‘ordinary’ companies, one of which would act as the depot. Again, the companies each had a schützen detachment, a small number of whom were armed with rifles. From 1811 the light infantry battalions were also reorganised and would take to the field with the carabinier company, four ordinary companies and a schützen company.
Above: 1. Leichte-Infanterie-Bataillon ‘Habermann’. The light infantry wore the same basic pattern of uniform as the line infantry, except with light green coats and grey breeches or campaign trousers. The coats changed to dark green in 1809. Sources are slightly confused re the colour of plumes and company tufts, with the carabinier company probably having green plumes at first. However, by 1811 they seem to have changed to much the same pattern as the line infantry (please not however, that the AB firing poses all have elite company plumes, so I’ve done the carabiniers with red plumes and everyone else with green plumes – this is not correct). Lapels and cuffs were black with red piping for all units and tail-turnbacks were again always red. Battalions were therefore identified by the colour of collar and buttons. This unit had red collars and yellow metal buttons.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Generals, dragoons and artillery to follow…
